The Outcast

After surviving a global pandemic years ago, life in the Philippines has slowly returned to normal-at least on the surface. For Jade Gabrielle Victoria, the world feels ordinary again: tiring classes, endless requirements, and the comforting routine of going home to an empty but peaceful house.

But everything shifts the moment a news report about a missing student, Callum Alvarez, flashes on her screen. She doesn't know him, yet something about his disappearance unsettles her deeply, as if tugging at a memory she never had.

Then the strange pain begins.

A sudden burn spreads across the exact spot where she received her vaccine years ago. It fades just as quickly, leaving no mark, only a growing unease. And that night, when Jade accidentally cuts herself, she witnesses the impossible. The wound closes on its own before her eyes, healing in seconds as if it never existed.

Terrified and confused, Jade grapples with the truth, something inside her is changing. Something unnatural. Something she can't explain. She is becoming an outcast to the world she grew up in.

Jade thought the pandemic was over.
She thought the worst had passed.

But the world is about to show her that some scars don't fade.

And some secrets don't stay buried.