Chapter One
921 Words
"Baby I’m drunk. Need you to come take me home."
That was all it took to disrupt Valeria’s quiet evening; a text from her boyfriend, Ethan.
She sighs, patience wearing thin and steps inside the house.
Beer, sweat, and laughter all hit her senses at once. Neon lights pulse across the crowded living room. Bodies sway and collide. Someone shouts her name, but she ignores, determined to get Ethan out of the house and get back to her quiet evening. Her phone vibrates in her hand. A new message pops up: "Upstairs."
Her stomach knots. What is he doing upstairs?
She moves through the crowd, pushing against the bodies. The music fades into a dull roar as she climbs the staircase. The door at the end of the hall is half-closed, light spilling through the c***k.
A high-pitched laugh comes from the room, soft, breathy, unmistakable. Selena’s laugh.
Valeria freezes, confused.
Getting closer to the door she hears a second voice, husky and slurred. Ethan.
Her heart skips a beat.
She pushes the door open, and her heart breaks into two.
For a moment, she can’t process what she’s seeing. The room smells of beer and cheap perfume. Clothes littered across the floor. Ethan’s voice murmurs something, a sound caught between pleasure and guilt. Selena’s wavy black hair glints in the light as she straddles him. Both of them are in various states of undress.
The world narrows.
Selena turns first. Her eyes widen, then narrow with something like triumph flickering underneath surprise. Ethan jerks then pushes Selena away, scrambling off the bed, stammering. “Val…wait…”
But Valeria is already backing out. The noise of the party rushes back in, swallowing their voices as they call her name.
Her vision is teary as she rushes down the stairs. The cold air slaps her face as she bursts outside. She keeps walking, faster and faster, until the music is nothing but an echo behind her.
The night smells of rain and pine. Above, the moon glows over the lake. The old wooden bridge stretches across the dark water, creaking in the wind. It used to be their favourite spot, hers and Selena’s back when the world was simple.
Footsteps follow behind her. “Val! Wait!”
Selena’s voice.
Valeria doesn’t turn. She keeps walking and stops in the middle of the bridge, gripping the wood hard enough that her knuckles whiten.
“How long has this been going on?” Her voice shakes.
Selena stops a few feet away, breathless, eyes wide and glistening. “I… It’s not what you think”
“Really Selena?!” Valeria turns, tears glistening under the moonlight. “From where I stood it looked exactly like what I thought.”
“He…he forced me!” Selena blurts. “He said you weren’t coming and…”
Valeria laughs, the sound brittle. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe your lie? I got his text and I saw his phone in your hands while you were busy sucking the face of my boyfriend! You sent it, didn’t you?”
Selena’s lips part, then press into a thin line. Silence stretches between them, thick as the fog curling over the lake.
Valeria steps closer. “Why, Selena? Why did you do this to me?”
Selena’s eyes harden. The mask cracks. “Because you have it all, Valeria. Everyone loves you. You walk into a room and it’s like the world bends toward you. I’m done living in your shadow.”
Valeria stares, disbelief warring with grief. “I never… You do not live in my shadow Selena.”
“And how would you know?” Selena’s voice drops.
She takes a step forward. The boards creak under her weight. “It’s always been you Valeria, maybe it’s time someone else had the spotlight.”
The wind gusts, sharp and cold. The bridge groans.
“Selena, stop.”
“Or what? You’ll cry on me again?”
“Enough!” Valeria’s voice cuts through the night. She moves forward, but the plank beneath her foot snaps. Wood splinters. She gasps, arms flailing as she falls but catches herself on the edge, gripping for dear life.
Selena reaches out instinctively then hesitates. Their eyes lock.
“Selena!” Valeria’s fingers claw at the edge of the bridge, nails digging into damp wood. “Help me! Pull me up!”
For one long heartbeat, Selena’s face twists, fear, guilt, something darker.
Then she smiles. A small, cruel curve of her lips.
“Your story has come to an end.”
Her heel presses down. Pain explodes in Valeria’s hand and she lets go.
The last thing she sees is the moon’s reflection breaking across the water.
Then she falls.
Cold swallows her whole as she breaches the water. The shock steals her breath away. She sinks deeper and deeper, the world spinning in silver spirals. Her lungs burn.
She kicks her legs, trying to swim toward the surface, but exhaustion quickly sets in and her limbs become heavy.
The light fades until a new one blooms below her.
A blinding radiance unfurls from the depths, pulsing with heat and power. It coils around her wrist like living light, tracing the mark on her shoulder.
Her body trembles. The water hums, alive with something ancient.
Through the blur,
She hears a whisper, soft and ancient, not in any language she knows.
The bearer returns.
The light bursts outward.
Valeria gasps, water fills her lungs and the world goes white.
- Writer
