INICIAR SESIÓNFinn stood frozen on the uneven ground, his ankle complaining with every shift of weight. It was a dull, persistent pain—not enough to make him collapse, but enough to remind him that yesterday’s confidence hadn’t erased the reality.Jake, Liam, and Alex hovered a few steps back, not too close, but not distant either. The space between them was new, deliberate. Chosen.“…Okay,” Jake said quietly. Not pushing. Not hovering. Just acknowledging where they were.Finn gave a small nod. It wasn’t much, but it felt like progress.Liam moved closer, asking gently, “Do you want to sit?”Not sit down. Not you need to sit.A choice. Clear. Deliberate.Finn noticed immediately. “…Yeah,” he said after a pause.When they moved, it was slow, careful. Jake came first, just close enough to offer support. Alex positioned himself on Finn’s other side, keeping his hands to himself. Liam lingered half a step behind, giving Finn the space to take the lead.Finn lowered himself carefully to the ground. Ther
It doesn’t happen all at once.That’s the part that catches them.The day starts the same.Easy.Familiar.Too familiar, maybe.They’re outside again.Of course they are.It’s become automatic—like the space belongs to them now, like stepping into it means stepping back into whatever they’ve built.Finn is moving more normally today.Too normally.Liam notices first.He always does.“You’re overdoing it,” he says, not even looking up from where he’s sitting.“I’m literally just walking,” Finn replies.“You’re power walking.”“That’s not a thing.”“That’s absolutely a thing,” Jake says.Finn turns, walking backward now just to prove a point. “You’re all dramatic.”Alex watches him carefully. “Turn around.”“I’m fine.”“Finn—”It happens mid-step.Not a fall.Not even close.But his foot lands wrong— and this time, it sticks.Finn freezes.The pain hits sharper than before.Not overwhelming.But enough to snap through whatever confidence he’d built up overnight.“—okay,” he says quickly
It happens later than it should.Or maybe exactly when it’s supposed to.They’re still outside.Same place. Same stretch of ground. Same sky shifting slowly overhead.But the energy has dipped again—settled into something quieter after the earlier bursts of movement.Finn is lying flat on his back now, one arm over his eyes.Jake is stretched out a few feet away, close enough to talk without raising his voice.Alex is sitting up, knees pulled in slightly, absentmindedly tracing patterns into the dirt.Liam is half-reclined, propped on one elbow, watching all of them in that way he’s stopped trying to hide.No one’s talking.Not because there’s nothing to say.Just because they don’t need to fill it.Finn breaks it anyway.“Okay, but what is this?”Jake turns his head slightly. “You’re gonna have to narrow it down.”Finn gestures vaguely without moving his arm. “This. Us. Whatever we’re doing.”Liam exhales quietly. “We’re existing.”“That’s not helpful.”“It’s accurate,” Alex says.Fi
The outside feels different in the morning.Same space. Same uneven ground. Same air.But lighter somehow.Like yesterday took something with it when it ended.Finn steps out first.Of course he does.He pauses at the top step—not long enough for anyone to call it hesitation, but long enough to check something internally.Ankle.Fine enough.Chest—quiet.He steps down.Normal.Jake notices.He doesn’t say anything.Just files it away.Alex comes out next, then Liam, pulling the door shut behind them with a soft click that feels more final than it should.For a second, they all just stand there.Not unsure.Just… resetting.“Well,” Finn says, stretching his arms slightly, “I’m bored already.”Jake huffs a laugh. “That took, what, ten seconds?”“Less,” Alex says.Liam crosses his arms. “You’re not running.”“I didn’t say I was going to run.”“You were thinking it.”“I’m always thinking it.”Jake glances at Finn’s ankle. “Walk it out first.”Finn rolls his eyes—but he does.Slow steps at
Morning doesn’t arrive all at once.It filters in slowly—light slipping through the edges of the curtains, soft and pale at first, then warmer as it settles across the room.No one wakes up quickly.The night is still there in pieces, scattered across how they’re positioned—how no one quite made it to where they were “supposed” to sleep.Finn is the first to stir.Not fully awake. Just enough to shift, to frown slightly as awareness creeps back in.His neck aches.That’s the first thing.The second is that he’s not where he expected to be.He blinks, slow, disoriented—and then remembers.The couch.The conversation.The almost.His chest.Finn goes still.Not tense.Just… checking.There’s a quiet moment where he waits for something to feel wrong again.A flicker.A catch.Anything.Nothing happens.He exhales.Didn’t realize he’d been holding it.“Morning.”Liam’s voice is rough with sleep, low and close.Finn startles slightly, then turns his head.Liam is right there—awake, but bar
It’s later than any of them planned to stay up.No one says it out loud, but it shows in the small things—the slower movements, the longer pauses between sentences, the way the room has gone soft around the edges.A lamp is still on in the corner.Everything else is dim.Finn is half-asleep.Not fully gone—he’s still reacting when someone talks—but slower, like his thoughts are moving through something heavier.His head is still resting against Liam’s shoulder.At some point, Liam shifted just enough to make it easier for him.At some point after that, he stopped noticing he’d done it.Jake is the one who notices everything.Not in a sharp, on-edge way like before.Quieter now.He sees the way Liam’s head has tipped slightly toward Finn’s without fully resting there. The way Alex’s arm is stretched along the back of the couch—not around anyone, but close enough that it could be.The way no one feels like they need to fill the silence.“This is weird,” Finn mumbles.His eyes don’t open
Morning light crept across the frozen lake outside the Thorne cabin near Vancouver. The battlefield from the night before looked almost peaceful now. Towering ridges of ice curved across the lake like frozen waves, glittering under the rising sun.Jake stood on the porch with a mug of coffee, stari
The wind howled through the tall pines outside the Thorne cabin near Vancouver, whipping snow across the frozen lake in swirling white clouds.Jake stood on the porch steps, staring into the dark forest.He could see them now.Shadows moving between the trees.Dozens of them.Brody stepped up besid
Dawn broke slowly over the mountains surrounding Vancouver. Pale sunlight spread across the forest and reflected off the frozen lake behind the Thorne cabin.The towering column of ice that Finn had created during the night still stood in the middle of the lake like a crystalline monument.It glitt
The night after the playoff game settled heavily over Vancouver.Snow drifted quietly through the streets as the lights of Rogers Arena faded behind the departing crowds. Fans still talked excitedly about the win, but rumors of the strange disturbance during the second period were already spreading







