The Last Wish

Everyone says your eighteenth birthday is supposed to feel like a beginning.
A fresh start. A wish on a candle.
A step into the life you've been waiting for.
I didn't feel any of that.
I felt... tired.
Tired of rules, of expectations, of being told who I should be and what I should want.
I felt trapped in a life that never seemed to be mine.
So when the chance to make a wish came, I took it.
Not in a fairy tale way. Not with stars or magic.
Just a quiet moment. A thought. A heartbeat too loud.
And everything changed.
I didn't know wishes had consequences.
I didn't know there were places in the world that still listened.
I didn't know how far one whispered want could reach.
This is the story of what followed.
Of the kingdom I never meant to find.
Of a promise I never thought I'd make.
And of the one thing I wanted more than anything else...
A way back.