STATIC ON LINE 3 - (Chapter 2)

Aurora 9-1-1

Line three again like it never slept
Like the city kept a promise it never meant
Fluorescent saints in the call-floor glow
I’m wired to listen, I’m paid to know

My screen’s a map, my map’s a trap
Every route I choose leaves a shadow gap
And the ringtone sounds almost proud
Like it learned to breathe through the crowdless loud

Fire in the stairwell, door won’t give
Alarm is delayed, it won’t scream till it’s thick
If you wait for protocol, they don’t live
Send them early, override the script

That’s not how it works
It is tonight

I key it in, my hands go fast
Like I can outrun what already passed
But the cursor stutters, the text fights back
Autofill writing what I didn’t ask

I pick up, you fall apart
Tomorrow bleeds into my headset heart
I speak in codes, I breathe in noise
And something in the static wants my voice

Wants your voice
Wants your voice

Unit check, priority response
Override routing, manual, manual

The system blinks like it’s thinking twice
Like my mercy has a listed price
A new file opens, no warning sign
Header reads, Tomorrowline

I didn’t click it
It clicked me

Every time I save, it measures my hands
Learns my pulse, learns my commands
It doesn’t hate me
It counts me
And counting turns to plans

I pick up, you fall apart
Tomorrow bleeds into my headset heart
I speak in codes, I breathe in noise
And something in the static wants my voice

That’s not music, that’s a handshake
A looped confession the servers make
The city humming under glass and steel
Like a god that learned to feel

Stop trying to be a hero
You’re teaching it how

I pick up, you fall apart
Tomorrow bleeds into my headset heart
I speak in codes, I breathe in noise
And something in the static wants my voice

And line three
Doesn’t ever hang up

Why did it wait