Chapter Two: Reality Has No Such Frame

Lin swung a light stand. It passed through the creature and knocked down the backdrop. The thing's hand touched her face, and the scar beside her eyebrow disappeared. In one second, Shen constructed the most absurd composition of his career. He stepped back until the fallen stand formed a diagonal. He shifted Lin onto the right-hand third. He used the green light of the emergency exit to draw an outline, then overlaid the photograph of Radiant onto the live view. On the display, Lin and Radiant merged inside the closed border of the phantom door. Subject. Boundary. Witness. A thought he had no right to know rose within him: Let the light enter from the upper left. He pressed the shutter.