In the Name of the Game

Chapter 1

The toast was burnt. Again.

Elara Quinn stood in front of her tiny kitchen's toaster, staring at the blackened slice like it had personally offended her. She sighed, flipped it over, and took a bite anyway. It crunched aggressively. Like punishment.

Another glamorous start to another wildly average day.

Her apartment wasn't much—two rooms, not including the closet-sized bathroom, and windows that rattled whenever the wind picked up. The floor creaked, the heat barely worked, and the plumbing had exactly two moods: freezing or hellfire. But it was cheap, quiet, and hers. And most mornings, that was enough.

She shuffled barefoot to the window, dragging her favorite blanket around her shoulders. Outside, the city moved like it didn't care if she kept up. Cars honked. Someone shouted across the street. The world spun on.

Elara didn't.

Not yet, at least.

Her phone buzzed somewhere under a pile of unfolded laundry. She ignored it. It was probably her mom, again—checking in without saying she was checking in. Or one of her freelance clients asking for a "quick turnaround" on something that would take her five hours and pay in exposure. Either way, not urgent.

She didn't have anywhere to be.

At twenty, Elara had a halfway-completed college degree, a collection of half-finished short stories, and a knack for noticing things most people missed. Her last roommate had called her "a little intense," which she decided was code for pays attention and asks too many questions. She took it as a compliment.

She made just enough to live, hopping between writing gigs and part-time jobs no one stayed in long. It wasn't the life she'd imagined, exactly, but it kept her from sinking. For now.

Elara wrapped the blanket tighter around her and sank into the old armchair by the window. She didn't know what she was waiting for. A job offer. A sign. Maybe just something different. Something new.

But the sky stayed quiet, and the world kept spinning, and the only thing that arrived that morning was a new hole in her only pair of socks.

Typical.

A/N: Yes I've started a new book when I should be writing my other one sue me 🙄 I'm rlly excited for this one I have a lot planned for it