Freedom.
That was the feeling. For the first time in a long time, pure freedom.
Aurora laughed loudly, pressed against Kaio's warm body as he drove her through the brightly lit streets, the wind messing up her tied-back hair, the motorcycle engine vibrating as if pushing away everything that held her back.
When they arrived at the oldest ice cream shop in town, they sat under the yellowed sign. It was simple, with iron benches and tables that had seen better days, but to her, it seemed like a magical place.
They shared laughter, mocked the professor who looked like a nervous penguin, talked about the course, the tests, their plans for winter break. Aurora heard herself talking—and didn't even recognize herself. She felt light. Free. Her eyes shining brighter than ever.
Kaio held her hand. And stayed that way.
So did she. Unwilling to let go.
When the sky was already dark and the street was beginning to empty, Aurora bit her lip.
“I'm sorry, but I have to go home. My mom will freak out.”
Kaio grimaced but nodded with a half-smile.
“No problem. I'll take you.”
“You can drop me off at the corner,” she said, almost begging.
He laughed out loud.
“What is it with moms and motorcycles?”
Minutes later, they stopped a block away from her house. Aurora got off the motorcycle and handed him her helmet, but Kaio didn't leave. He got off too, putting his hand in his jacket pocket.
“Hey,” he said, smiling, “I have a birthday present for you.”
Kaio took a small box out of his jacket pocket. Aurora opened it carefully. Inside was a thin bracelet with a subtle shine and a star-shaped pendant.
She barely had time to thank him.
Kaio kissed her.
It wasn't a shy kiss. Nor was it rushed. It was a firm yet gentle kiss—as if he knew exactly what he was doing and had been waiting for that moment for too long.
Aurora froze for a second. Then she gave in. His lips adjusted to hers with absurd naturalness. It was warm. It was sweet. It was everything she had never felt before. A warmth took over her chest, as if the world was melting from the inside out.
She felt her fingers tremble. The gift almost slipped from her hand.
And then — the noise.
A sharp bang, as if someone had kicked a trash can hard.
Aurora stepped back, gasping, turning her face toward the sound. Her heart was still pounding. Kaio looked too. The can was lying in the middle of the sidewalk. But the alley was empty. Or... it seemed to be.
Aurora swallowed hard.
Kaio pursed his lips... and for a moment, his green eyes seemed darker.
Then he smiled, but it wasn't the same smile as before. It was subtle. Cynical. Almost... satisfied.
And his gaze lingered in the darkness of the alley for too long.
Before Aurora could ask, the light on the porch came on. Helena.
“I have to go!” she said, her voice trembling for no apparent reason.
She ran. She didn't even look back.
Kaio put the box in his jacket pocket and stood there, watching as Aurora disappeared inside the door.
But his eyes didn't follow her.
They followed... another point.
A point in the darkness, where nothing else moved.
Aurora rushed into the house, her heart racing, not sure if it was because of the kiss... or the damn fallen trash can. She had barely closed the door behind her when she heard her mother's voice, tense and alert:
“Did something happen outside?”
Helena was standing in the hallway, her eyes fixed on her, as if she could smell the chaos in the air. Aurora sighed. She recognized the signs—Helena was on the verge of another outburst. And that could only mean one thing: the threat of another move.
Aurora frowned and exploded:
“Oh, no, Mom! You can stop that! What the hell! I'm having a normal life for the first time, don't come and ruin everything. Don't make me hate you!”
Her anger overflowed before she could contain it. Helena's eyes widened, but Aurora didn't wait for a response. She turned her back and went into her room, slamming the door behind her. She locked it and leaned against the wood, taking deep breaths to calm her heart.
It was Friday night. The next day she would turn nineteen. She didn't have to work. She didn't have to go to class. She was free.
She took off her clothes and put on her favorite pajamas—a loose T-shirt with stars on it and sweatpants. She sat on the bed and picked up the box with Kaio's gift. She smiled.
The bracelet was beautiful, made of a strange and delicate material. It didn't look like gold, silver, or anything she knew. It had a subtle, almost magical glow. She put it on her wrist and admired how it reflected the light from the lamp.
Aurora sighed. She could still taste the kiss, feel the warmth of Kaio's hand holding hers.
“Finally... my first kiss at nineteen. And what a kiss...”
Suddenly, she felt a chill run down her spine. She turned her face and had the strange feeling that she was being watched. Her eyes turned to the window.
Nothing. The street was empty. But she could feel it. Something—or someone—was watching her.
Snorting with irritation, she got up and pulled the curtain shut forcefully.
“I won't let anything or anyone ruin my day,” she muttered, returning to bed and covering herself up.
The next day, the sun streamed through the window, announcing a clear, cloudless sky. Aurora woke up to the smell of pancakes coming from the kitchen and, for the first time, didn't have to force herself to smile.
When she left her room, she found Helena with a simple breakfast tray—pancakes, orange juice, and a lit candle.
“Happy birthday, my love,” said Helena, hugging her tightly.
Aurora hesitated for a second, still resentful from the night before, but ended up returning the hug. Helena seemed calmer. More... human.
“Let's have lunch at Pier 15 today,” said her mother. “I already made a reservation.”
Aurora let out a little squeal of happiness. She knew how much this cost Helena, who hated leaving the house, hated open spaces, hated crowds. But she did it for her. Because she knew Aurora loved the water, the sea, the boats. Since she was a child, she had said she was a mermaid.
At noon, the two arrived at Pier 15 and got a table near the Hudson River. The restaurant was charming, with white awnings and wooden tables. The breeze was cool, and the sun reflected off the calm waters of the river.
Helena pretended to look at the menu, but her eyes scanned the pier. Every time someone passed too close, she stiffened.
“Relax, Mom. We're fine. Everything's fine.”
She said it too soon. The first thing they noticed was the sudden silence of the seagulls. Then the breeze turned into wind.
And then, the sound. A strange, deep noise... like a roar coming from the bottom of the world.
People began to get up from their tables, looking at the river. The waters were receding. Literally retreating from the pier, as if something gigantic were sucking the river away. In a few seconds, the muddy bottom began to appear.
“That's impossible,” Aurora murmured, getting up as well. “It's a river...”
But before she could finish, Helena grabbed her hand tightly.
“Run!”
She shouted with an urgency Aurora had never heard before. The two ran between the overturned tables, the screams of people spreading like wildfire.
And then Aurora looked back.
The horizon was dark.
A wall of water was forming, monstrous and relentless, swallowing everything in its path.
It was a tsunami. On a river.
The impossible.
Helena pulled Aurora hard, but her daughter's steps were slower. She couldn't take her eyes off the wave.
And then, in the blink of an eye, Helena was no longer there.
Her hand was gone. Aurora stopped. She spun around, searching the crowd. She shouted her mother's name. She shouted again.
Nothing.
And before she could even move, the water arrived.
An overwhelming impact. A crash. Liquid chaos. The force lifted her off the ground, threw her against tables, pieces of wood, panicked bodies. Darkness enveloped her, cold, cutting, insane.
And then, water and only water.
Aurora tried to hold on to something—anything. But there was no rope, no saddle. Only the uneven rocks on the back of a colossal bear that she now knew was alive.Her nails dug into the cracks in the rock, heat rising through her hands, her knees scraping against the friction. The ground shook with each step the creature took. She didn't dare let go. The wind blew hard, the voices of monsters all around, screams in languages that didn't exist, noises impossible to identify. It was like being in the middle of a war between gods.Thales was standing. Simply standing—on the bear's head, as if it were the floor of his home.His feet were steady. His posture was firm. His gaze... calm.Aurora stared at him in terror.“He's crazy...” she whispered through clenched teeth.Then Thales raised one hand. Calmly. As if it were something trivial.And rubbed his palm against his forearm.What came out of it was no ordinary fire.They were living flames — pulsing like blood. Red, gold, blue. Vibrant
Aurora woke up, but didn't open her eyes right away.Her whole body ached, as if she had been run over by a tractor. Her muscles throbbed, her head felt heavy. She groaned softly, grumbling, feeling the hard, warm ground beneath her back.She tried to move her fingers first. Then her shoulders. She was lying on something rough and uneven, like rough stone.She opened her eyes slowly.The light hit her hard, dry and aggressive. She closed them again, reflexively. She took a deep breath. She tried again, more slowly. And this time, she saw.The sky was not blue. Nor white. Nor gray.It was a dull, metallic shade, a blue burned like steel plate after fire. No clouds. No visible sun. But too bright. It illuminated everything with an opaque, almost cruel glow.Aurora blinked several times, sitting up with effort. Her body protested with every movement.She looked around.At first, she thought she was on a mountain—until she saw what was beyond the edge.It was a mistake of nature. A place
The motorcycle roared like a wounded animal, cutting through the night at insane speed. Behind them, the lights multiplied—four, five, maybe six pursuers. And all of them armed.The first shot whizzed past Aurora's ear, shattering a piece of the lamppost just ahead.She screamed.“Where are we going?!”No answer.“Can you hear me?! What the hell is going on?!”More shots. The man in front of her — eyes like thunder, jaw clenched — tilted the motorcycle brutally to the left. They almost touched the ground. The motorcycle tore up the sidewalk, skidding between trash, debris, and smoke.Aurora held on tightly to his body, her chest pressed against his muscular back, but there was no safety there. Only fear. And the certainty that she could die at any moment.“There's no escape! They're everywhere!”“Then shut up and pray.”His voice was cold. Harsh. Without a shred of comfort. She bit her lip until it bled.Another explosion. A bright flash hit a car parked next to them, turning it into
Aurora woke up to the sound of voices and the intermittent beeping of machines.The white ceiling, the cold light. The smell of disinfectant. It took her a few seconds to understand where she was.Hospital.She tried to sit up. Her head was throbbing. Her arm hurt—a bandage wrapped around her shoulder. The IV was still attached to her vein, a plastic tube tying her to that room. But none of that mattered.On the television, hanging in the corner, the live image showed the tragedy: an aerial view of southern Manhattan, chaos spread out below. “Unprecedented catastrophe,” read the caption. People being rescued from rooftops, cars floating among the rubble, screams, sirens, helicopters.Aurora's heart raced.“Mom.”The word escaped her mouth in a dry whisper.The last thing she remembered was Helena's hand slipping from hers. And now... nothing. No presence. No news.She yanked the IV out with a sharp tug. The pain was sharp but fleeting. She planted her feet on the floor, still barefoot
Freedom.That was the feeling. For the first time in a long time, pure freedom.Aurora laughed loudly, pressed against Kaio's warm body as he drove her through the brightly lit streets, the wind messing up her tied-back hair, the motorcycle engine vibrating as if pushing away everything that held her back.When they arrived at the oldest ice cream shop in town, they sat under the yellowed sign. It was simple, with iron benches and tables that had seen better days, but to her, it seemed like a magical place.They shared laughter, mocked the professor who looked like a nervous penguin, talked about the course, the tests, their plans for winter break. Aurora heard herself talking—and didn't even recognize herself. She felt light. Free. Her eyes shining brighter than ever.Kaio held her hand. And stayed that way.So did she. Unwilling to let go.When the sky was already dark and the street was beginning to empty, Aurora bit her lip.“I'm sorry, but I have to go home. My mom will freak out
The sky was cloudy, and Aurora almost smiled.No strange winds. No sudden changes in temperature. Just ordinary clouds on an ordinary morning in the suburbs of New York. For many people, an ugly day. For Aurora, a relief.Years of living with Helena had taught her a pattern: before each new escape, the weather would go crazy. Literally. The sky would give signs—and her mother would see prophecies.When a heat wave hit Alaska, they left in the middle of the night, leaving behind furniture, friends, even the dog. Aurora was still twelve years old. At the time, she believed there was logic to it. Then came the sandstorm in Canada. They left in the afternoon, without packing anything. They just got in the car and went. No explanations. And the last one... the worst of all. Lightning cutting through the Nevada sky as if it were summer in hell. Helena didn't even sleep that night. She grabbed her bags and disappeared with her daughter before daybreak.Aurora thought it was all an exaggerat