𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐔𝐆𝐀𝐑, COLBY MADDEN

Season 1.

Y/N sat on the cracked edge of the playground bench, knees drawn up to her chest, staring out at the endless gray sky that stretched over Valley View like a bad joke. The wind tugged at her hair, but she didn't care. She never cared. Not anymore. Not since she'd buried that other life—her real life—deep beneath the surface.

"Some days I forget," she muttered, voice low and rough, like gravel scraped through a rusty pipe. "I forget what it felt like to have power. To be someone people actually feared. To be someone who mattered."

Valley View was a prison disguised as a town. A slow death in high school hallways and boring teachers who pretended to care. It wasn't her world. She was meant for more.

A dark smile pulled at her lips, bitter and sharp. "Back there? Back before this... this fake life? I was Nightmare."

That name tasted like smoke and cold metal on her tongue.

She had ruled the shadows, the chaos, the nights when everything crackled with electricity and danger. She remembered the burn of power coursing through her veins, the adrenaline of taking down enemies twice her size, the thrill of hearing her name whispered like a curse in the darkest corners.

"You don't know what it means to be feared," she said aloud, voice cracking just a little. "Not just whispered about like some ghost story. People saw me and—hell—they ran. Or they begged. Or worse."

A shiver ran through her at the memory, but she didn't flinch. She liked the memories too much. The night the city burned under her fingertips, the cold glare of neon lights reflecting off broken glass, the sound of sirens fading in the distance because she was the real storm.

Her laugh—dark, low, unrepentant—echoed in the empty alley where she'd cornered a rival gang leader, watching his eyes widen as the ground cracked beneath his feet.

That was her.

And now?

She was just Y/N. The quiet girl with a too-thin smile and too-heavy secrets.

"I miss it," she whispered, the words raw. "I miss being someone. Not this... ghost."

And then there was Colby.

She hadn't thought about him in years. Not really. Not like this.

Her throat tightened. Colby Madden—the reckless idiot with a grin that made her heart thump and a mouth that got him in trouble faster than a speeding bullet.

They were partners once. Partners in crime. Partners in everything reckless and wild and impossible to tame. He was the spark to her fire. The one person who saw past Nightmare and into Y/N.

But she had run. Left him behind like a scar.

The last night they were together, crouched on a rooftop, watching the city glow beneath them. He'd smirked, tossing her a cigarette, and she'd felt, for one perfect moment, like she wasn't alone.

"Maybe one day," he'd said, voice rough, "we'll find a way out of this mess."

She'd smiled, but inside, she'd known there was no way out. Not for people like them.

Now, years later, sitting alone in this stupid town that smelled like wet pavement and forgotten dreams, she realized how much she missed him. How much she missed them.

But no. She told herself, no. Colby was a memory. A chapter closed.

Life here sucked. Life here was quiet and gray and sometimes she thought she might disappear under the weight of it all.