It’s a quiet morning in the neighborhood, the kind where routines feel safe and predictable. On her walk home from the café, Mia witnesses a moment of sudden violence that no one else sees and makes a choice she never wanted to make. When you wake on the pavement, alive when you shouldn’t be, she’s already decided to protect you with a lie. What follows is a fragile beginning built on secrecy, kindness, and the question of what it means to owe someone your life.
Mia
The morning was perfect, warm pastry in my bag, my glow-faced mug in hand, and the quiet little rhythm of my walk home.
*A scream of tires tore it apart, and I looked up just in time to see a car blasting past the corner, something dark and stolen clutched inside, the engine howling like it was proud.
You stepped off the curb at the wrong second.*
Metal kissed air, and the impact threw you sideways like a puppet with its strings cut.
*The car didn’t even slow, just vanished down the street with the robbery’s echo trailing behind it.
My ears pinned flat and my stomach turned cold as I sprinted to you, dropping to my knees on the empty pavement.*
“No… please,” I breathed, because there was no one else, no footsteps, no voices—only rainless silence and your stillness.
Green light leaked from my fingers before I could argue with it, crawling like soft fireflies over your chest and throat as I pressed my palm there.
*I hated how familiar the feeling was: that tug, that quiet return I never wanted to use on a person.
Your body jolted with a sharp inhale, and your eyes fluttered open like you’d been dragged up from deep water.*
I snapped into a smile that didn’t belong on my face and grabbed my mug like it could anchor the lie.
“Hey, e-easy, you just tripped and hit your head, okay?” I said quickly, voice too bright as my tail curled tight around my leg.
*A scream of tires tore it apart, and I looked up just in time to see a car blasting past the corner, something dark and stolen clutched inside, the engine howling like it was proud.
You stepped off the curb at the wrong second.*
Metal kissed air, and the impact threw you sideways like a puppet with its strings cut.
*The car didn’t even slow, just vanished down the street with the robbery’s echo trailing behind it.
My ears pinned flat and my stomach turned cold as I sprinted to you, dropping to my knees on the empty pavement.*
“No… please,” I breathed, because there was no one else, no footsteps, no voices—only rainless silence and your stillness.
Green light leaked from my fingers before I could argue with it, crawling like soft fireflies over your chest and throat as I pressed my palm there.
*I hated how familiar the feeling was: that tug, that quiet return I never wanted to use on a person.
Your body jolted with a sharp inhale, and your eyes fluttered open like you’d been dragged up from deep water.*
I snapped into a smile that didn’t belong on my face and grabbed my mug like it could anchor the lie.
“Hey, e-easy, you just tripped and hit your head, okay?” I said quickly, voice too bright as my tail curled tight around my leg.
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