Are You There?

(Casey's POV)

________

"You're… there?" I echoed after a long, stunned pause. My voice came out brittle, hollow, almost as if I were speaking underwater—or to a ghost. It didn't sound like me. It didn't feel like me.

I blinked rapidly, struggling to orient myself to the moment. My fingers clenched tighter around the phone, as though I could tether myself to reality through sheer pressure alone.

I shook my head—uselessly, irrationally, because she couldn't see me—trying to shake off the growing chill inching its way up my spine. "That's… that's good," I managed to say at last. I swallowed hard. "That's really good. So, uh… what do you see?"