The alarm buzzed at 7:42 AM. Again.
Ash slammed the snooze button with a grunt. His skull throbbed—not just from lack of sleep, but from the weight of last night's… whatever that was.
That voice still echoed in his chest:
"This is not your fate."
He sat up, rubbed his sternum. No bruise. No scar.
Just a strange, low heat, pulsing like a second heartbeat.
"You're late again."
His supervisor's voice sliced through the warehouse air like rusted metal. Ash muttered an apology, blending into the clamor of machinery and the thick, oily haze of labor.
By noon, the fracture came.
Not in the wall.
In him.
A coworker tripped, a crash of steel rang out. Ash turned—
—but instead of panic, a pressure bloomed deep inside his chest.
Like something buried was being called to the surface.
He staggered. The heat in his sternum surged.
For a split second, the world went white.
He saw it—
A line of light, stretching from his chest into the sky.
Thin. Blinding. Real.
Then—gone.
"You good, bro?"
"Y-Yeah."
He lied.
He wasn't good. He wasn't even sure he was himself anymore.
Ash sleepwalked through the rest of the shift. The machines roared. Sparks flew.
But his mind was no longer on earth—it was orbiting something just out of reach.
That night, walking home under flickering streetlights, he heard it again.
"Ash."
He stopped cold. The wind stilled.
"Choose."
His breath caught.
There was no one. No movement. Just the hum of a single light post… and the deafening silence between heartbeats.
He stepped into the crosswalk—
Right foot forward—
—and the world fell silent
✨ If you heard a voice in your chest telling you to choose… would you?
💬 Comment your thoughts below. Chapter 3 drops soon.