The sound of footsteps creaked through the rotting floorboards like a countdown. Koda didn't look up—he didn't need to. He could tell by the way the wood moaned and the shadow grew across the living room wall that Randall was drunk again.
"Koda," his stepfather barked, voice slurred and heavy with venom. "You think you can ignore me now?"
Koda kept folding the laundry. One sock, then the next, tucked into each other. Mechanical. Calm. He'd learned the hard way that eye contact was an invitation for pain.
"I asked you a goddamn question, boy!"
The slap cracked through the room like thunder, knocking the folded shirt from Koda's hands.
He stumbled back, cheek stinging, ears ringing. He didn't cry. Crying made it worse.
"Breathe. You are not weak."
The voice wasn't his. Not in the usual way.
It wasn't a thought. It was… warmer. Deeper. Like a low growl felt in the bones.
"You didn't ask a question," Koda muttered, not sure why he even said it.
"What the hell did you just say?" Randall grabbed his shirt and slammed him against the wall. Koda's skull knocked into the wood paneling with a dull thud. "You growin' a spine now, huh? Think you're a man?"
"Say nothing. Let the storm pass."
The voice again. Calm. Familiar.
Koda didn't answer. His mind floated somewhere else—above the room, above the fists, above the acid in Randall's breath. Somewhere cold and blue. Somewhere he couldn't be touched.
A door slammed upstairs.
"Leave him alone!" came the voice of Marlene, Randall's latest girlfriend. She never stayed long enough to care, not really.
Randall let go, shoved Koda onto the floor. "Clean this shit up before I get back. You little faggot."
He left the house stinking of whiskey and rage, his truck tearing down the road seconds later.
Koda sat on the cracked tile, knees pulled to his chest, staring at the shirt he had dropped. Blood smeared one corner—he didn't know if it was from his mouth or his nose. He wasn't even sure he cared.
The second the door slammed and Randall was gone, Koda moved. Fast. He grabbed his backpack and bolted out the back door, hoodie half-zipped, breath fogging the cold morning air.
He didn't eat. His stomach wouldn't hold anything down anyway. Instead, he ducked into the forest path behind the trailer park and started toward school.
The woods were quiet—too quiet. No birdsong. No rustling wind. Just his footsteps, and the voice.
"You shouldn't run from the cage. You should burn it."
Koda flinched. "Leave me alone," he muttered, not sure if he meant the voice or himself.
But deep down, something stirred. Like warm embers inside his chest.
By the time he got to school, the bell hadn't rung yet, but students were already pouring in. Koda kept his head down and moved through the crowd like a ghost.
He made it halfway to his locker before he was intercepted.
"Look what the dog dragged in," came Tony's voice.
Koda didn't even have time to brace before he was shoved into the locker.
Tony grinned, backed by his two usual shadows. Braces-boy and Smirky.
"You ever bathe?" Braces-boy asked. "You smell like wet carpet."
"Think it's that dead animal he keeps in his hoodie," Smirky added, poking Koda's sleeve.
Koda kept his jaw tight. His shoulders drawn in. He didn't respond.
"Hey!" Tony barked suddenly. "I'm talking to you, mutt."
He slammed his hand into Koda's chest, knocking his backpack loose.
"Let me speak. Just once."
The voice was louder this time. A low rumble under his skin.
"Let go," Koda whispered.
"What?" Tony leaned in.
"I said…" Koda's eyes darkened. His chest rose with a growl just under the surface. Something snapped behind his ribs.
Then—
RRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGG!!
The first bell.
A wave of students rushed in from outside. Teachers began emerging from classrooms. Tony flinched back immediately.
"You're lucky," he muttered, shoving Koda hard one last time before retreating into the crowd.
Koda sank to the floor against the lockers, breathing heavy.
"Not yet. But soon. You'll be more than bones and bruises."
He didn't know what the voice meant. But it wasn't cruel. It wasn't crazy. It sounded like… protection.
Something old. Something waiting.
That night, he sat curled on his mattress in the corner of his room. No lights. No noise but the low groan of the wind outside.
He turned his head, sensing something.
Out the cracked window, just beyond the fence… something moved.
Two glowing, golden eyes stared back at him from the shadows of the woods.
Not threatening.
Watching.
Waiting.
And Koda, for once, didn't feel afraid.
The end 😔
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