Confusion

Amira barely felt Sara’s hand on her shoulder. The warmth of it was real—grounding—but it did nothing to quiet the storm inside her. Her breath came in uneven bursts, her heartbeat slamming against her ribs like a trapped animal. She stared down at her hands, fingers still trembling, skin still tingling with an unnatural heat.

What did I just do?

She tried to remember. The battle. The countdown. The moment her body had gone numb, like something—or someone—had taken over. And then… fire. No, not fire. Something else. Something deeper, something wrong.

A cold sweat clung to her skin.

"I don’t—I don’t remember," she said finally, her voice raw. It wasn’t a lie. She remembered the power, the sensation of something burning inside her, but everything after that was a void. A blur of heat and rage.

Sara’s grip tightened. "Amira, you—" She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "You didn’t just fight that thing. You destroyed it."

A chill ran down Amira’s spine.

"It was insane," Ruby chimed in, her usual confident voice unsteady. "One second, you were out cold, and the next—you moved so fast. It wasn’t normal. And then..." She gestured vaguely at the scorched ground where the monster had been. "Gone. Just gone."

Amira’s stomach twisted. Her head ached, as if something inside her was clawing its way out. "That doesn’t make sense," she whispered. "I don’t have that kind of power."

"Maybe you do now," Dave muttered, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. He wasn’t looking at her.

Silence stretched between them, thick and heavy. The battlefield was quiet, the air still humming with the remnants of whatever force she had unleashed. Amira felt a pressure in her skull, a whisper curling around the edges of her thoughts—something just out of reach.

And then, a single word, a voice not her own:

"Awakened."

Her breath hitched. She clutched her head, squeezing her eyes shut. No, no, no. That’s not real. That’s just exhaustion.

But it felt too real to ignore.

"Amira?" Sara’s voice was softer now, more cautious.

"I—I need to go," Amira choked out, turning away. She needed space. She needed air.

She needed answers.

But deep down, a horrible thought gnawed at her, one she wasn’t sure she was ready to face.

What if that wasn’t me out there?

She said it aloud, but the words felt wrong, like they didn’t belong to her.

And then she ran.

Her legs burned as she sprinted across the battlefield, past crumbling buildings and the last traces of smoke curling into the sky. The sound of her own breathing filled her ears, drowning out the voices of her friends calling after her.

"Amira! Wait!"

She couldn’t. She didn’t want to hear them. Didn’t want to see the fear in their eyes.

She ran until the ruined streets blurred past her, her pulse pounding like war drums in her skull. But no matter how fast she went, she couldn’t outrun the feeling clawing at her insides.

The voice. The fire. The power.

She skidded to a stop near an abandoned storefront, doubling over, hands on her knees. Her chest heaved, her vision swimming.

What was happening to her?

She looked at her hands—her fingers still smudged with blood, her palms raw with heat that hadn’t faded. A violent tremor ran through her arms.

This isn’t normal. This isn’t me.

And then the whisper came again. Soft, curling around her thoughts like smoke.

"Awakened."

Amira flinched, her back hitting the cracked wall behind her. "Who—?" Her voice cracked.

No one was there. Just the wind. Just silence.

She squeezed her eyes shut, her head pounding. Had the others been right? Had something taken over? Because that moment—when she stood over the monster’s remains, its body gone as if it had never existed—that wasn’t her. It couldn’t be.

Right?

A sound echoed in the distance. Footsteps. Fast, getting closer.

Her friends.

She had to get herself together before they found her like this—shaking, panicked, broken. She had to pretend she was fine, even though she wasn’t sure she’d ever be fine again.

But as she pushed off the wall, one last whisper echoed in her mind, sending ice down her spine.

"This is only the beginning."

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