Why the darkness? Why the isolation? The story of a lonely girl in a dark room is rarely without a prologue. For Elara, it was a series of small betrayals and a massive, crushing heartbreak. She had opened her heart, and it had been broken into pieces so small they felt impossible to mend.

It started as a stray notification from a forum she’d long forgotten, a simple ping that shattered the quiet. A user named Solstice had replied to a poem she’d posted years ago—a raw, jagged piece of her heart she’d thrown into the digital void.

And she writes back: "No."