“He thinks he has to stay here.”
“Stay from what?”
A pause. Not confusion. Selection.
“From going back.”
Rachel’s cognitive state degraded.
Not through loss of function, but through overlap.
Memory and present experience stopped separating cleanly.
The hospital scene replayed without trigger. Not as recollection. As active perception. She heard the flatline. Saw the still body. Then shifted her gaze to the crib.
Alive.
The mind attempted reconciliation.
Failed.
Sleep avoidance followed.
Ralph reconstructed the sequence.
Placental abruption. Cardiac arrest. emergency intervention. Declared death. Interval. Reversal.
The interval contained no explanation.
He isolated variables.
Medical team: consistent.
Environment: controlled.
Timeline: continuous.
One anomaly remained.
David.
Ruby entered on day six.
