The black SUVs pulled away minutes later, tires whispering over wet pavement. The fog had begun to lift, revealing a pale blue morning.

I stood alone in the alley that had defined my nights for three years.

I wasn’t a ghost in a lab anymore.

And Daniel wasn’t a man in a parka.

We were both stepping into something uncertain and frightening and wide open.

For the first time in my life, the air didn’t feel heavy.

It felt clean.