The woman’s pale eyes widened slightly when she saw me following meekly behind Evelyn.
By the time we approached the car, her expression had already returned to normal, as though whatever inner turmoil she had experienced had finally come to an end.
“Is that really you, my lady?”
Evelyn brought a finger to her lips with a slight smirk and gestured toward me with one hand.
“Sera, I’m not the one you should be referring to by that title.”
The assistant froze, yet still managed to give a small nod before turning toward me and bowing slightly, her expression somehow making it seem as though she found me rather pitiful.
“Welcome back, my lady. I am Sera Volkova. I have been serving as your aide ever since you were young.”
I stammered slightly as I answered, not having expected her to react like this.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Sera. You may refer to the person beside me as Nathan.”
“Please get inside. You’ll find the shoes I prepared for you inside the car.”
Sera opened the back door of the sedan and held out her right hand toward me.
I took it as I lowered myself into the seat. Her skin felt noticeably cool against mine, and I was suddenly glad I hadn’t refused her help out of pride. With the heels still throwing off my balance, I probably would have stumbled while getting into the car if her hand hadn’t been there to steady me.
Sera closed the door after me and got into the driver’s seat, while Evelyn called shotgun. I soon noticed that a soundproof partition separated the front and back of the car, cutting me off from their conversation as the sedan started moving.
Initially surprised by how smooth the ride was, I noticed a black-and-gold decorated box resting on the seat beside me. The logo printed across it was unfamiliar to someone like me, who had never been particularly interested in fashion.
After opening the box, I found a pair of simple white canvas shoes carrying the same logo.
I immediately began changing out of the heels.
The shoes looked smaller than I expected, and for a moment I wondered whether Sera had made a mistake. Yet when I slipped them on, they fit my current feet perfectly, almost as though they had been custom ordered specifically for me.
The relief was immediate.
Now, these were shoes made to be worn.
Once I had settled back into the seat, the scenery passing beyond the window caught my attention.
We had already left Clinton District, the part of Arc City where my family lived, and were heading toward the center of the metropolis.
Arc City was technically a country of its own, though calling it a city-state hardly conveyed its true scale. Tens of millions of people lived across its sprawling districts, and some of the conglomerates headquartered here possessed enough wealth, influence, and military strength to rival the governments of smaller neighbouring nations.
The closer we came to the center, the more obvious that difference became.
Residential towers gradually gave way to enormous glass skyscrapers, private elevated roads, carefully maintained parks, and buildings whose names I recognized from news reports and advertisements. Security checkpoints became increasingly common, yet our sedan passed through each of them with barely a delay.
This was the heart of Arc City, where wealth and power seemed to gather in ridiculous concentrations. The headquarters of the Hero Association stood somewhere among the towers, alongside the main offices of several of the city’s most powerful guilds. The central government complex and the Mayor’s Office were located here as well, along with the Academy where many of Arc City’s young Awakeners received their training.
I had been aware of their existence, but seeing the district from this close made the names feel considerably more real.
The wealthiest parts of the central districts weren’t limited to skyscrapers either. Some of the upper residential zones had entire villa districts hidden behind walls, private gardens, and layers of security, where land itself was probably a greater luxury than the buildings standing on it.
Other residents preferred the opposite approach, living high above the city in enormous penthouses occupying the upper floors of residential towers.
I leaned slightly closer to the window.
Even though I had lived in Arc City my entire life, there were parts of it that might as well have belonged to another world.
A few minutes later, the sedan turned away from the main avenue and entered a quieter section of the central district, where the buildings became more residential without becoming any less imposing.
One particularly tall tower began growing larger through the window ahead of us.
I had a feeling we were getting close.
The tower rose above most of the buildings around it, its upper floors disappearing into the low clouds hanging over the city. Unlike the surrounding office towers, however, there were no corporate logos or enormous advertisements covering its exterior. The dark glass façade was almost completely uninterrupted, giving the building a strangely private feeling despite its size.
As we drew closer, the sedan turned down a separate road leading beneath the tower.
A security gate opened before we even came to a complete stop.
I glanced toward the front of the car.
Neither Sera nor Evelyn seemed particularly interested in the process.
Of course they weren’t.
The vehicle descended into an underground parking area that looked cleaner than some hotel lobbies I had been inside. Most of the spaces were occupied by dark-colored sedans and larger security vehicles.
Author’s Note
The Neighbour, the first Glitched Awakening side story, is now available on Amazon.
Reader Note:The Neighbour is a standalone side story in the Glitched Awakening series. It explores considerably heavier themes than The Awakening, including detailed postpartum medical complications, childbirth injuries and other potentially distressing medical content. Readers who would rather avoid this material may skip this story without losing the main series narrative.
After everything his glitched Awakening had put him through, Nathan Gold thought he could finally relax.
Evelyn and Sera had left Arc City, the immediate crises surrounding his Awakening were behind him, and for the first time in weeks, Nathan's biggest problem was once again an unfinished university assignment.
Then an ordinary elevator ride changes everything.
A sudden glitch swaps Nathan with Mary Snow, his twenty-seven-year-old neighbour and the exhausted mother of a six-week-old baby.
Nathan has swapped bodies with women before. He knows the disorientation of waking up with a different face, a different voice and a body that follows unfamiliar rules. With Mary standing right beside him to explain what he needs to know, he initially assumes this swap will simply be another strange inconvenience to endure until his Awakening reverses it.
He is wrong.
Beneath Mary's loose clothes and carefully practised assurances is the aftermath of a devastating pregnancy and childbirth—severe weakness, chronic pain, damaged muscles, loss of control and complications she has become remarkably skilled at hiding from almost everyone around her.
While Nathan is forced to experience what Mary's recovery actually means from inside her body, Mary discovers the opposite: his young, healthy Awakened body, where standing doesn't hurt, carrying her son requires no effort and ordinary movement no longer comes with a price.
Neither of them knows when the glitch will reverse.
And as the hours pass, returning to normal begins to mean something very different to each of them.
[Read The Neighbour on Amazon]
I’m also considering uploading Chapter One here as a bonus chapter so anyone interested can try the opening before deciding whether to read the full side story.