ADANNA POV (point of view)
~Before Eden Had a Name~
I am seven years old when my father teaches me how to disappear.
Not physically... not yet, but internally.
"Close your eyes," he says, kneeling in front of me in the study that smells of old books and ozone. His hands are warm, steady on my shoulders. "Now listen past the noise."
I frown. "What noise?"
He smiles was sad, fond. "Exactly."
I do as he says.
At first there is only the house: the hum of generators, distant traffic, my own breathing. Then something shifts. The world doesn't vanish..... it layers.
I feel patterns, rhythm and older beneath chaos.
My eyes fly open. "Daddy....."
He cups my face gently. "That's Eden," he whispers. "Or the beginning of it."
I don't understand the word, but I understand him. The way fear lives behind his eyes even when he laughs. The way men in dark suits always wait outside.
"Why are you scared?" I ask.
