It was never sudden.

She had been building the ground she leapt onto for years, in the dark, one hidden increment at a time.

The bravery was not in the leap.

The bravery was in all the small quiet years of refusing to entirely give up, and the leap was merely the moment the whole hidden structure finally became visible, to her and to everyone else, at once.

Chapter 6 — The Fake Grocery Run

At six o’clock the next morning, Julian unlocked the deadbolt.