Julian sat on the edge of the bed with his phone in one hand, thumb moving across the screen.
He had opened the message thread from three weeks ago, the one where Lucian had sent a single line at 11:47 p.m. asking if he was still awake. Julian remembered answering.
He remembered the short exchange that followed, the way it had stretched into the early hours.
The timestamps lined up exactly with the night he had woken up the next morning with no memory of falling asleep.
The gap had started right after that exchange ended at 2:14 a.m.
He scrolled back further. Another thread, two weeks earlier. A message from Lucian at 10:22 p.m. asking where he was. Julian had replied within minutes. The conversation had lasted forty-three minutes.
The next morning he had stood in the kitchen trying to recall what he had eaten for dinner the night before and come up empty. The gap had started right after that conversation ended.
