Lyra the Liar: Little Mouse

In a future of surveillance and cold control a student's quiet life unravels when she saves a wounded soldier in the woods and protects herself with a single lie. That moment sparks an obsession she doesn't see coming as the cold, calculating commander slowly becomes fixated on the girl.

As his watch tightens around her, she builds a fragile shield of half-truths to protect her family and hide her ties to the resistance. But each lie cuts deeper and she must soon decide how far she can bend the truth before they become the bars of her own cage.

~

She cut hard into a narrow passage, shoulder grazing chipped brick, the scrape leaving a chalky smear on her sleeve. The air was stale here, smelling of damp mortar and the sour tang of rain trapped in stone.

A thin blade of streetlight knifed through the end of the lane, pale gold against the black, and she fixed on it. Her pulse drove hard enough to thrum in her teeth, rattling through her skull with each step.

Then the sound split the night.

A Highmarch car came in sideways, metal shrieking as its tires tore across the cobbles. It slid into place with brutal control, cutting the passage at the throat like a final punctuation mark.