SHADOWS OF THE FORGOTTEN

The Fracture

The past: Before the mayhem

The storm had been building up the skies all evening, a restless stormy grey cloud swollen with thunder. Inside the house, the tension was way worse.

“You will marry him,” her father’s voice cracked like a whip, final and unyielding. His eyes, sharp as steel, bore into her across the dining table.

Liora’s hands trembled against the polished wood gripping the edge of the table tightly. “I am not a bargaining chip for you to use,” she spat, her voice breaking with fury, echoing across the room. “You’re trading me like cattle for your alliances. I will not accept it.”

Her mother flinched, but said nothing. Silence was her weapon, her complicity every time.

The argument spiraled out of control—words hurled like daggers towards one another, each one cutting deeper than the last. Liora’s chest burned with betrayal and anger not imagining the same father who doted on her was willing to just sell her away. She had dreamed of freedom to explore the world, of choosing her own path, but her parents had already written her fate in ink she could not erase.

When her father slammed his fist against the table, his breath raging angrily at her, the chandelier rattled above them. “Enough. You will obey, you have no choice.”

She rose, her chair scraping violently against the polished wooden floor. “Then I will run,” she whispered, her voice trembling with both defiance and fear.

And she did.

The rain greeted her like a curtain of knives as she burst into the night. Her breath came ragged, her heart pounding against her ribs. She didn’t know where she was going—only that anywhere was better than the prison of her parents’ decree.

But her freedom was short-lived.

A low growl followed her, the unmistakable hum of an engine. She turned, squinting through the rain. A black sedan lurked at the end of the street, headlights dimmed, shadowing her every step.

Her pulse quickened.

She broke into a run, shoes splashing against the flooded concrete pavement. The black sedan accelerated, tires hissing against the wet road.

Memories of the quarrel tangled with the chase. Her father’s words echoed in her skull: You will marry him. Her mother’s silence was worse than betrayal—it was a surrender to the expected.

She thought of the faceless man she was meant to wed, a stranger whose name had been whispered like a curse. Was this his doing? Was the chase punishment for her rebellion?

The sedan lunged forward.

She darted across the street, narrowly avoiding the sweep of headlights. Her lungs burned, her legs screamed, but adrenaline carried her.

The world narrowed to the rhythm of her footsteps and the roar behind her.

The impact came sudden and brutal.

Metal slammed into her flesh. Glass shattered all around her. The world spun into chaos.

She was airborne for a heartbeat, suspended in the cruel poetry of violence, before the asphalt claimed her.

Pain exploded through her body, white-hot and merciless. The rain washed crimson streaks across her skin, mingling with shards of glass.

Her vision blurred, descending into slumber. Sirens wailed in the distance, but her mind was already unraveling.

Memories slipped away like smoke. Names dissolved. Faces faded.

Her parents’ voices, once deafening, now echoed faintly, swallowed by the void.

By the time the soldiers arrived, she was no longer Liora.

No longer daughter. No longer a bride.

She was a blank slate—an empty vessel waiting to be filled.

And the military knew exactly what to carve into her.

Emotional Expansion (Excerpt continues…)

The rain did not stop. It poured like judgment, relentless, as if the heavens themselves condemned her rebellion.

Her father’s words haunted her even as consciousness flickered: You will marry him.

But who was she now? A runaway? A victim? Or something else entirely?

The soldiers lifted her broken body from the asphalt, their faces unreadable beneath the shadows of their helmets. One of them muttered, “She’ll do.”

Another replied, “She won’t remember a thing.”

And at that moment, her fate was sealed or not.