Chapter Seven: The Test
Killian
Killian didn't relax.
Didn't smile.
Didn't step closer.
Because the more he looked at "Gibson"…
the more everything lined up.
Too well.
"You're quiet," Gibson said casually. "That's new."
Killian tilted his head slightly.
"Yeah," he replied. "Just thinking."
"About?"
Killian took a slow step forward.
"About the time you said you'd never go back to that forest."
A pause.
Small.
Almost invisible.
"I changed my mind," Gibson said.
Wrong.
Not the words.
The timing.
Gibson never answered that fast when he was lying.
He stalled. Always.
Killian's grip tightened behind his back.
"Did you?"
"Yeah."
Killian smiled faintly.
But there was no warmth in it.
"Then tell me," he said softly,
"what did you see out there?"
For the first time—
Gibson didn't answer.
The Presence (within Gibson's world)
Interesting.
Killian
There it was.
A delay.
A fracture.
"Nothing?" Killian pressed.
Gibson's eyes locked onto his.
Then—
"I saw something I shouldn't have."
Killian's heart skipped.
Those words again.
Almost right.
Almost.
"Funny," Killian said quietly,
"that's exactly what you told me on the phone."
Gibson blinked.
Just once.
A mistake.
"You remember that?" Gibson asked.
Killian stepped closer now.
Slow.
Measured.
"The call that doesn't exist?" he said.
"Yeah. I remember."
Silence.
The air changed.
The Presence
He's learning.
Killian
"Here's the problem," Killian continued.
"You sound like him."
Another step.
"But you don't feel like him."
Gibson's smile faded.
"And that's the part you can't copy."
For a moment—
Everything went still.
Then—
Gibson smiled again.
Wider.
"You're right."