Beneath The Surface ✔️

BENEATH
THE
SURFACE
A story by Akinbami Titilayo
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Prologue

The air around Regal Heights Academy was thick-dense with unspoken truths, heavy with the weight of too many eyes that saw but never really looked. Laughter and chatter wove through the morning air, bright and careless, yet to Tariola, it was nothing more than background noise.

She stood at the gates, fingers grazing the cold iron bars, grounding herself against the pull of something she couldn't name. Tariola. The name echoed in her mind, familiar yet distant, like an old melody she could no longer hum. Once, it had belonged to someone who fit-a girl who laughed without hesitation, who believed in the simplicity of belonging.
But that girl had drowned long ago, swallowed whole by grief and emotions sharp enough to scar.

Inside the academy walls, life moved on-unaware, uninterested. She wasn't invisible. No, invisibility would have been a mercy. Instead, she was trapped in the in-between, caught beneath the surface where no one dared to look.

But maybe-just maybe-someone would.

Maybe someone would see past the quiet facade, past the carefully constructed silence. Maybe someone would dive deep enough to reach what lay hidden beneath the surface.

And maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't turn away.