Kelly Mervise

Kelly had always worn her life like a faded sweater – comfortable maybe, but utterly unremarkable. College lectures droned on, punctuated only by the predictable squabbles with her parents about the future. But today? Today the script had been torn to shreds. Instead of the usual bleary-eyed reach for morning coffee and the sound of her mother's nagging, Kelly awoke to a jarring, impossible reality

She blinked, her vision swimming, slowly piecing together the scene. A small apartment, undeniably cozy, formed around her. Dust motes pirouetted in the soft light that streamed through the window, painting golden strokes across the room

"Where am I…?" Several figures stood before her, mirroring her own bewildered shock. They seemed as displaced, as abruptly uprooted as she was. And in their wide, questioning eyes, their hesitant postures, the weighted silence that clung to them, Kelly sensed a shared burden – hidden anxieties, unspoken confessions. Skeletons, carefully locked away, that somehow, she knew she had to unearth