Aether's Obsession
Here, surrounded by something so unreal it felt like a dream I might never wake from, I could breathe.
I crouched beside a cluster of luminescent blossoms and whispered, “Hey… can you hear me?”
The petals shivered. One vine lifted, brushed my wrist—gentle, inquisitive. Another curled toward my ankle. They weren’t attacking. They were listening.
I laughed, soft and shaky. “Yeah. I think you can.”
For a minute, I let myself imagine staying. Just me and this impossible place. No more being the family disappointment. No more being the boyfriend who wasn’t enough. Just studying, learning, becoming part of something bigger than my broken little life.