Maya Collins woke up crying.
Morning light slipped through the curtains in thing olden lines,falling gently across her bed,
was uneven,broken between shallow inhales.
another vision.Her feet touched the cold floor.
Always silence.
Her eyes snapped open too fast,like her body had been thrown back into reality before her
She sat up quickly, gripping her bed sheet so tightly her knuckles turned pale.Her breathing
Maya pressed both hands over her face.
mind was ready to follow.Her chest rosesharply,as if she had just surfaced from deep water,
But Maya wasn't safe inside her own mind.
her desk,her folded clothes.Everything looked normal.Safe. Ordinary.
Thensilence.
Her voice trembled,like saying it out loud made it more real.
The room was quiet.
gasping for air that didn't feel like enough.
And her voice
The sky burning orange like it was slowly collapsing into it self.
She swung her legs off the bed and stood slowly,as if sudden movement might trigger
The empty street.
laughing for a moment…before it cracked and disappeared completely.
Too quiet.
Because she had seen it again.
"No…"she whispered."Not again."
The boy.
She walked to the mirror.
She didn't know which was worse.
bent,folded,and sometimes showed her things that hadn't happened yet.
But Maya knew the truth.
Inside her mind,time didn't behave normally.It didn't moveforward in a straight line.It
Her reflection stared back.
Or things that would.
So she had made a rule for her self long ago:
Same face.Same tired eyes.Same messy hair.
If you don't start anything…you don't have to lose it later.