Learning Routes

I’ve realized recently that I know exactly which streets in the town centre to avoid. I didn’t sit down with a map and plan this out; it just happened over time. You notice a certain stillness on one road, or a flickering light that never gets fixed on another, and your instincts just take over. You find yourself taking the long way around without even thinking about it. These streets haven’t been officially closed, but they feel… occupied. Not by people, but by a sense of wrongness. It’s a map I never wanted to learn, drawn in the back of my mind by a survival instinct I didn’t know I had.