WARNING: M RATED

  The key clicked in the lock like it didn’t recognize me anymore.

  I pushed the door open slow, like something might explode on the other side — and honestly, it felt possible. My heart was still pounding, the weight of everything still humming in my chest like I’d swallowed a live wire.

  It had been hours since the grocery store. Since the pulse. Since I threw a goddamn superhero through a car like it was made of paper. My legs had carried me on autopilot, from alley to street to bus stop to here.

  Back to the dorms.

  Sophomore year. Different room. New walls, same emptiness.

  I dropped my backpack on the floor. Didn’t bother to turn on the light. The streetmp outside cast a soft orange across the desk, the edge of the bed, the pile of undry I’d been meaning to deal with.

  Katie was asleep on her side of the room, curled under the bnket like she always did when she was anxious. She had headphones on, the glow from her ptop screen still dancing across the wall. Some show was paused on frame — probably one of those mindless reality things she liked watching when her brain couldn’t handle real life.

  I just stood there for a minute, staring at her sleeping form.

  She looked so… unbothered.

  Peaceful.

  Like nothing out there was burning.

  She was there for me when i needed someone.

  Not emotionally. Physically.

  I sat on the edge of my bed, the springs creaking quietly under me. My fingers still trembled a little. I stared down at my hands — no glow, no hum, just skin. Calloused from climbing, scraped from the alley wall I’d tripped against running away.

  The silence crawled over me.

  What the fuck did I just do?

  The question hit again, this time slower, heavier. Like it had finally caught up with me after sprinting through my skull for hours. I could still see his body — Halo Sentinel, lying in the wreckage like someone had ripped the light right out of him.

  I didn’t even try to hurt him.

  It just… happened.

  I felt it. The scream inside me — the vibration that had been building since that day. Since Lena. Since the crater. Since the blood.

  It boiled over.

  And now?

  Now I was a sophomore in college with a dorm bed, a half-eaten grano bar on my desk, and a government-css textbook I was probably never gonna read.

  I wasn’t a hero.I wasn’t a vilin.I was just a girl with something wrong inside of her.

  Katie shifted in her bed and mumbled something into her pillow. I looked over, half-expecting her to wake up and see me for what I was.

  She didn’t.

  I leaned back, ying down fully dressed, staring up at the ceiling tiles.

  The buzzing hadn’t fully stopped. It was quieter now — deeper. Like it had settled in my bones. I could feel the room around me in a way I couldn’t before. The faint whirr of her ptop fan. The muted thump of someone’s music three floors below. The ticking of the ancient heater.

  It was all there. All of it. Wrapped around me like an invisible map.

  I closed my eyes and tried to breathe like I was still normal.

  But i wasn't

  I woke up with a strange sensation.

  Her nails clutching the side of my thighs.

  A soft supple skin — rubbing my clit.

  "Mmm～"

  I opened my eyes.

  My pants were draped around my ankles. My trunks around my knees.

  "Good Morning"

  She looked up at me with her face buried between my thighs.

  She had one of those special faces that you could fall in love at first sight.

  Soft around the eyes, freckles barely scattered across her cheeks, lips curled into the kind of smile that wasn’t trying too hard.

  Katie was my morning arm.

  She knew what i went through and helps me — in her own way.

  It was hard for me to smile at anyone — I usually have to force one out and it makes me look creepy.

  But to her — i didn't even have to try.

  She then resumed her work.

  Her tongue — moving like a whirlpool — danced around my clit while she pushed two fingers — at once — into my cunt.

  My wetness acted as lube. Made it easy — as she thrusted it in and out.

  I clutched her head — my fingers sliding into her hair as i grasped it tightly.

  My left hand — pinched my nipple hard.

  "Ahhh"

  I couldn't see it but i could feel her smiling.

  Her teeth brushed against my wet folds.

  I could feel getting closer and closer.

  My moans started getting louder and louder and she felt it.

  She doubled her efforts by pushing another finger in.

  Her fingers moved so fast it started making squelching noises.

  "I'm getting close"

  Her head still buried in my cunt as i felt the release coming out.

  The orgasm made my whole body quiver and shake.

  I still kept my eyes closed.

  Somehow afraid to open them.

  Then i felt her thumb brushing my lips.

  Her hand cupped my cheek as our lips met.

  Her tongue darted inside as i tasted my own release.

  I finally opened them.

  Her eyes — the hazel-green glow that shined from the light of the sun.

  She id down on the bed on her back.

  "Now your turn"

  Her smile was so radiant and contagious.

  How could i resist that?

  Her moans.

  Her face.

  The act of pleasuring someone — it felt like all of my troubles just went out the window — whoosh.

  The water was dripping on the floor.

  I took a towel and dried myself.

  My legs — damn — it wasn't hair anymore. It was fur.

  After everything, i just didn't care how i looked or presented myself.

  Or just too zy.

  I looked at the mirror as i dried my hair.

  My eyes were baggy and puffy.

  More and more as each day passed.

  I try to get sleep — I really do.

  But my body just doesn't shut down.

  Especially after yesterday.

  I thought i was a goner for sure.

  Maybe they'd take me in questioning or worse—

  They'd brand me as a supervilin.

  I did knock out a hero.

  But how?

  I kept hearing that humming sound and that heart wrenching feeling every day since Lena died.

  The first time i heard it.

  That damn stone when it struck my chest.

  I thought it was just grief.

  Or maybe it's both.

  My head ached with the numerous questions I had.

  Then I felt a soft kiss on my shoulder.

  "What's wrong?"

  Her breasts pressed against my back as she wrapped her hands around my waist.

  The water from her hair — dripping on my back.

  "You were zoning out in the shower too"

  I mean — what would i tell her?

  That i had somehow got superpowers yesterday and knocked out a hero.

  Inside a fucking grocery store.

  And that i might have gotten it when i was attacked by a shining stone?

  When my girlfriend had died.

  Girlfriend?

  Then what the fuck is Katie?

  I took a long sigh and answered, "Nothing".

  "Just...nothing important"

  I couldn't see her face.

  I looked in the mirror but it was hidden beneath my frame.

  A long pause.

  "You..."

  She stopped herself as she tightened her embrace.

  "I'll be here when you wanna talk"

  I looked back.

  She was browsing her clothes in the wardrobe — her back turned to me.

  I knew it from her voice.

  She wasn't mad. It was concern.

  Patience.

  I regretted ever starting this retionship in the first pce.

  We were por opposites.

  I was a total fuckup.

  A total fuckup that was probably a fugitive.

  I wondered how long it would take them to find me. How can i even hide?. Not from them.

  Anyways. I didn't have to wonder that long.

  The window was already cracked open.Didn’t make much of a difference though — smoke still hung heavy in the room.

  I sat on the windowsill in nothing but an old hoodie and boxers, one leg pulled up, the other dangling out like I didn’t care if I fell. A cigarette burned between my fingers, glowing like a dying star. I hadn’t touched one in over a year.

  Didn’t even like smoking.

  But something about the burn made me feel present. Like I could taste something real in the haze.

  "You’re really lighting up in here?"

  Katie’s voice came from behind me, soft but pointed. She stood there holding a bnket in one arm and two mugs in the other, barefoot, hair still a little damp from earlier.

  I didn’t turn to face her. “Just one.”

  "Uh-huh." She set the mugs down and walked over, tugging the cigarette from my hand like it offended her. She took a slow drag herself before flicking it into a gss of water on my desk.

  “I brought hot cocoa. No more cigarettes. We’re watching something dumb and emotionally maniputive, and you're gonna cuddle with me while you pretend not to cry.”

  I blinked, then cracked the tiniest smile. “You really are bossy.”

  Katie grinned, already tossing the bnket onto my bed. “I’m cute enough to get away with it.”

  I let her pull me down with her, curling up under the bnket as the ptop started pying. She picked some indie movie with bad lighting, a lot of staring, and a soundtrack that made my heart feel like it was beating underwater. Something about love and mistakes and not being ready.

  We didn’t talk for a while.

  Just her hand slowly finding mine under the bnket.

  At first, our fingers brushed. Casual. Casual like our hearts weren’t doing ps in our chests.

  Then her pinky hooked mine.

  Then our palms pressed.

  We stayed like that — watching, occasionally muttering dumb comments about the movie. But her thumb rubbed zy little circles into my skin like she didn’t even realize she was doing it. Like her body just wanted to keep me from unraveling.

  I felt okay for a second.

  Not safe. Not happy. But okay.

  Like maybe I hadn’t completely lost myself yet.

  And then the window shattered.

  The room exploded in sound — wood splintering, gss raining down, a sonic pulse that made every bone in my body scream. Katie screamed too, shielding her head as I rolled off the bed, pure instinct taking over.

  Two silhouettes dropped into the room through the broken window like fucking thunder.

  One red, one blue.

  I recognized them before I even registered what was happening.

  Karmahawk. Prismshift.

  Both mid-tier enforcers in the National Powered Response Division. Government-sanctioned hero ops. Uniforms tight and glowing, visors on, looking like they stepped out of a military ad designed for TikTok.

  Behind them came the task force — not powered, but armored like SWAT on steroids. Guns raised. Shouting.

  “Cami Reyes!” Prismshift’s voice boomed, unnatural, like it was coming through a speaker shoved down my throat. “You are to come with us immediately. Do not resist.”

  Katie clutched the bnket to her chest, still halfway on the bed. “What the fuck?”

  I backed toward the wall, breath caught in my throat, pulse drumming so hard I swore the lights flickered with it.

  My vision blurred.

  The hum came back.

  That same hum.

  Low. Deep. Resonating in my ribs like a war drum. The kind that meant I was about to do something terrible. Something I couldn’t take back.

  Karmahawk stepped forward, voice calm but cold. “You’re not in trouble yet. But we need to evaluate you. Come quietly.”

  Katie looked at me, wild-eyed. “Cami, talk to me—”

  I couldn’t.

  My chest caved inward. My lungs forgot how to work.

  And somewhere in the middle of that panic… something inside me cracked.

  Not broke.

  Just… resonated.

  It was happening again.

  Not here. Not now.

  But my body didn’t care about “now.”

  It remembered then.

  Fshes smmed through my skull like lightning bolts:

  Lena's scream—The bst—The shower stall cracking open like paper—Blood on tile—Her arm still twitching—Her face. Torn.Eyes wide open.

  Gone.

  Gone.

  “Cami?” Katie’s voice barely cut through the noise. “Cam, what’s happening—?”

  The lights flickered again.

  Karmahawk’s visor glowed a deep, warning red. His hand shot up, palm open — I could feel it, the vibration in the air shifting, matching mine. His power touched mine like static, and it jolted something deep inside me.

  My bones screamed.

  But I still didn’t let go.

  I was shaking, vibrating, the bedframe behind me rattling on the floor. My ears rang, nose dripping blood, power boiling up from my stomach like acid.

  I could feel the force field building in my throat — like a sonic wave ready to detonate—

  “NOW!”

  Karmahawk’s command hit just as something cold smmed into my neck.

  The colr locked with a sharp click.

  Pain.

  Like swallowing a fist made of ice and metal.

  My power colpsed inward, folding into itself. The energy dropped out of my body like someone cut the power cord. I stumbled, choking, grabbing at the device around my neck.

  Then came the boots.

  Six of them.

  The task force.

  They moved in like animals, screaming commands I couldn’t process.

  One cracked a baton against my temple. Another shoved my face into the floor.

  CRUNCH.

  My nose split open. Blood pooled instantly. I couldn’t scream — breath gone, colr pulsing.

  Another grabbed my left arm, twisted—POP.Snap.

  Searing white pain up my shoulder.

  I felt my elbow dislocate. Bone maybe even fractured. I didn’t know. I couldn’t think. I could only feel.

  Katie was screaming.

  “GET OFF HER! GET OFF HER!”

  She threw something — her mug? A mp? It shattered. They shoved her back. She fought them, but a soldier grabbed her and pinned her to the wall with one armored hand.

  I looked up just enough to see her — face wet, mouth open in horror, her hands cwing at the soldier’s arm.

  “Cami!”

  I tried to answer.

  Tried to move.

  Tried to breathe.

  But my body was broken.

  The st thing I saw was the blood dripping off my own face. The floor was slick with it.

  My vision tunneled in on Katie’s face — twisted in grief, tears streaking down her cheeks, her lips mouthing something I couldn’t hear anymore.

  And then…

  BLACK