The voices filled the house again. Loud, relentless, but none of them were for her.
Her mother shouted at her younger brother over something trivial—again. Just noise. White noise. Sasha had learned early on that being the eldest daughter meant one thing: you are invisible when things are fine, and guilty when they're not.
She passed the hallway mirror and froze for a breath. The same face stared back. Same dark circles, same hollow eyes. But this time… she saw it. The absence. When had the light gone out? Maybe it never existed.
No goodbye. No hesitation.
She stepped outside and mounted her bike. The wind bit her face. The cold felt clean. Liberating.No one would stop her. No one ever did.
The distant rumble of a train pulsed through the ground like a warning—or a promise.
She didn't flinch.
The tracks were just ahead, the rails humming like silver veins under a steel heartbeat. Her grip tightened. The light of the oncoming train blinded her. The horn screamed. The metal beast didn't stop.
And for the first time in her life…
Sasha felt free.
Time shattered. Her body flew through the air, weightless. The crushing noise of steel and bone faded. The pain vanished. In that instant between impact and silence, there was only wind. And peace.
She smiled.
The pavement greeted her like ice.
Blood seeped from her skull, red against the grey. Her chest barely rose.
She was dying. She knew it.
And still, there was no fear. Only a quiet voice in her mind:
"I don't regret it. I did the only thing that could save me."
A light appeared in the void.
And then—darkness.
A light appeared in the void.
And then—darkness.
But the darkness didn't feel like death.It felt like... waiting.
Somewhere beyond pain, beyond time, she floated.Memories slipped from her grasp like ash in the wind—her mother's voice, her father's hands, the sting of empty birthdays. All of it dissolved, as if the universe itself were peeling her apart.
Then something stirred.
Not a memory. Not a feeling.A presence. Watching. Waiting. Whispering.
"You are not done yet.""You still have a role to play.""You will not return as who you were."
Sasha wanted to speak. To scream.But she had no body. No breath.Only silence.
Then a pull.Like being drawn back into flesh—Into heat.Into cold.Into pain.
And something else opened its eyes.