Mémoire

“Sarah!” Robin’s voice cracked, raw with betrayal. “After everything I did for you? The bone marrow donation—” Sarah rolled her eyes dramatically, her laughter sharp and dismissive. “Oh, please. Did you really think I cared about you? You were just… convenient.” Marcus moved to stand beside her, draping an arm around her shoulders. “Tell him about the face you made when he thought you actually liked him back. That story kills at parties.” The laughter between them burned through Robin’s veins. Every memory of their time together—every smile, every touch, every whispered promise—twisted into something ugly and false. “You used me…” Robin whispered, the truth finally sinking in. Sarah tilted her head, her expression cold and mocking. “Obviously. Let me spell it out for you, since you’re too dense to get it.” She stepped closer, her voice dripping with contempt. "I only kept you around because your bone marrow matched mine. Now that I'm cured, you're about as useful as yesterday's garbage. But look on the bright side – at least some part of you turned out to be useful. More than we can say for the rest!" After donating his bone marrow to save Sarah's life, Robin discovers their relationship was nothing but a cruel joke. Beaten and left for dead in a kennel of vicious guard dogs, his mysterious family ring suddenly activates, revealing his true heritage as heir to America's most powerful shadow organization! With supernatural abilities and unimaginable wealth as Eagle Industries' new CEO, Robin would show them what happens when you mistake kindness for weakness. After all, when you've been treated like a dog, sometimes you have to bare your fangs to survive!

Silence. Like a nice bucket of shhhhhhhhh. Everyone shut the effing fudge UP! That's all I've ever wanted. *Sigh.* But silence comes in different flavors. There's mint - the peaceful kind that wraps around you like a blanket. The kind I chase at 2 AM. I've cried once. Just once. With a bucket beside me, watching heroes with super suits and impossible strength tear each other apart. Somehow that feels less broken than my reality. Then there's the suffocating silence at school. Not an ice cream flavor. This one tastes like metal and shame. High school is my personal hell. Empty wallet, empty lunch tray, empty seat beside me like I'm radioactive. Empty soul on Wednesdays because middles are always the worst. *The usual.* But Emily made the silence bearable. Mint-flavored again. Until she broke something between us. *Snap.* One moment she's whispering secrets with me, the next she's weaponizing them. She scattered my private thoughts, added her own twisted lies. The betrayal burns hotter than the stares drilling into my back. I went from invisible to spectacle. Being a ghost feels like luxury when you're dodging spit balls and "accidental" lunch trays. But somewhere between my third panic attack and contemplating switching schools... *Something shifted.* Like in those games you play, when your character suddenly glows and the screen flashes: "New Skill Unlocked" And it wasn't just in my head. I tested it. Small things at first – a pencil moving across my desk when I focused hard enough. Then books. Then someone's lunch tray right as they walked past Emily. *tap tap tap* I used to think rock bottom was the end. *Well ladies and gentlemen,* it's just a really messed up spawn point. And now? I don't stumble from cliffs anymore. I swim in gravity, and dive head first.