After an annoying Monday morning getting his mom to sign the document which she was very ecstatic about Ethan somehow made it to css.

  The cssroom buzzed with the soft chatter of morning.Desks clicked open and shut, papers rustled, and the teacher’s voice echoed faintly from the front:

  “Alright, if you have your permission slips for the field trip, go ahead and turn them in now.”

  Ethan pulled the folded paper from his bag. His handwriting looked steadier than he remembered it being st night. Neat. Controlled.Fake — like the rest of him.

  He walked up to the teacher’s desk, pced the slip on top of the growing stack, and turned back toward his seat.

  Alex was waiting with his usual grin. “So, you’re actually going, huh? I thought you’d skip. You’ve been looking kinda… out of it tely.”

  Ethan forced a small, hollow ugh. “Yeah, well. Figured I could use some fresh air.”

  Alex leaned back in his chair. “Night trip to the botanical gardens sounds pretty sweet, honestly. They say everything’s gonna be lit up — glowing pnts, bioluminescent stuff, moonlight tours. You think they’ll let us explore a bit?”

  Ethan shrugged, but his pulse jumped. “Maybe. Depends if the teachers are strict.”

  Alex grinned wider. “You sound like you’re already pnning to ditch the group.”

  Ethan smirked faintly, the first real expression he’d managed in days. “Maybe I am.”

  Alex nudged him with an elbow. “Now that’s the Ethan I know. You’ve been so quiet tely it’s creepy.”

  Ethan looked down at his desk, trying to keep his expression from slipping.Quiet. Distant. Fake.If only Alex knew how close he was to being right — that Ethan was barely even real at all.

  The bell rang, and students began to shuffle toward the hallway.

  As Ethan stood to leave, Alex called after him, “Hey, you better not back out st minute. It won’t be the same without you.”

  Ethan gave a nod over his shoulder. “Yeah… I’ll be there.”

  His voice was soft — so soft it almost didn’t sound like him.

  As he walked down the hall, the noise of the school faded into a blur.He could already picture it: the glowing gardens, the quiet paths, the moon above.That night was waiting for him.

  And deep inside, something — someone — stirred.

  Night settled quietly over the house, the kind of silence that made every thought louder. Ethan sat at his desk, the faint hum of the ceiling fan the only sound breaking the stillness. The permission slip for the upcoming field trip already turned in fully signed and Ethan knew he would break.

  The trip was supposed to be something fun, a simple escape from css. But to him, it wasn’t about that. It was about the possibility. The dangerous, tempting thought that maybe — maybe — he could take the neckce off, just for a little while.

  He lifted a hand, fingers brushing against the small pendant that hung against his chest. That single object… the only thing keeping him as Ethan.

  Neckce on, he was the tired boy everyone saw — hollow-eyed, distant, pretending he was fine.Neckce off, he could breathe again. He could be Eri — light, free, complete.

  He swallowed hard, guilt curling in his stomach.He knew how dangerous it would be to try anything like that outside the safety of his room. But as he sat there, eyes drifting to the window, he couldn’t stop imagining it — walking through the forest trails as her, feeling the breeze on her hair, hearing her ughter instead of his voice.

  Ethan gripped the neckce tighter, the metal pressing into his palm until it hurt.He couldn’t take it off. Not now. Not yet.But gods, he wanted to.

  And that thought alone terrified him.