Subject Zero

Something is wrong.

She's known it for longer than she can remember.

It's in the way things make sense before they should.
In the way people look at her when they think she doesn't notice.
In the feeling that something about her was never meant to exist.

They grew up together.

Some things were never supposed to change.

But now everything feels different.

She never told them.

But secrets don't stay buried forever.

And neither do the people looking for her.

When the past finally catches up, loyalty fractures, promises unravel, and Kaelis is forced to face a truth she's spent years avoiding.

Some things aren't meant to be understood.
Some things are meant to be contained.
Some things don't break all at once.

They pull.
They stretch.
They wait.

And I don't know if I'm the one holding it all together

or the one tearing it apart.