Her day at school was like any other. She neither loved it nor hated it, but the steady appearance of quirks among her classmates—while her own stubbornly refused to surface—made socialising feel impossible. It was a quiet kind of exile. They looked at her as lesser, unfinished, and she carried enough shame that she never tried to bridge the distance herself.
Some days, she almost preferred it that way.
Silence made her thoughts louder. Beneath her skin, something hummed constantly, like brown noise pressed directly into her nerves—an invisible current that soothed her racing mind even as it coiled tighter the closer night crept in. She told herself it was just nerves. Everyone hated performing. Everyone felt strange before big events.
Tonight was the school concert, one of those overly cheerful affairs where each class sang for parents, siblings, and relatives crammed into folding chairs. Chise, cursed by luck as usual, had been placed in the front row. Dead centre. Nowhere to hide. No taller bodies to disappear behind. She didn't know then that if she'd been allowed to shrink into the crowd like she wanted, the damage would have been far worse.
Night arrived far too quickly.
Teachers ushered the children onto the stage, hands firm but gentle as they guided them to the coloured dots taped to the floor. The tape peeled at the edges, curling up from weeks of shoes scraping over it. A thin, makeshift curtain separated them from the audience, but it did nothing to block the noise. Voices leaked through—laughter, greetings, chairs scraping, the low, restless murmur of too many people packed together.
The buzzing beneath Chise's skin sharpened.
When the curtain finally drew back, the lights hit her like a physical blow. Rows upon rows of faces stared back at her, indistinct and overwhelming. Her breath caught, lodged painfully in her chest. The hum beneath her skin swelled, no longer soothing—no longer quiet.
Her muscles locked without her permission. Every joint stiffened, as though her body had been dipped in cooling metal. Heat flooded her veins, fast and violent, crawling up her spine and into her skull. It felt wrong—too hot, too full—like something inside her was trying to push its way out through flesh that wasn't meant to stretch that far.
Her skin prickled, then burned.
It felt as though something was moving beneath it.
The sensation made her gasp, her mouth opening wide as her body folded in on itself. She hit the stage floor hard, knees striking wood as pain detonated inside her. It wasn't one single ache—it was everywhere, tearing and compressing at once, as if her bones were vibrating, threatening to shatter from the inside out.
Tears poured freely from her eyes, blurring the lights above into harsh, melting shapes. Her ears rang so loudly she couldn't tell if the sound tearing from her throat was a scream or something worse. The buzzing became a roar, drowning out everything else, vibrating through her teeth, her ribs, her skull.
Hands grabbed at her—too many, not enough. Someone shouted her name. She felt arms wrap around her shoulders, her parents' familiar weight anchoring her to the ground, but even their touch felt distant, dulled by the storm ripping through her body. Their voices reached her in fragments, warped and stretched, swallowed by the piercing whine in her ears.
Then—
Something gave.
A pressure she hadn't known how to name surged violently outward, like a dam bursting inside her chest. For a single, terrifying moment, she felt as though her body was no longer hers at all—just a vessel splitting at the seams.
And then everything went black.
A/N
Hey guys, if there is anyone :(, this is my first book that I'm publishing. To note, I have been writing for a while, but I have never finished anything or posted anything, so hopefully that streak breaks.
Updates will be few and far inbetween, I work full time and do uni online sooo, yeah. However encouragement will definetely help lol. I really want to finish this book by the end of the year, that's my New Years Resolution, but I make no promises.
YOU ARE READING
At the Threshold
Fanfiction"If I fail, it won't be an accident. It will be my fault." - Ishido Chise Chise was born with a power that threatened to tear her apart from the inside, and she learned early that survival meant control-and control meant distance. From her own emoti...
