She Touched the Dead

Content Warning: This story contains depictions of a mass shooting, death, and dark themes that may be distressing to some readers.

POWER ISN'T GIVEN. IT'S TAKEN.

The night of the shooting was supposed to end in death.

Instead, something answered.

Saoirse should have been one of the victims.
But in the aftermath, when the bodies fell, and the world went silent, she saw something she wasn't meant to see.

And it saw her back.

Now things won't leave her alone.
Shadows linger too long.
Voices follow where no one stands.
And whatever brushed against her that night... didn't let go.

Jesse is the only thing that still feels real-familiar, safe, untouched by whatever is happening to her. He keeps her grounded when everything else starts to slip.

Colm is the opposite.
Dangerous. Controlled. Part of a hidden world she doesn't understand, and somehow, tied to her in a way that shouldn't be possible.

One feels like who she used to be.
The other feels like everything she's becoming.

And something is going wrong.

People are dying.
Power is being taken.
The balance that's held for centuries is starting to break.

Now Saoirse is caught between two worlds, and two people, while something in the dark watches her... waiting.

Because whatever changed her that night...

Was only the beginning.