Case Binding

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Overall, Atlas's life was nothing special. An ideal family, an ideal suburban neighborhood—they even had a golden retriever. As far as everyone knew, the Beckett family was perfect. Both parents had good jobs, and their twin daughters were already following in their footsteps. Everyone at school said they were going to go far in life.

The twins were identical with long, flowing dark hair to match intelligent hazel eyes. Delicate facial features that felt as if they could shatter at any point, with just a little too much pressure. Despite being identical, the twins dressed very differently, one preferring brighter, more colorful clothes, and the other one preferring a more black-and-white color scheme.

Atlas was "the other one." They had always been. No one knew, but the Beckett family wasn't as perfect as it seemed. Because of Atlas. More specifically, Atlas wasn't as perfect as they seemed. Even more specifically, Atlas was nonbinary. They/them, not a girl, the whole shebang.

The only person that knew was the stuffed crow corner of their closet (his name was Ember), to whom they once whispered "I'm nonbinary" in the middle of the night. The first and only time they ever said it out loud, in a place where they could escape from everything for a little bit.

The closet was nice, but for Atlas, reading was the best way to ignore the outside world. Whole universes, all wrapped up between the pages. Magic and robots and spaceships. Hundreds upon hundreds of lives, each one bound to a book.

• • •

One day, while cleaning out the attic, Atlas found a box of books. They were dusty and faded with age, and their brittle pages had obvious water damage. But one of the books caught Atlas's eye: a deep navy blue hardcover, with a stylized golden snapdragon in the center of the front cover. "Secrets in a Seaside Town" was foil stamped on the spine in golden block letters.

Atlas wasn't sure what specifically made it catch their eye, but they just... knew. They knew that there was something special about the book. Pulling over a stocky wooden stool, they sat down in the light of the attic lightbulb and opened it.

Set in a small seaside town, the book described a young girl with blonde hair the color of gold and eyes like sapphires. Her name was Emily and she was her town's crown jewel. She was kind and caring. She was dead.

Emily had drowned in the ocean in the middle of the night, and the entire town mourned the loss of their gem. Her funeral was a massive event. It rained; even the sky seemed to mourn the loss of a young, beautiful girl, who had so much potential in her future. Emily had always walked around town talking to anyone who would listen about how she wanted to become a doctor so that she would be able to help the small seaside town.

But a few weeks later, when her father was looking through Emily's room, he found a small notebook, labeled "Plans." When he opened it, he found lists upon lists of places, all with different notes, like "4th largest city in America!" or "This is where Nighthawks (Edward Hopper) is!"

There was also a page near the back of the notebook that had one line on it: "I can't wait to leave this town.

Emily's father flew out the door, frantically searching for his wife, who had gone to visit one of her closest friends. Upon finding her, he cried out, "Look! This was in Emily's room!"

His wife gently took the notebook, holding it reverently. She opened it gently, as if it might crumble to pieces in her hands. Her face was tight as she read the lists of places. It was easy to tell when she got to that page near the back of the notebook because she gasped and it slipped from her hands.