My heart thumped like a war drum in my chest as I stood.
The motion was quiet, but it echoed loudly in a room where obedience was the only sound. Heads turned. Even the guard raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the defiance.
I inhaled deeply, grounding myself, and then glared straight at him.
"Let her go," I said, voice steady. "I'll finish her work too."
A few gasps whispered through the factory, but I didn't look away. I flicked my eyes toward the woman—her hands trembling, blood seeping from her hairline—and then back at the monster in front of me.
He took a step forward.
His eyes bore into mine with that familiar, predatory look—like he was deciding whether to break my bones or just rip into my skin. But I stood my ground, jaw tight, back straight. My hands were clenched so hard, my nails bit into my palms.
I would not flinch.
"I promise you," I said, louder now, "every stitch will be done. You have my word."
The guard looked at the man stationed by the door and gave a silent nod.
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
The metal door groaned open, and the woman bolted through it like her life depended on every step—as if she slowed down, the weight of this place would pull her back in. I watched her fall to her knees and wrap her arms around her crying child. She held him like he was the only clean breath left in this world of chains and commands.
I didn't get to watch for long. A harsh hand shoved me down into her seat, and a pile of fabric twice the usual size was dumped in front of me.
But I didn't flinch.
Didn't waver.
Because on this island, to free someone… you always had to lose something first.
That's the law here.
Give and take.
My shift ended past midnight, my back was sore, my fingers had bruises which weren't able to curl and my eyes stung from the dust and yellow light of the factory. As i stepped outside the air felt heavy and unwelcoming, I knew that if i took a step further i will fall.
"You are limping", Lily said, stepping in the corridor with a glass of water. I crouched against the wall as my lips moaned from the pain in my rear bone. She sat beside me and helped me drank water.
"Why would you torture yourself for someone you didn't even knew?"
I smiled in pain as i closed my eyes.
"Because i am a human, If this island is gonna turn everyone into a monster i am not gonna be one of them; Till my last breath".
Lily didn't speak at first. She just stared at me, as if trying to read something between the lines of my pain — trying to understand what kept me fighting when everything else was already broken.
I met her gaze and said quietly, "I refuse to become what they want me to be."
My voice shook, but the words were solid.
Lily's eyes dropped to her blistered hands, the same hands that had known nothing but chains since she was a child. Then she looked at me again, her voice a cracked whisper.
"Ava… why do you still have hope? Why do you believe you won't end up like us?"
I took the glass from her trembling fingers and drank slowly. Then, without looking at her, I answered:
"I'll become something, Lily. But not what they think. Never what they think."
Lily stood up and forwarded her hand, I grabbed it and stood up with the help of support. She helped me to walk as we reached the servant quarter. We reached our cabin which consisted of an old rusty bunker bed and a crooked cabinet. The cabin reeked of rot and old secrets. Its wooden walls were warped and blackened with age, damp in the corners where mold crept like a slow infection. The air was thick—stale, unmoving—tainted with the sour stench of sweat, rust, and something long dead.
In the corner, a rusted bunk bed hunched against the wall like a forgotten skeleton. The mattress was little more than a flattened lump of filth, torn in places to expose yellowed stuffing and rust-streaked springs. Faint stains—brown and faded—marked the sheets like memories no one dared speak aloud.
A single crooked cabinet stood nearby, its surface scarred by deep gouges and burn marks. One door hung off its hinge, the other sealed shut by dried grime and time.
Light barely touched the room. A small, cracked window—no bigger than a man's hand—was set high in the wall, barred with rusted iron like a cage. The light that did slip through was weak and gray, casting long shadows that seemed to breathe with the room itself.
It wasn't a place to rest. It was a place to forget you existed. I laid on the bed and groaned as my back was still stiff. Lily came towards with something in her hand.
"Turn over", she said.
I grumbled but obeyed. She lifted my shirt, then pressed a warm, damp cloth against my spine. The heat wasn't much—but it seeped into my bones, chasing away some of the cold that had settled deep inside.
"You are the best", I mumbled in relief while my eyes closed. My eyes got heavy from the sleepiness and tiredness in my body finally took the toll on me.
My eyes blinked open.
But the ceiling wasn't cracked. There was no mold. No stench of rot.
I was home.
Sunlight poured through white curtains, soft and warm against my skin. My blanket smelled like lavender and cinnamon—Mom's scent. I could hear birds. Wind. Laughter.
Then—her voice.
"Ava."
I looked toward the door.
There she stood.
Smiling. Whole.
"Get up, my love. You're not weak. I didn't raise you to kneel—I raised a storm. A warrior. My daughter."
My lips parted, but no sound came. My legs trembled as I stood, tears welling so fast I couldn't see her clearly.
"I… I missed you," I whispered, stumbling forward. "I need you. I'm not strong. I'm not. I'm falling, Mama—please…"
I ran to her.
But with every step I took, she moved away.
Not walking. Just drifting. Like a mirage dissolving in heat.
"No, no—*don't do this—please!" I screamed, reaching out. "Don't leave me again! I can't—I can't breathe without you!"
She looked at me one last time, her smile fading.
"You were always strong, Ava. Even when I couldn't be there."
Then her body turned to dust. A burst of golden light.
Gone.
And all that remained was silence.
I collapsed to my knees, screaming into the empty air until my throat bled in my dreams.
Just as I collapsed in my dream, sobbing for a mother I could never hold again—
The world around me shimmered. The air was still.
The cold ache of loss slowly melted into something warmer… gentler.
I blinked.
Laughter filled the air. Real, pure laughter.
I was sitting in the living room with Dad, Mom, and my brother. All of us huddled in front of the TV, wearing matching football jerseys. The air was filled with laughter, popcorn crumbs, and that warm chaos only a happy home knows.
Dad and my brother screamed and jumped as our team scored, their excitement bouncing off the walls. I laughed, shoving a handful of popcorn into my mouth. My brother elbowed me playfully, bragging about his football skills, and I rolled my eyes through a grin.
It was perfect.
Safe.
But then, the air shifted.
The warmth drained, replaced by a creeping cold that crawled into my bones. I blinked. The lights dimmed. The colors dulled.
I turned to the couch—
Empty.
The laughter was gone.
The room was still.
My heart dropped as I stood up, my voice cracking. "Mom?"
No answer.
"Dad?"
I ran through the hallway, barefoot, my panic echoing off the silence.
They were nowhere.
Gone.
Like they never existed.
"DAD! MOM!" I screamed, a raw cry that tore from my chest—
And suddenly, I bolted upright in bed.
Darkness.
The cabin's rotten stench, the damp air, the oppressive stillness. Reality slammed into me like a wall of stone.
I was still here.
Still trapped.
Still alone.
A tear slipped down my cheek as I stared into the dark. That dream was the closest I'd felt to home in years—and it was already fading.
I looked out the tiny, cracked window. The sky was bleeding gold—the sun just beginning to rise over the island. Everything was still.
Carefully, I slipped out of bed, making sure not to wake Lily. Her arm twitched in her sleep, her brow furrowed even in dreams.
I stepped into the corridor and walked to the common bathroom. The water was freezing as it hit my skin, but I didn't flinch. It almost felt like penance—sharp, honest, real.
Afterward, I went to collect the dirty dishes from the night before. They were piled high in a basket near the kitchen wall, stained with leftover porridge and cracked at the edges. I carried them to the hand pump behind the quarters, and the chill of the morning air bit at my fingers as I pumped water into a rusted tub.
Then I paused.
The sunrise caught my eye again—hues of orange and rose streaked across the sky like soft fire. I stared at it for a while, breath held, hands wet and forgotten.
I hope they're okay.
I hope Mom's not crying again. I hope she still leaves a seat at the table.
I hope Dad's remembering to take his medicine.
I hope Chris is going to his football classes and bragging about goals I never got to see.A lump rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down. There was no room for softness here. Not on this island.
But for a moment, I let myself believe they were watching the same sunrise. Somewhere far from this hell.
Suddenly, I heard the frantic pounding of footsteps rushing toward me, shattering the stillness like a cracked mirror.
I turned around, startled, just as Lily dropped to her knees beside me, panting hard, eyes wide with something between fear and urgency.
"Ava… you know Lilith, right?"
I nodded slowly, already feeling the unease creep into my chest.
Lilith. Sixteen. She'd only been here a few months. I still remembered the way she'd arrived—screaming, fighting, as if sheer terror could tear down the walls of this island.
But it hadn't. Reality had crushed her instead.
The screaming stopped. The fight vanished.
She had folded in on herself like something broken—silent, obedient, ghost-like. She did her tasks without complaint, always sitting in the same corner afterward like she was waiting for something that never came.
She never spoke. Never looked anyone in the eye.
She reminded me too much of what this island does to girls like us. In the end she became like any other girl on this island.
"What happened to her?" I asked, my voice quiet, almost afraid to know the answer.
Lily's breath hitched. She clasped her trembling hands tightly, trying to steady herself. Her fingers were white from the pressure, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.
"Something…" she swallowed hard, "…something beyond horrifying."
Her voice broke at the end, taking on a jagged edge as though speaking the words alone might shatter her.
"Lily," I said again, stepping closer. "Tell me what happened."
She looked up at me then—really looked at me—and her expression made my stomach twist. It wasn't just fear. It was grief. Rage. Helplessness.
"She didn't show up for the morning roll call," Lily whispered. "No one had seen her since last night. I went looking and…" Her voice cracked, and she closed her eyes as a tear slid down her cheek.
"She was found in the storage cellar," she choked. "Her clothes were torn… there was blood, Ava. So much blood."
My breath caught. The hand holding the cloth I was washing trembled. "Is she—?"
"She's alive," Lily said quickly. "But barely. They took her to the infirmary, but… the guards are trying to cover it up. Pretend it never happened."
For a long moment, I couldn't speak. The world seemed to tilt. My blood roared in my ears like waves crashing on a distant, doomed shore.
Lilith. Just a girl. Just sixteen.
And this island… this island was devouring her too.
I didn't realize my legs had given out until my knees hit the ground.
The sandy earth felt coarse beneath my skin, but the pain didn't register. I stared blankly at it, my vision blurred, as the words sank in like shards of glass.
"Alive…" I whispered, my voice hollow, barely holding together. "She's barely alive."
A bitter laugh slipped from my lips, more of a breath than a sound.
"How much more do we have to survive?" I murmured, not really asking Lily—asking the sky, the island, whatever twisted gods watched from above.
Silence fell between us like a heavy curtain.
Then the storm inside me rose. Not with noise, but with heat. My breath came faster, tighter. My hands curled into fists so hard my nails dug into the raw skin of my palm.
I stood slowly—like something ancient and wrong was waking up inside me.
"No more," I muttered, teeth clenched. "No more monsters."
My voice was steel when I looked Lily in the eyes.
"Who is the suspect?"