Morning light slipped through the narrow gaps between the curtains, quietly chasing away what remained of the night.
Aidera stirred.
Her eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the softness of the room. For a brief moment, she lay still, letting the silence settle. The echoes of yesterday had not completely faded. They lingered somewhere in her chest, faint but persistent, like a dream that refused to dissolve.
Her fingers brushed against the wooden bedside table. Solid. Familiar. Real.
Her phone rested there, screen lighting up again and again with unread notifications.
She picked it up with a sleepy frown.
"…Why are there so many?"
Messages flooded in the moment she unlocked it. Missed calls. DMs. Concerned questions stacked on top of each other, all circling around the same thing: yesterday.
Aidera sighed softly.
It was strange. She was the one who had been there, the one who had nearly gotten hurt, yet everyone else seemed far more shaken than she was.
