Chapter 116 Softened Darkness

• By afternoon, exhaustion claimed Nina in full. She had tried to stay awake, tried to help Darren organize the little safe house that had become their fragile shelter, but her body betrayed her. She lay down on the cot, meaning only to rest her eyes for a moment, and was gone within minutes.
• Darren stood by the doorway for a while, watching her chest rise and fall in steady rhythm. Strands of her hair had fallen across her cheek; the faintest crease marked her brow, even in sleep. She looked peaceful, but not quite. There was still something haunted in the way she curled slightly inward, as if even her dreams could not promise safety.
• He sighed, grabbed his keys, and slipped quietly out of the room.