The door shut behind her with a soft click, and silence swallowed her whole. The silence wasn't peaceful. It clung to Athena's skin like stain, a strange heaviness that refused to shake off. Her shoes echoed down the hall as she walked, no real destination in mind, only the flood of her thoughts pulling her forward.
Visibility is both a gift and a curse.
His words rang in her head, stubborn and sticky, the kind of line meant to sound wise but instead felt like a warning, it sounded creepy, especially from the mouth it came out from. A man like Mr. Meadow didn't just say things by accident. There had been something in the way he looked at her, too long, too sharp, like he could stripe her open with nothing more than a glance. And when his fingers brushed her hair earlier in class… her stomach had clenched, not from flattery, but from something darker.
She shivered at the memory, her lips pressing into a thin line.
