🚨 CHAPTER 1: THE THING UNDER THE HAT
The ER fell into an unnatural silence.
The nurse didn’t move.
Her gloves were still halfway under the edge of the blue knitted hat—frozen like time had stopped inside that small pediatric room.
Toby sat completely still.
Too still.
Like a child trained not to breathe too loudly.
The stepdad stood near the door, his hand already gripping the handle… but he wasn’t leaving yet.
Not fully.
Not until he knew.
The nurse finally exhaled, slow and shaky.
“Sweetheart…” she whispered. “Who did this to you?”
Toby didn’t answer.
He only pulled the hat down harder.
Covering everything again.
Like the truth could be undone just by hiding it.
Behind the glass, a doctor walked closer.
And that’s when the nurse saw it again—
A faint mark near the boy’s wrist.
Not an injury.
A code.
And she realized…
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This wasn’t a hospital case.
This was containment.
