~Narrator~
A young girl with long, dark hair and bright blue eyes stood knocking on a door.
Rain pounded against her head, soaking her to the bone as she stood unmoving in the driveway.
She just stared at the door.
Then a memory flashed through her mind.
“Ria!
Come down for supper!”
The sound of rapid footsteps thumped through the house before a bright blue-eyed little girl with long, soft, chocolate-brown hair came running into the room.
Her cheeks were plump.
Her smile was wide.
Innocent.
When she walked into a room, it was like she absorbed the darkness and became a beacon of sunlight and hope.
“Ba!”
The little girl wrapped her tiny arms around her father before taking her seat at the dinner table.
Her father smiled at her.
He felt an overwhelming feeling of joy and bliss seeing her.
“My princess, thank you for being the light in my darkness.
The peace among my chaos.
I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
The memory warmed her heart.
And then shattered it.
Euphoria blinked.
She was standing in the rain again.
Her clothes clung to her body, heavy with water.
Her hair stuck to her face and neck.
Without realizing it, her legs had carried her up the porch.
She was still trapped inside the happy memory.
A memory that now hurt more than anything.
The door suddenly ripped open.
Sharp, malicious words came flying at her.
“This explains the rain today!
What are you doing here?”
Euphoria flinched.
The old woman standing in the doorway glared at her as though she were something disgusting that had crawled onto her porch.
“I’m sorry to ask,” Euphoria began, her voice shaking from the cold, “but would it trouble you too much to let me stay here for just a few weeks?
After I graduate, I’ll—”
The woman cut her off.
“You’re a cursed child!
I’ll never let you step even one foot into my house!”
Euphoria’s lips parted.
“Oh, hell no!
Get out of here!
Now!
Before you bring the wrath of the heavens down on us!”
The gray-haired woman shouted so loudly that Euphoria instinctively took a step back.
Her grandmother.
Her own grandmother.
“In fact, you’re probably the reason for this sudden monsoon!” the woman hissed, her voice deliberately cruel.
Euphoria flinched again.
“Please.”
She hated how small her voice sounded.
“I have nowhere else to go.”
She braced herself against the doorframe, shivering violently as she begged the woman to hear her out.
But there was no sympathy in those old eyes.
Only bitterness.
“Euphoria.”
The woman spat her name like it was something filthy.
“Ha!
What a useless name for a girl like you.”
Euphoria swallowed.
“My daughter should have never given birth to you.
She should have aborted you the minute she found out she was pregnant!”
The words hit harder than the rain.
“She’d still be alive if she had married a better man.
You miserable, cursed thing.”
Euphoria’s eyes burned.
“Haven’t you suffered enough, you worthless brat?”
She didn’t answer.
What could she say?
This woman had already decided what Euphoria was.
A curse.
A mistake.
A burden.
Her grandmother had never approved of her parents’ relationship.
In her eyes, Euphoria’s Ba had always been too poor, too ill-bred, and too beneath her daughter.
She had never wanted anything to do with Euphoria.
And now, standing in front of her in the rain, Euphoria finally understood something.
Some people didn’t have to love you.
But apparently, they could hate you for simply existing.
The woman shoved her backward.
Euphoria stumbled.
Her feet slipped beneath her, and she hit the wooden floorboards hard.
A cry escaped her lips.
The door slammed shut.
She stared at it.
For several seconds, she didn’t move.
Then she lowered her eyes.
Mud covered her clothes.
She sighed.
There was no point.
She pushed herself off the ground.
She’d just have to wash her clothes later tonight.
If she had somewhere to wash them.
Euphoria climbed into her car and pulled away from her maternal grandmother’s house with her head hanging low.
Tears streamed down her face, leaving salty streaks behind.
For weeks since her Ba’s death, she’d been living out of his old car.
It was battered.
Unreliable.
The engine sputtered every time she started it, and she was pretty sure one day it would simply decide it had suffered enough and die in the middle of the road.
But at least it was a roof.
She had first gone to her aunt and uncle on her Ba’s side, hoping to find some kind of comfort in family.
They had turned her away too.
Not because they hated her.
They were simply indifferent.
Their house was too small and barely fit them as it was.
They were just as poor as her Ba had been, struggling to keep food on the table and the lights on.
Euphoria understood.
That didn’t make being turned away hurt any less.
She was starving.
It had been days since she’d eaten a proper meal.
This was supposed to be the best year of her life.
Her senior year.
The year she’d graduate.
The year she’d finally get out.
Instead, everything had fallen apart.
She was exhausted.
Tired of fighting.
Tired of pretending she wasn’t scared.
Tired of wondering where her next meal would come from or where she would sleep.
But she couldn’t give up.
Not yet.
She had made a promise.
At her father’s gravesite, she’d stood in front of his headstone with tears running down her face.
I promise, Ba.
I’ll finish school.
I’ll graduate from college.
I’ll get a good job.
And I’ll live a good life.
She’d promised him.
So, despite the exhaustion weighing down every part of her body, she couldn’t give up.
She had to be strong.
She had to keep her promise.
Euphoria eventually stopped at a stop sign.
She rested her forehead against the steering wheel and squeezed her eyes shut.
She took a deep breath.
Then another.
She just needed a moment.
One moment.
The sky suddenly thundered.
The sound startled her so badly that she snapped upright.
Euphoria stared through the windshield.
Another roar clattered across the sky.
Her stomach tightened.
She slowly rolled down the window and stuck her head out.
“Dragons,” she whispered.
A shiver rolled down her spine.
Five years ago, she had seen her first dragon soaring across the sky.
She’d been mesmerized.
Enchanted, even.
To her, dragons had belonged in folklore and fairytales.
Something children read about before bedtime.
Something that wasn’t supposed to exist.
But that sight had marked the beginning of the end of the world she knew.
She remembered the veil.
The way the beast people had emerged from behind it.
The confusion.
The screaming.
Then came the war.
Firebombs.
Sky raids.
Violent seas.
For two whole years.
More than once, she and her Ba had fled with thousands of other citizens into the city’s safety tunnels.
She could still remember the cold.
The damp concrete.
The smell of fear.
The sound of children crying.
People praying.
Everyone wondering if there would still be a home waiting for them when the alarms finally stopped.
Eventually, they moved to the country.
Fewer attacks.
More distance from the cities.
And they would be closer to her father’s family.
The war ended not long after.
But peace hadn’t magically made life better.
Humans had lost too much.
Homes.
Families.
Jobs.
Security.
The world they had once known.
Even now, Euphoria could feel the cold dampness of those tunnels whenever thunder shook the sky.
She turned up the radio, hoping to drown out the sound of the dragon patrolling overhead.
She didn’t want to remember.
Not tonight.
Then the radio host’s cheerful voice cut through the static.
“Selection has come again!
Submissions have been ongoing for the last two weeks, and the deadline for submissions is today!
Remember to submit your entry form before the end of the day for your chance at a better life!
Results will be announced tomorrow night at midnight!”
Euphoria froze.
The Selection.
She had almost forgotten.
Her mind immediately grabbed onto the words.
Deadline.
Submit.
Midnight.
Her only real chance.
A constant warm meal.
A good education.
A way out of the poverty that had swallowed her entire life.
Without thinking twice, Euphoria started the car.
The engine sputtered.
“Come on,” she whispered.
It sputtered again.
“Please.”
The car finally roared to life.
She drove straight to the library.
The library also doubled as the community center, and thankfully, it was still open.
Euphoria rushed inside.
“Good evening, Mrs.
Potts.
How was your weekend?”
An older woman looked up from behind the front desk.
She had salt-and-pepper-colored hair, and her glasses hung low on her nose.
Her age showed in the well-earned wrinkles covering her face.
Papers and books were scattered across the desk.
To anyone else, it would’ve looked like complete chaos.
To Mrs.
Potts?
It was organized.
“Oh, Ria.” Her face immediately brightened.
“It’s so nice to see your sunshiny face on such a dreary day.”
She smiled.
Euphoria couldn’t help smiling back.
“You always say the nicest things to me.”
She bowed her head respectfully.
“Nonsense, child.
You bring light into this old, dusty library.”
Something warm spread through Euphoria’s chest.
Mrs.
Potts adored her.
Just like most people who took the time to know her.
Euphoria made her way to one of the five old, beat-up computers and sat down.
She began the application immediately.
It was long.
Exhausting.
And weird.
There were questions about her body.
Her family history.
Her astronomical information.
Her personality.
Things that didn’t seem like they belonged on a university application.
She answered everything as honestly as she could.
Then came the picture.
That had been harder.
Thankfully, the school had provided a letter and seal that covered the cost of having her photograph taken.
It had been surprisingly classy.
Professional.
She’d even worn one of her best outfits.
She stared at the picture attached to the application.
She looked…
Happy.
She almost laughed.
She didn’t feel particularly happy lately.
Still, the girl in the picture smiled back at her like she had no idea what the future held.
Euphoria continued reading through the questions.
Some of them didn’t make sense.
Others felt oddly personal.
She frowned.
What kind of school asks things like this?
It was strange.
She made a mental note to question it if she was selected.
If.
That was a very big if.
Finally, she reached the end.
She wiped the sweat from her brow.
“All done.”
She leaned back.
For the first time that day, she felt like she could breathe.
Then she glanced around the library.
“Might as well check something new out to read since I’m already here.”
Books had become the thing holding her soul together.
She loved books.
Deeply.
They were her escape.
A world beyond her reality.
After her Ba died, they had become her only sanctuary.
She wandered toward the fiction section, running her fingers along the spines.
One book.
Then another.
She pulled several from the shelves.
But somewhere between the mystery novels and the fantasy section, she felt it.
Eyes.
Watching her.
Euphoria slowly looked over her shoulder.
Nothing.
Just shelves.
Tables.
Empty chairs.
She turned back around.
Maybe she was imagining it.
She continued walking.
The feeling remained.
Someone was watching her.
She looked around again.
Nothing.
She tried to shrug it off.
Dismiss it.
After all, she was in a library.
What could possibly go wrong?
She gathered several books and hurried toward the front.
The uneasy feeling followed her.
It never left.
Then…
The lights flickered.
Euphoria stopped.
Once.
Twice.
Then the entire library went dark.
Panic slammed into her chest.
Her breathing immediately became shallow.
No.
Not the dark.
She hated the dark.
The darkness brought back the tunnels.
Concrete walls.
Screaming.
Crying.
People praying.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Damn it!” Mrs.
Potts shouted from the front desk.
“These damn people!
They’ve been turning off the power sooner and sooner these days!”
Her voice echoed through the darkness.
“Euphoria!”
She startled.
“Hurry to the front!
You better get going now.
Darkness will come soon.
You know you don’t want to get caught being out past curfew!”
That damn curfew.
Unless you had a permit, you couldn’t be out past dark.
The curfew was supposedly there to protect humans from the night beasts that roamed the streets.
Beasts who, according to the government, had no morals.
Beasts who had supposedly lost their human side.
Some people called them demons.
Euphoria knew better.
It wasn’t about protection.
It was about control.
And Euphoria knew a lot more than she let on.
People often thought she was naïve.
Clueless.
Easy to fool.
She let them think that.
Quiet wasn’t naïve.
Observant wasn’t clueless.
She grabbed her books and started walking.
Then she heard it.
Footsteps.
Euphoria froze.
One step.
Another.
Someone was following her.
That was all the confirmation she needed.
She picked up her pace.
The footsteps followed.
She nearly ran.
Her sneakers squeaked against the floor, echoing through the dark library alongside the footsteps behind her.
Faster.
She moved faster.
Her heart hammered against her ribs.
She couldn’t see anything.
Couldn’t see who was behind her.
Couldn’t see where she was going.
Then—
A hand suddenly clamped over her mouth.
Another arm wrapped tightly around her chest, restricting her ability to move.
Euphoria’s heart lurched.
Panic exploded through her.
She struggled violently, dropping the books from her arms as they hit the floor with heavy thuds.
What was happening?
She tried to scream.
Nothing came out.
The arm around her tightened.
And somewhere behind her, a voice whispered against her ear.
“Don’t make a sound.”