shattered

The first thing Aira noticed was the silence. Not the peaceful kind—this silence pressed against her ears, heavy and wrong, like the world was holding its breath. The school compound behind the science block was usually noisy at this hour. Shouting. Laughter. Someone kicking a ball against the wall. Today, there was none of that. Aira tightened her grip around the straps of her backpack and slowed her steps. She hadn’t meant to walk this way. She was supposed to head straight home, but the front gate had been blocked again, and she didn’t have the energy to argue with the prefects. The shortcut behind the building saved time. It always had. Until now. She heard it then—a sharp sound. Not loud, but sudden. Like something hard striking something softer. Aira froze. Her heartbeat stuttered. She told herself it was nothing. A bag falling. A door slamming. Anything normal. Anything safe. Then she heard a voice. “Don’t act stupid.” Her stomach dropped.Aira stepped back, careful not to make a sound. Her shoes scraped lightly against the ground, and she winced, holding her breath. The voices were closer than she’d thought—just beyond the corner of the building. She shouldn’t look. Every instinct screamed that. But her feet refused to move. She peered around the wall. There were four of them. She recognized them instantly. Everyone did. The kind of students who walked through school like it belonged to them. Clean uniforms. Loud confidence. Untouchable. And in the middle of them was another student—someone smaller, backed against the wall. His face was pale. His hands were raised, not in defense, but surrender. Aira’s chest tightened.One of the boys stepped forward. He didn’t rush. He didn’t need to. His calm was worse than shouting. “You think you can talk?” he said quietly. The smaller boy shook his head. “I didn’t say anything. I swear.” Another sharp sound followed. A shove this time. The boy hit the wall hard enough to make Aira flinch. She clamped a hand over her mouth. Her thoughts raced. Go. Turn around. Walk away. But she couldn’t move. The scene felt unreal, like a nightmare unfolding too slowly. No teachers. No noise. Just the sound of breathing, harsh and uneven. “You saw something,” one of them said. “Didn’t you?” “I—no,” the boy whispered.The leader smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Lying makes things worse.” Aira’s hands trembled. Her nails dug into her palm as she forced herself to stay quiet. She wasn’t supposed to be here. This wasn’t her problem. Except it was now. Because she had seen it. Her breath caught, and in that split second, a pebble shifted beneath her foot. The sound was small. But it was enough. One of them turned sharply. Their eyes met. For a moment, the world stopped. Aira felt exposed, like she’d been dragged into the light. Her heart slammed against her ribs, loud enough that she was sure they could hear it. “Who’s that?” someone said. She didn’t wait to find out more. Aira turned and ran. Her legs burned as she sprinted down the path, backpack bouncing painfully against her spine. She didn’t look back. She couldn’t. The sound of footsteps behind her—real or imagined—sent fear flooding through her veins. She didn’t stop until she reached the mainroad. Only then did she slow, bending forward with her hands on her knees, gasping for air. Her vision blurred. Her ears rang. She was shaking. All the way home, the scene replayed in her mind. The wall. The shove. The eyes that had locked onto hers. By the time she reached her house, her fear had twisted into something heavier. Guilt. That night, sleep refused to come. Every creak of the house made her flinch. Every shadow stretched too long. She lay awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering if they had followed her. Wondering if they knew her name. She told herself she would forget it by morning. She was wrong.The next day at school, things felt… off. Conversations stopped when she passed. Someone laughed behind her. She found her locker scratched, her books scattered on the floor. No note. No explanation. Just a message. We see you. At lunch, she sat alone. Her phone buzzed. An unknown number. Mind your business. Her fingers went cold. She looked up slowly. Across the courtyard, one of the boys from behind the science block leaned against the railing, watching her. When their eyes met, he smiled. It wasn’t friendly. It was a warning. Aira swallowed hard and looked away. That was the moment she understood something terrifying.The violence hadn’t ended behind the building. It had only just begun. And her life—quiet, ordinary, invisible—had shattered without a sound.