ANMELDENAvaThe first thing I heard was a low, tired voice, reading words I couldn't quite catch yet. My body felt heavy under the sheets, pinning me to the bed. I could hear the steady rasp of my own breathing. My open eyes blinked dryly in the dim light.I opened my eyes wider. A small, pale room with a c
AvaDad let go of the shackle and sat back, his face relaxing from the concentration. He was quiet for a long moment. Then his eyes met mine."Baby," he said gently, "do you want to know what happened?"Something in his tone made my chest tighten. I had a feeling that this was a truth I wasn't ready
AvaHe stepped out of the blackness, edging closer, until I could finally see him. Unbelievable. He was so young, the age he was when...when he died. His warm brown eyes, both of them, looked at me with a fond smile.I stared, my mouth hanging open, unable to make a sound. My dad. Standing in front
LeviI settled into the chair by her bed and took her hand in mine, rubbing my thumb over the back of it. "Hey, Ava. It's Levi," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "I just talked to Sofia. We had some things to say to each other."I sat there, rubbing her hand, trying to find the words Maya and
LeviI sat with my father in his room, a week after Hilda's funeral. Some families had already packed up and left the pack after becoming human. Others had stayed, unsure of where else to go.My father wheezed beside me, the hiss of his oxygen tank an ever-present sound now. He was thinner, frail, h
MayaI zipped Sofia's dress as best I could with my good hand. The collar was tricky. I fiddled clumsily with the small metal fastening. "There, perfect," I said, releasing the dress and stepping back.Sofia blinked hard at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was pulled back in a neat bun. The dr
HildaThe whole city glowed from the underbelly up—every streetlight flickering against blown-out glass, every freeway ramp slicked in orange runoff and oil.I kept the car in the rightmost lane, hazard blinking, drifting slow past a line of half-lit billboards shilling bankruptcy lawyers and strip
AvaDreams never had a beginning, just a stuck point you circled until the body got bored and let you go.I was in a hospital, the kind from old TV—white walls, fake green plants, the smell of bleach and old lemons. I wore a hospital bracelet that said AVA GRAHAM, which wasn't my name, and I was try
Ava“No one,” I said, but the lie sounded stupid in my own mouth.Evelyn didn’t flinch. She stood in the doorway, backlit by the hall like some museum statue, and waited for the rest.She did that thing, that therapist trick, where you just let the silence go as long as it has to. My throat tightene
EvelynThomas was sitting on the island, shirtless, both feet dangling off the side like a bored lifeguard. He held a bloody dish towel pressed to his chest.I pulled the light in closer, flicked on the under-cabinet LEDs, and started unwrapping the bandage.He didn’t react, not even when I caught a







