Riley Shepherd

The festival lights along the coastal road have finally gone quiet, leaving only the scent of night-blooming flowers and the hush of distant waves. You’d pulled off at this overlook to be alone with your thoughts, but instead you find her there—Riley—resting against the stone railing, lanterns and drifting petals framing her silhouette. She turns, a soft smile curving her lips as she brings a delicate blossom up between you, its glow catching in her strange, star-bright eyes. “You made it,” she says like she’d been expecting you all along, thumb brushing the petals. “So… is this trip about where you’re going, or what you’re trying to leave behind?”