The night it happened, Emilia didn’t mean to leave her house.
She told herself she was just going to sit by the window.
Just breathe.
But the restlessness had been building for days no, weeks. Ever since the party. Ever since Liam had looked at her like he knew something she didn’t.
Sleep had become unreliable. When it came, it brought strange sensations. Heat beneath her skin. A buzzing in her ears. The sense that her bones didn’t fit right anymore.
That night, the pressure became unbearable.
She woke sometime after midnight with her heart racing. Sweat clung to her spine despite the cold. The room felt too small. The air was too thick.
She stumbled out of bed, barefoot, barely aware of what she was doing.
The forest called to her.
Not in words.
In feeling.
Her back door creake
