Fear.

That was all the girl could feel right now, an emotion she hadn't felt in a long long while.

She felt her body involuntarily tremble as the Eclipsed let out a shrill, inhuman screech and slammed its claws into the jeep, tearing the door clean off.

"Ayla, I'll distract it, try and get your mama out of the jeep, okay?"

Her father whispered, forcing himself to move despite the pain. He took one of the products he was supposed to deliver, a small orb like objects and he struck it at the creature.

The orb exploded, but the blow barely slowed it.

"Run," he shouted, voice cracking. "Get out and run!"

Her mother tried to move, failed, and cried out in pain.

The Eclipsed lunged again.

Her father was thrown aside like a broken doll, his body slamming into the dirt, unmoving.

"Mama! Papa!"

Ayla screamed as she watched the Eclipsed turn to her father, slowly prowling and that was when something inside her snapped.

The world immediately went silent and then it turned completely dark.

Shadows poured out from beneath her feet, flooding the overturned jeep, seeping through the cracks and forming a cocoon around both her parents, pulling them towards safety and away from the jeep.

The Eclipsed froze mid-motion and slowly turned towards the jeep before rushing towards it, aiming to end the danger before it fully bloomed.

But it was too late, the moment it got close enough to the Jeep, it stepped into a pool of shadows which immediately formed a cocoon around it also.

Unlike the ones around her parents, the one around the Eclipsed suddenly started constricting and a second later it imploded, turning the creature to paste.

Ayla kept her hand up for a while before the pressure soon vanished and she stumbled forward, collapsing onto her knees beside her parents.

"Mama?" she whispered, hands shaking as she touched her mother's face.

Her mother stared at her, but it was not with relief, nor was it with gratitude.

What she had in her eyes was terror, absolute horrifying terror, almost as if she was looking at the Eclipsed that just attacked them.

The same terror reflected in her father's eyes when he slowly regained consciousness and looked at her surrounded by shadows that refused to fade.

***

Solar knights arrived a few minutes later, taking the family back to the barrier and the driver's corpse to his family.

Although her parents received medical aid, Ayla could clearly see that there was something wrong.

After all, their eyes which held nothing but love only showed fear when they looked at her.

The trio returned home again, but the mood was vastly different from when they left in the morning.

That night, Ayla lay in her bed but unlike what her parents expected, she was wide awake, so she heard everything they said.

"She's our daughter

"No, she's a monster!"

That sounded like her mother.

"Don't say that, she saved our lives."

"What would happen if she suddenly loses control? What if she wakes up as an Eclipsed one day?"

"...."

"We need to send her where she belongs, before the academy or the royal family finds out we're housing an abomination."

"That...."

Ayla just tuned out everything they said next, hoping that they weren't referring to her.

When she slept that night, she had a nightmare again, but this time, it was different.

This time, she watched her loving parents point fingers at her calling her a monster, and she watched herself tear them apart with her bare hands.

The next moment her eyes snapped open, it was already morning and standing above her was her mother.

Her eyes clearly showed the lack of sleep and on her face was a strained smile as she said, "good morning sunshine."

Even her words came out strained, almost as if she was forcing herself to say them.

"Join us for breakfast," she muttered and only then did Ayla noticed she held a knife in hand, but she didn't pull attention towards it.

Instead, she nodded and walked into the bathroom to get herself refreshed.

When she walked down, she noticed her father already seated at the table and under his eyes were heavy bags showing that he also hadn't slept the previous night.

Ayla sat down as her mother placed the plates down carefully, but she didn't sit.

"Eat," her father said softly. "You'll need your strength today."

Ayla nodded and took her seat.

The food tasted the same as always, yet it somehow felt different, maybe because of the mood.

Unlike the previous days, no one spoke.

She finished first, wiping her mouth with a napkin out of habit.

"Papa," she asked quietly, "are we going to the barrier again today?"

Her father's fingers tightened.

"Yes," he answered after a moment, "somewhere close to it."

By the time they stepped outside, the city was already awake, people moving about their day, unaware of the quiet fracture happening within the family walking among them.

The closer they got to the barrier, the fewer people there were, until they reached the gates again and her parents went to speak with the guards again.

When they returned, they ordered her to follow and she did, following them out of the barrier until they were back in the wasteland.

Ayla stopped walking.

"Why are we here?" she asked.

Her parents didn't turn around at first.

Then her mother faced her, her usual smile was completely gone.

"Ayla," she said, voice breaking despite her effort to steady it, "you're special."

Ayla tilted her head slightly. "I know."

"No," her mother whispered. "You don't."

Her father finally turned, his eyes avoiding hers.

"There are places," he said carefully, "where things like… what you have… belong."

The word hurt more than it should have.

"Things?"

Ayla looked between them and understanding slowly dawned on her. She was they monster they had been talking about.

"I-I—" she wanted to say something but froze when she felt something cold behind her, slowly, she turned around only to realize that a crack had appeared in the space behind her.

And from it a cold mist was being released.

She immediately recognized it as a rift.

"The satellite viewers did say a rift should appear here today," Ayla turned to her father, who spoke with an unsettling calm, "I guess they were right."

Ayla's mother slowly walked towards her before taking her hands, tears streaming down her face.

"You have to understand Ayla," she said, "you're nothing but an abomination."

"So please die."

With her words, Ayla felt her mother's hold disappear just before she was pushed into the rift.

Time seemed to slow down as she felt herself slowly pass through the membrane separating the two spaces.

Her hands flailed forward in attempt to grab unto anything but it was all useless. She watched her mother drop to her knees as the rift slowly closed, and everything disappeared into darkness.

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