The room felt like a pressure cooker.
Alex’s jaw was locked. Maria’s voice was too big for the walls. Their brains had gone into full fight-or-flight, and no one was really hearing anyone.
This is the moment, in any story, where someone usually slams a door.
Peeko didn’t slam anything. He just walked slowly into the center of the storm and sat down on the floor.
Once Peeko looked at both kids and, in that perfect quiet that makes a nervous system lean in, said three words:
“Both. Are. Scared.”
The spell broke. Anger dropped a little. Shoulders softened. Their brains shifted from “defend” to “maybe I can explain.”
They still had to untangle the mess. But now they weren’t characters fighting each other.
They were two nervous systems, side by side, fighting the same fear.
