The warning bells of Kisumu Girls’ High School had always rung with a certain finality—signaling the end of prep, the start of curfew, the moment when the world was meant to quiet down and the rules would settle in like dusk itself. But tonight, something in the air felt charged, as if the wall itself was holding its breath.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHDsp3WMx2D
It began with a flicker. The perimeter lights, strung along the Berlin Wall’s jagged crest, sputtered and died, plunging the boundary into a velvet darkness that seemed to swallow sound. For a heartbeat, the two schools—each on their own side—paused, caught in a hush that was more than silence. It was expectation.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz34po1zugc
Then, as if conjured by the wall’s own memory, a pulse of color erupted. Paper lanterns—some crudely painted, others impossibly intricate—blazed to life, strung impossibly high from one end of the wall to the other. No one saw how it was done. No one could say when the lanterns had been strung, or who had braved the patrols and the new cameras to do it. But now the whole boundary glowed with a reckless, mocking joy.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv2SKWX7v2E
On the girls’ side, windows slid open with a chorus of squeaks. Faces pressed against mosquito mesh, eyes wide with delight and disbelief. A few prefects barked for order, their voices brittle and uncertain, but the command dissolved beneath a tide of giggles and sharp, startled gasps. Someone—no one would ever admit who—hurled a fistful of purple and gold confetti over the wall, and it drifted down in a slow, shimmering rain.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LCuOAGtIp
A banner unfurled, its message painted in looping, defiant script:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo3bq3FIOnY
NO WALL CAN STOP A GOOD STORY.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnjPL5HQST7
The teachers responded with the urgency of those who know they are already too late. Security guards rushed to the wall, their torches slicing through the lantern-lit dusk, but the spectacle was already fading. The lanterns sputtered, flickered, and died, leaving behind only the faint scent of burnt paper and the echo of laughter that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZYBPGcliKS
Rumors ignited instantly. Some said it was the work of a secret society from the boys’ side, others whispered about a new rebel group among the girls. A few, remembering last term, wondered if the old Order had returned, or if something stranger was afoot. No one could agree. That was the beauty of it: the wall had become a canvas for uncertainty, and the prank was its masterpiece.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Rk3xU9ymX
In the staffroom, Principal Mary’s face was a mask of composure, but her hands trembled as she dialed the board chair. Across the wall, Kisumu Boys’ prefects were already compiling lists of suspects, their own teachers muttering about “outside influences” and “bad company.”27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa2c7SWXBus
But for most students, it was not fear that lingered, but exhilaration. For the first time in months, the wall had not divided, but united them in awe and speculation. In every dorm and corridor, the question was the same: Who had done it? How? And what would happen next?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZ3xuBxuxS
Kim watched the lanterns fade from the shadow of a jacaranda tree, her heart pounding—not with guilt, but with the thrill of witnessing the impossible. Seline, arms crossed, eyed the crowd with suspicion, already calculating what secrets might be hidden in the laughter. Shiko, for once, looked unsettled, as if she too sensed that the old order of things had shifted.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡshfnHpJLtu
Somewhere, in the hush after the spectacle, the wall remembered. And the game resumed—more dangerous, more beautiful, and more uncertain than ever.
**********27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpaBHx2C2XE
If you asked the teachers, they’d say it was the usual suspects: the loud ones, the troublemakers, the boys who never learned.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTg4KRXMnuo
If you asked the Order, they’d call them “Shadow walkers”—a name spat out in frustration, because not even the Order’s best informants had ever seen their faces.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCMtFh77MG
But if you asked the boys themselves, you’d get nothing but shrugs, laughter, and a quick change of subject. Because the truth was, there was no club, no oath, no name. There was only the game.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkUlYgFjCP
The group that set the wall ablaze with color that night was not a brotherhood forged in secrecy, but a living, shifting network—an odd, almost accidental alliance of boys who, on any other day, might have ignored each other in the lunch queue.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡok3ph7KKAr
There was Kwame, the chess captain, who saw the school as a board and every rule as a piece to be moved. Amani, the quiet Form Three who fixed radios for teachers but never spoke above a whisper. Sefu, whose graffiti appeared in places no one could reach—unless you had the keys, or the courage. Timo, who ran messages for the bursar and knew every shortcut, every loose panel, every teacher’s soft spot. Moses, who never joined anything, but always seemed to know when and where things would happen. Patrick, the prefect’s son, who was never where he was supposed to be, and always where he shouldn’t.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4cDfmPjjF
But tonight, they were joined by others—boys who had never spoken before, drawn together by a single, cryptic message scrawled on the back of a toilet door:27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcIxJWSvtvJ
“Tonight, the wall is not watching. Bring a light.”27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpKBzTbFNVd
No one admitted to writing it. No one needed to.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡffYN7owQ4Y
Some came for the thrill, some for revenge, some just to see if it could be done. But a few—just a few—came for reasons they never spoke aloud.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUcEAMzXf9
A rumor had spread, quietly, that something was moving across the wall tonight. Not a message, not a note, but a presence.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg1CNPeOucr
A dare. A test.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3zmjXon7S
A warning.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7PyWG0xkpp
And as the lanterns flared and the confetti fell, as teachers and prefects rushed to contain the chaos, something else slipped through the cracks—a small, battered tin, passed hand to hand, hidden in a lunchbox, tucked into a girl’s satchel on the other side.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMio6AFoMOa
No one saw who carried it. No one knew what it held. Very few knew who received it on the other end.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrhB4WuVO85
But by dawn, the rumor had changed: the wall had not just been breached, it had been haunted.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwD6Zi4Qpz
The Order would search for culprits, for blue threads, for fingerprints.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡapakWaG5th
But the boys who set the wall alight would melt back into the crowd, their names forgotten, their faces lost in the blur of ordinary school life.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9CZ6fa0Ssg
Because sometimes, the most dangerous group is the one that doesn’t exist at all.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdHlbeww78x
Tonight, as the lanterns flared on the boys’ side and the whole school rushed to the windows, the girls moved quietly in the background. While the teachers and prefects were distracted by the spectacle, a small relic from last term was slipped from hand to hand, vanishing into the folds of a blazer, destined for a place no camera could see.
**********27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlBwH4P85Ap
While the lanterns lit up the sky and confetti drifted like stardust, Naomi stood perfectly still beneath the overhang near the Kisumu Girls' library, arms crossed, face unreadable. She wasn’t drawn to the spectacle like the others. Not because she wasn't curious, but because she had expected it.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUwqg0UWWyA
She had warned the Order last week: "If they move again, it won't be loud. It'll be... dazzling. And it won't be for show. It'll be to pass something." They'd laughed it off. They weren't laughing now.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz0GJ12i0iG
Her eyes scanned the courtyard, not for color or noise, but for patterns. Movement. Inconsistencies. She didn't need to see the boys to know they were involved. The shadow walkers always struck from the dark. But it was the girls who mattered now—they were the hands across the wall.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL2OYIGhF0c
Naomi didn't act directly. She didn’t need to. Her network had already received the signal before the first lantern lit. A folded note passed during evening tea. A chalk mark on the back of a cubicle door. Three sharp knocks against the underside of the dormitory sink.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOcJ7CD1wEp
Now, they were moving.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA6rEiQsKiN
Ruth, positioned in the art room, pretended to rearrange paint bottles but had full view of the corridor. Eliza had taken a "wrong" turn and bumped into Muthoni, casually brushing her arm. A soft whisper, a nod, and Eliza was gone. Muthoni blinked, confused.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXIRV0xGSXO
By the time the confetti had finished falling, Naomi already knew the tin had changed hands twice.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ03w4x86vBF
She didn’t need to touch it.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCELFTs7Uky
She didn’t need to stop it.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUOiTFPVvZQ
Not yet.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa84NoyjHPB
The wall had glowed tonight. But Naomi knew walls weren't just stone and mortar. They were patterns, permissions, and games played in the shadows. And she was ready to follow the cracks.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNcxxsE3N1B
Not as a girl.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcOp8kYKtIH
But as the Order master.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1QQj4y8OYg
And in the quiet that followed the last flicker of lantern light, her people were already closing the circle.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPQQBVkTYp9
The game had resumed.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWlECxlcWuG
And Naomi had already made her next move.
**********27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLJ9iEGq7uw
Kim had watched the spectacle unfold not from the windows like the others, but from the edge of the East Wing stairwell—half-shrouded in the shadows of a broken security light. From there, she could see more than just lanterns. She could see patterns.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRseCKp9Rn
While everyone else was marveling at the beauty of rebellion—its color, its audacity—Kim's eyes tracked movement. Girls flitting across corridors that should have been silent. Blazers that bulged too neatly under the arm. A dropped lunchbox picked up too quickly.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7P10UwmiZn
It wasn’t the lanterns that fascinated her. It was the distraction.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyJPkPHBBos
Naomi would have noticed too, of course. Kim had long stopped underestimating her. But Naomi wouldn’t act yet. She would be still, silent, watching through others.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4qliXMNA1l
And so Kim watched too.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOO0bVL2sYN
She saw the girl near the water tanks, leaning against the wall as if winded from excitement. Too still. She saw the way her hands fidgeted behind her skirt, passing something to another who barely paused before moving on. Kim didn’t move. Not yet.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW1UElFXEGu
This wasn’t hers to chase. Not officially. Not anymore.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUE01piiL4
But something in her stirred—not suspicion, not jealousy, but curiosity. And if there was one thing Kim had never learned to kill, it was curiosity.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcEU3M8ucd0
Later, after the lights came back on and the prefects began shouting roll call, Kim would walk to her dorm slowly. Casually. Like nothing had happened. But her eyes would catch the dust on the hem of a certain girl’s skirt. The faint smell of old tin.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrufE7DK310
The Order would comb through footage and logs and fingerprinted windows.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNYADWgC4Ln
Kim would watch people.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6gBmI3vwT6
And tonight, someone had carried something. Through the chaos. Into their world.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsFQlRAh5t8
And Kim intended to know exactly what.
**********27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhe8OkyWqsD
Seline stood at the fringe of the lantern-lit frenzy, arms folded, eyes narrowed like a hawk shadowing the horizon. The wall was ablaze in color, but her focus wasn’t on the spectacle—it was on the patterns beneath it. Where most saw chaos, Seline saw choreography.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM09rvuKotR
She didn’t join the giggling groups pressed against windows. She didn’t whisper theories or squeal at the confetti. She watched.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiomietpexP
Someone had orchestrated this, and they wanted it to be seen. Which meant something else had been done quietly.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4vfaONo9W
Her gaze swept the courtyard just as a Form Two girl stumbled, caught herself, and laughed nervously, her hand brushing her blazer pocket before hurrying into the crowd. A ripple of movement that shouldn’t have meant anything. But Seline marked it.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ouqcsEGX8
She turned away from the lanterns entirely, slipping through the crowd with practiced ease. Not toward the noise, but into it—closer to the dorm blocks, where things were quieter. Where whispers could still be heard.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjt8uRaMcVk
Naomi would be watching, she knew. Maybe not from a window, maybe not at all, but the Order never slept. And if Naomi had even guessed this would happen, she'd already planted watchers.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVAunJB1ctR
Seline had no proof, just instinct—the same instinct that had kept her alive through too many messy friendships and tangled allegiances.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgLTj7ckh29
She spotted Shiko lingering by the laundry lines, far from where the real show was. Too far. Suspiciously far. And alone. Shiko wasn’t the alone type.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZOJw0Hmyjv
Seline approached, not bothering to soften her steps.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznOh0WoKNP
"Lose something?" she asked flatly.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1CKavfL7b
Shiko startled but masked it quickly. "Just getting air. It was too much noise."27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLQ4I1sLKx
"Mmm." Seline didn’t press, not yet. She was collecting data.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Sz0Gln8nB
If the wall had been breached, it wasn’t through the lanterns. It had been passed, hand to hand, right here, under their noses. And Naomi? Naomi would know. But Seline didn’t work for Naomi. Not anymore.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQQZfKgjf6
She stepped closer to the wall, her fingers trailing the cracked surface as the last lantern flickered out above. "You hear that?" she murmured, almost to herself.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnPQF1lbqSl
Shiko frowned. "Hear what?"27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMW3cPvfPfR
Seline smiled coldly. "Exactly."27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEnVjR19L6C
The silence that followed was not peace. It was a vacuum. And Seline knew all too well: nature abhorred a vacuum. Something was coming to fill it.
**********27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxhwCTaoqvz
As the lanterns burst to life in a blaze of reckless beauty and the confetti floated down like falling stars, the crowd at Kisumu Boys surged forward, laughter echoing off the walls. The noise, the spectacle—it was all too perfect.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk5pqljejlI
From the edge of the commotion, two figures remained still.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr3iidZtye0
Jabari leaned slightly forward, his eyes narrowed as he watched the lights sputter and shimmer. "This isn’t the play," he muttered, voice low. Juma gave a short nod, already reaching into his blazer. A folded note—creased but unreadable to anyone else—was palmed off to a passing Form Two boy, who vanished into the crowd like smoke.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYde7shKj3K
Another boy, seated carelessly near the water tanks with a half-eaten mango, stood up and stretched, yawning as he peeled away from his group. A third, who had been laughing louder than all the others just moments ago, suddenly hushed, edging toward the staff quarters with purpose disguised as boredom.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJrfG6kuol6
Each move was small. Unremarkable. Nothing that would draw the eye of a prefect or teacher.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ59TmpjR6FS
But together, they formed a pattern—a ripple through the stillness beneath the chaos.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7yJlRySCzG
The two watched, not the prank, but what was sliding beneath it. Their game was deeper.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6nqDjfFMeJ
A sharp glance, a nod, and the second figure shifted. A piece on the board had moved, and already, the network responded—disguised in laughter, cloaked in shadow, embedded in the ordinary.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhNQ1Q7MFPF
Whatever had crossed the wall, it wasn't paper lanterns or confetti.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGxRIqdSfVf
And now, the real search had begun.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc8oDGkigyu
And if the others had dared slip something through, they would soon learn: not all walls divide. Some remember.
**********27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XuxMYr9NA
Principal Mary stood at the edge of the staffroom window, her breath fogging the glass as she watched the spectacle unfold outside. The flickering lanterns, the burst of confetti, the sudden uproar—it wasn’t just a prank. That much she could tell.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlwIVvyharf
Her heart pounded, not just from the noise, but from a growing unease she couldn’t name. The students were losing control, and the usual rules seemed to have vanished with the lights. She barked orders to the prefects to restore order, but even their voices faltered against the tide of excitement.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6NZCQgKVzp
She glanced around the room, catching the uneasy looks on her colleagues’ faces. None of them had answers, just the same knot of worry tightening in their chests.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjcTizPTkcE
“Who’s behind this?” she muttered, more to herself than anyone else. There was something deliberate about it, a message hidden beneath the chaos. But what?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnoXBkLuPyf
Her thoughts flickered to last term’s incidents—strange notes, rumors of secret groups. Could it be connected? Or was she just letting her imagination run wild?27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjNs0BVkqB
She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. Whatever was happening, she knew one thing: this night would be talked about for a long time. And somewhere beneath the laughter and the lights, the wall was holding secrets no teacher was meant to see.27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMPBcZREQG
27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgY25yEC0ZB
27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaHUhi6r7nZ
然後按「加至主畫面」