“Nope. Absolutely not.” Jay recoiled so sharply he nearly smacked into the student behind him. “That’s fake.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Leo, no. You cannot simply say maybe to that.” Jay whipped around to look at his friend unbelievingly. “That was a frickin’ dragoon!”

  “I know what it looked like,” Leo folded his arms.

  “And?”

  “And the Big Ben also looked…impossible.”

  Jay opened his mouth, then shut it again.

  “You think this is all connected?” Leo turned to Daniel now.

  “What? The Big Ben growing spikes and dragons flying over Beijing?”

  “When you say it like that, it sounds stupid.”

  “It is stupid.” Jay snapped, then rubbed a hand over his face like he could wipe the images out of his mind.

  Daniel looked back at the screen. By the second more footage was loading. One post from Westminster featured a close-up of the tower, where a winged object appeared to cross in front of the clockface before disappearing into the mist.

  Leo had gone even quieter than before.

  Daniel noticed and glanced sideways at him. “What’s wrong Leo?”

  Leo hesitated. “My brother’s in Westminster today.”

  “Tom?”

  “Yeah,” Leo nodded once. “He’s there on a teaching placement. Final year.”

  “With a primary school class?”

  “I think so,” Leo said, voice low. “I don’t know the teacher’s name. Miss…Ray? Something like that.”

  Daniel needed a moment to process that information. The sensation in his chest shifted like air had been punched out of him. Now not only Emily was in danger, but someone else he knew as well.

  “Miss Riley?”

  “Yeah, that was it. Why?”

  “That’s Emily’s class.”

  For a moment one of them spoke.

  “He’s good with kids,” Leo swallowed. “I know my brother, he…he’ll keep her safe.”

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  “Thanks, Leo.”

  No matter how small the comfort was, it still helped to hear that Emily wasn’t alone, that there was someone beside her who would protect her, even if Daniel couldn’t be there for her himself. He briefly locked his phone before instantly unlocking it again. His thumb hovered uselessly over the message thread. On the bright screen, his final message remained stubbornly unread. Emily still had not answered.

  Jay rubbed the back of his neck. “Could just be bad reception.”

  “I can’t reach Tom either.” Leo said looking down at his screen like it had personally betrayed him.

  They automatically followed the rest of the students up the bus, feeling as though the world had moved half a step to the wrong side. With his bag slung over one shoulder and his phone still in one hand, Daniel ascended first. Halfway down, he slid into a seat near by the window. Leo sat down next to him. Jay jumped into a seat right in front of them and quickly spun around to continue talking.

  “Also…. Priya is here.”

  Daniel blinked. “Priya?”

  The bus jerked away from the curb and rolled away from the school, taking them into the gray late afternoon.

  “Yeah, my cousin.” Jay nodded. “You met her last summer, remember?”

  “I thought she lived in Germany.” Leo frowned.

  “She did,” Jay said. “They move around a lot because of her dad. But they moved to Paris last year.”

  “Paris?” Daniel repeated, and the word felt heavier than it should have.

  Beyond the fogged glass, houses, traffic lights, small corner stores and lines of parked cars slid by. People on the sidewalk were walking faster than usual while looking at their own phones.

  “I talked to my mum and she got through to Priya’s mum earlier. She said they’re okay,” his voice wobbled, just lightly. “But Paris… is not normal right now either.”

  “Do they know what’s happening?”

  Jay shook his head. “No. Same as here. The government keeps saying a whole lot without saying anything.”

  Daniel nodded. He looked back at his mobile and scrolled again. There was more of the same footage. More comments. More theories. One livestream from Westminster captured a long metallic groan coming from the tower. It was a sound too deep to be machinery and too sharp to be the wind. Daniel muted the video.

  The bus rattled onward. Nervous pockets of conversations rose and fell around them. Stop after stop, more space opened up as the other students got off. At the next corner, the bus slowed.

  “That’s us,” Jay said, grabbing the pole in front of him as he stood.

  Leo looked at Daniel once more before getting up. “Text me if Emily answers.”

  Daniel nodded. “You too. About Tom.”

  With a hiss the bus stopped, and the doors opened letting the cool air spill in.

  Jay slung his bag higher on his shoulder. “And if the world hasn’t ended by tomorrow, I’m copying both your bio homework.”

  “That’s optimistic.”

  “Trying something new.” Jay gave Daniel a quick grin before getting off the bus.

  Jay jumped off first, closely followed by Leo. Out of habit they waved at Daniel when the doors shut between them and the cozy interior of the bus. With their schoolbags slung over their shoulders, Leo and Jay appeared somewhat smaller as they stood for a moment in the dim afternoon light. Jay said something Danile couldn’t hear and jerked a hand in the direction of his house. Leo nodded, but his face stayed turned half back toward the road for another moment, as if a part of him was thinking of going to Westminster. Then, with a shrug of his shoulder, like discarding a bad idea, he started walking the other way. The two of them strolled down the sidewalk together as in any other day.

  He remained by the window and turned to watch his friends through the glass as the bus moved away with him. Only after they completely disappeared from sight did he look back down at his phone. There were still no new messages from Emily.

  Inside the bus, the engine hummed under his feet, steady and ordinary. And Daniel sat alone in his seat, watching the world become something else one video at a time.