DAMEN
Flickering streetlights stretch across vacant walkways when darkness falls on The Shallows. Tougher then. Shadows loom, each one holding a threat just out of sight.
Outside Mira's place, I wait in the car. Inside, she packs a bag for her sister alongside Elena - saying farewell, maybe longer than anyone can guess. My chest tightens at the idea. A silence settles around me.
Fingers twitch when the screen lights up. It's him again - Kael.
Where are you?
Still nothing from me. Six calls now, ever since noon. Fourteen messages stacked up too. What he's after isn't hard to guess - trying to change my mind, waving those so-called duties in my face, tugging at the strings of a life I'm told I'm walking away from.
Back there? Not happening. That chapter stays closed.
A flicker on the screen. Message from Mom this round: Dad needs you here. By nightfall. Something urgent.
That message gets erased before I reply. It vanishes, untouched by any answer.
Out comes Mira, Elena at her side. With them, bags - one modest, barely weighed down, hers meant for staying brief; the other overstuffed, Mira's guess at what could be useful. Pausing mid-step, they stand still when Mira draws her close - a hold stretched past normal.
Out comes my foot, then the rest follows. Cold bites at my skin the moment I step into the dark. Fumes hang close, mixed with the scent of food frying in a far-off kitchen.
Finally, Elena pulls back. Wipes her eyes. "I'll be okay, Mira. Sasha's mom is cool. She won't ask questions."
"Text me every hour. If you don't - "
"I will. Every hour. I promise."
Back into each other's arms they go. This time, Elena shifts her gaze toward me.
"Take care of her." It's not a request. It's a command, delivered with the kind of authority that comes from surviving things no kid should survive. "She's not as tough as she looks. Inside, she's breaking. Has been for years. Don't let her break alone."
"I won't." I meet her eyes. "I swear it."
A single nod is all she gives before moving toward the parked vehicle - a worn-out four-door steered by Sasha's mother, whose gaze mixes warmth with firmness. Inside, Elena takes her seat without a word. The engine shifts, rolling them forward down the road.
After the red glow of the car fades behind the bend, stillness settles. Her eyes meet mine next, unguarded now, every shield dropped without warning.
"She's all I have," she whispers. "If something happens to her - "
"Nothing will happen to her." I cross to her, take her hands. "Sasha's mom will keep her safe. And we'll figure this out. Together."
"How?" Her voice cracks. "Selena has money, power, connections. She has an army of people who'll do whatever she says. I have - " She gestures at herself, at the empty street, at nothing. "I have nothing."
"You have me."
A silence stretches between us. Her eyes stay fixed on mine before finally moving - just a small shift, left to right.
"That's what scares me most. Because if she goes after you - if you lose everything because of me - I don't know how I'd live with that."
"She's not going to take anything from me. I won't let her."
"You can't control that. None of us can." She pulls her hands away, wraps her arms around herself. "Your father already threatened to cut you off. How long before he does it? How long before you're as broke as me, with nothing to show for it except a girl who can't even keep her sister safe?"
"Then I'll be broke." I step closer. "I don't care about the money, Mira. I never did. It's just... stuff. Things. None of it matters compared to you."
"You don't know that. You've never been without it. You've never had to choose between eating and paying rent. You've never - "
"You're right." I cut her off gently. "I haven't. I don't know what it's like to struggle the way you have. But I know what it's like to be alone. To feel like no one sees you. To wonder if anyone would notice if you disappeared." I pause. "That's how I felt before I met you. Ghostlike, moving through days without touch. Then your eyes found mine - truly saw - that moment flesh replaced shadow
Shimmering, her eyes meet his. Damen…
"I'm not saying this to manipulate you. I'm saying it because it's true. You saved me, Mira. Without even trying. And I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of that."
A drop slips free, sliding along her face. Wiped fast - like it meant too much.
"I don't know how to do this," she says. "I don't know how to let someone in. Every time I've trusted anyone, they've hurt me. Left me. Used me." She meets my eyes. "How do I know you're different?"
"You don't." I take her face in my hands, gentle, careful. "You can't know. Not yet. Trust takes time, and time is the one thing we might not have. But I'm asking you to try. To give me a chance to prove that I'm not like them."
A pause stretches out, heavy. Light overhead stutters, hums, then holds steady.
After a pause, her head begins to move up and down.
Right," she says soft. "Alright
Close I pull her, then everything softens, if only for seconds. The world breathes differently when held like that.
***
SELENA
Twelve struck. Inside my room. Briar talking through the line.
"The sister's gone," Briar reports. "Staying with a friend. Sasha Chen. Her mother's a librarian, no connections, no money. Not a threat."
"And Mira?"
"Still at her apartment. Damen's with her."
Darkness behind my eyelids. Breathing long, low pulls of air. Their picture forms anyway - close, hands meeting, voices tangled - not side by side but wrapped into one shape. A knot rises inside me, tight and sour, like swallowed fire caught mid-way down.
"We need to escalate."
"I thought that's what today was."
"Today was a warning. Tomorrow is war." I open my eyes, stare at my ceiling. "The scholarship application. Can you access it?"
A pause. Then: "Probably. The system's not exactly secure. Why?"
"Because we're going to make sure it disappears. Permanently."
"Mira's Columbia application?" Briar's voice is carefully neutral. "That's... that's her future, Selena. Her only way out."
"I know."
Stillness again. This stretch stretched further than before.
"Are you sure about this? I mean, I get wanting to scare her. Make her back off. But destroying her future? That's - "
"That's what?" I sit up, anger flaring. "That's fair? That's justified? She's trying to take Damen from me, Briar. She's trying to steal the life I've been building since we were kids. And you're worried about her future?"
"I'm just saying - "
"Don't." My voice is ice. "Either you're with me, or you're against me. Choose."
Quiet fills the space. After a moment, soft words come. I stand beside you.
"Good. Then make it happen. By tomorrow night, that application doesn't exist."
My hand lifts off the phone just as her voice begins to rise.
Darkness wraps around me while seconds pass like hours. My pulse fills the silence, steady, loud. This act - unfair? Sure. It sits heavy on my chest. Still, harsh choices cut clean when survival's at stake. Cold methods guard what matters most.
Damen belongs to me. Always has. Just hasn't figured that out. Yet.
Burning down everything feels closer than letting go when it comes to protecting him. Fire spreads faster than words ever could if someone tries to step too close.
***
MIRA
Fog clears. I'm sitting in Damen's car.
Midnight had long passed when my head finally dropped onto his shoulder, worn out from talking too much. Right now he stays, eyes open, fixed on the road outside. Grey irises catch every shadow that moves.
"You should have woken me," I mumble, sitting up. "You must be exhausted."
"I'm fine." He stretches, winces. "Okay, maybe a little stiff. But worth it."
"What time is it?"
"Almost five. School starts in a few hours."
Mornings here always feel heavy. This one drags more than most. Last time left a bruise. Now the air tastes like waiting.
"I should go inside. Shower. Pretend to be human."
"I'll walk you up."
"You don't have to - "
He unlocks the car. "Get in," he says. The voice is quiet but clear
Up the steps we go, side by side. My fingers twitch at the doorway, searching pockets for metal. That evening swims in my head - raw words spilled out, cheeks wet, then that breath before saying yes to him.
"Mira." His voice is soft. "Whatever happens today - whatever they throw at us - remember what I said. You're not alone anymore."
I give a small tilt of the head, afraid to speak.
Fingers brush my hair back before his lips touch my skin, soft like morning light. A pause hangs between us, quiet yet full of meaning. This moment fits just right, simple but deep.
Footsteps fade down the hall - silence settles like dust on furniture. Empty walls watch as minutes stretch, thin and brittle. A breath hovers, caught between stillness and motion. Light slants across the floor, pale and slow. The weight of routine presses from behind. Morning waits, indifferent.
***
Outside the window, morning light stretches across empty seats. Back here, just me and my thoughts begin to settle. Behind the glass, The Shallows blinks away, slow like a tired eye closing. Getting ready happens quietly, without sound.
Screen lights up. Elena says she is at Sasha's place now, everything fine. Pancakes came from Sasha's mom. She sends a note that she thinks of me.
Reply comes through. I miss you just as much. Take care out there. You mean everything to me.
A phone rings again. It is a digit sequence I have never seen before.
Check your email.
A scowl pulls at my face as I tap the email icon. The screen shows empty. Not one message has arrived.
Then I refresh.
A message shows up from Columbia, time stamped at three forty seven in the morning. One look. Then another. A third follows without thinking. It sits on the screen, unchanged.
Dear Ms. Castillo,
It turns out there was a glitch when your early admission form came through, so it got pulled from review. Once dates close, the system locks everything in place - no exceptions can be made afterward. If you decide to try again under standard deadlines, that option stays open. Just keep in mind financial aid decisions often depend on timing, and delays shift how those are handled.
Sincerely,
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions
The glow fades slow as my eyes lose focus. Then everything smears like wet paint.
Vanished. It's not there anymore.
What I built over years. Late nights with books, each coin set aside, all the things given up. Vanished like smoke.
It hits me now, clear as day - exactly who did it.
***
DAMEN
The car slows onto the pavement just as the phone starts ringing. It is Mira calling.
"Hello?"
That's what she said. Her tone feels off - empty, distant, as if reciting lines without meaning. My college form, the one for Columbia, vanished overnight. Someone wiped it clean. Nothing left
"What? How?"
"Selena. It has to be Selena. She said she would. She said her father's on the board. She - " A sound escapes her, something between a sob and a laugh. "It's gone, Damen. My future. My way out. Gone."
"I'm coming back."
"No." The word is sharp. "Don't. There's nothing you can do. She's already won."
"She hasn't won. We'll fight this. We'll - "
"How?" Her voice rises. "How do we fight someone who can delete my future with a few keystrokes? How do we fight someone with money and power and connections? I told you. I told you this would happen. And now - " She breaks off. I hear her breathing, ragged and broken.
"I'm coming back," I repeat. "Stay where you are. I'll be there in twenty minutes."
Phone down - her voice hasn't finished when silence takes over.
Later that day, around twenty minutes after we last spoke, there she is - on the front steps of her place, eyes locked on the screen in her hands as though concentration could rewrite what's showing. My arrival brings no reaction; her gaze stays fixed. Even when I lower myself onto the step next to hers, stillness holds her body like weight.
"I'm sorry," she whispers. "I'm so sorry. I should have listened to you. Should have stayed away. None of this would have happened if I'd just - "
"Stop." I take the phone from her hands, set it aside. "This is not your fault. None of this is your fault."
"Then whose fault is it? Selena's? Yours? Mine?" She laughs, broken. "It doesn't matter whose fault it is. What matters is that it happened. What matters is that I have nothing left."
"You have Elena."
"For now. Until Selena decides to take her too."
"She won't."
"You don't know that."
"I do." I turn to face her fully. "Because I'm not going to let her. I don't know how yet. I don't have a plan. But I swear to you, Mira - I will fix this. I will find a way."
A flicker crosses her gaze, different now than earlier. It does not feel like hope - not quite - but perhaps its shadow begins.
"Why?" she asks. "Why do you keep fighting for me? I'm nothing. I have nothing. I can give you nothing."
"You already have." I touch her face, gentle. "You gave me yourself. That's everything."
A silence stretches between us. Her eyes stay fixed on mine before shifting closer, gently placing her forehead against my arm.
There we stay, dawn lifting above The Shallows, one fragile soul leaning into another. A quiet light spreads while our breaths slow. Not a word passes between us - just hands gripping sleeves, bodies close without speaking. Morning comes softly, pulling shadows back across the water. We do not fix anything. Just exist there, side by side, held up more than holding on.
Far off, beyond sight, fighting still happens.