The message was sent. Keira's heart jackhammered in her chest, an internal warning bell, but her limbs were already moving.
She turned off the bench with the force of someone storming a battlefield, boots slamming hard against the sidewalk as she broke into a run. Streetlights blurred past in hazy halos, her breath clouding in the cold. She didn't even feel the sting of the wind. She was on fire from the inside out.
Void's message still echoed in her bones - someone reaching out of the dark just as the floor gave way. "Thanks for today, girlie 🫶."
"Fuck. That stupid emoji hit harder than any love letter." Made sense. It didn't come with weight. No chains either. Just affection, soft and simple.
She was done being caged for asking to be treated like a human.
Jenna would be awake. Probably pacing, perfecting some teary speech already. Keira knew the act. Knew every scene. She'd memorized the script long ago - just hadn't realized she could set it on fire.
Her lungs burned by the time she reached the building. The lights in their flat were on - as expected. Jenna was waiting. Like a hunter, patient and poised.
Keira didn't take the elevator. She charged the stairs two at a time, hands clenched so tight her nails dug into her palms - her right hand actually started bleeding. By the time she hit the landing, her vision was rimmed with red.
She unlocked the door.
The second the door closed behind her, Keira felt the temperature shift - like walking into a vacuum. Everything in the flat was too quiet and too clean. The hum of the air purifier, the faint smell of Jenna's rosewater face mist, the soft clink of ceramic as she stirred a spoon in her mug, her practiced concern. All of it made Keira's skin crawl.
"Hey, got your message" she said gently, like Keira had just come home from the grocery store. "What's going on?"
Fake calm. Soft voice. The prelude.
Keira didn't let a word out. She blew past her, grabbed a trash bag from the kitchen, then bee-lined straight into the bedroom, dragging open drawers and grabbing clothes in fistfuls.
Behind her, the ceramic clicked again. The soft sound of bare feet followed. "We're not gonna talk?"
Keira threw open a drawer and started pulling out clothes - black jeans, old tees, a couple pairs of thick socks. Her moves mechanical, not wasting a tick.
Jenna leaned in the doorway. "Kiki-"
"Don't."
Jenna blinked. "Okay. Tell me what you're doing then."
Keira didn't pause. "You fucking blind? I'm packing."
"Okay, well... Can we talk first? You're clearly upset, and I just-"
There it was - that tone. The condescending whisper that always made Keira feel like a misbehaving child.
She spun on her. "Yeah, no. I'm not fucking upset. I'm pissed because I spent months pretending that love means erasing yourself one compromise at a time."
Jenna's face twisted into a wounded frown. A masterpiece. "Why are you being so mean? What have I done wrong?"
"Oh my god," Keira barked out a bitter laugh. "There it is. The guilt trip, aisle one. You gaslight me for six months straight, but I'm the one being fucking mean."
She paused to take a breath.
"You want a list?" Keira snapped, standing up with a pair of boots in her hands. "Because I've got a lot of bullet points & time stamps."
"Gaslight? What are you even talking about-"
"Not just this instance, mind you. You guilt-tripped me every single time I looked too happy without you," Keira said, tone lower now. "Like when I went to that tech meet-up and you asked if I'd 'forgotten' to mention it - even though I told you twice. Or when I said I needed a weekend to myself and you spent the entire time texting me every hour just to remind me you existed."
Jenna stepped into the room, arms crossed over her chest. "I don't deserve this tone. I've been trying-"
"To control me," Keira cut in. "All you've been trying to do is fucking control me. Don't dress it up with your pathetic therapy-speak."
Jenna's face twitched, like someone had slapped her with a glove. "That's not fair."
"What's not fair is how every time I made a choice you didn't like, you made me feel like I was fucked in the head for having wants of my own."
Jenna moved closer. "You're blowing this out of proportion. You've always been... Intense."
Keira laughed, loud and bitter. "Ah, there it fucking is. The 'crazy' accusation dressed up like concern."
"I didn't say crazy-"
"No," Keira interrupted, yanking another drawer open. "You just implied it. Like always. Like when I wanted space and you said I was being distant and 'scary.' Like when I got upset and you said I was being irrational. You made me question every fucking feeling I had until I couldn't even tell what I wanted anymore."
Jenna's voice softened and sweetened - one of her favorite tricks. "I was scared, Kiki. You were pulling away. I thought we were losing our connection."
Keira didn't turn to her. Instead, she bolted into the bathroom. She grabbed her toothbrush, deodorant, a half-used eyeliner pencil that Void had said made her look dangerous. Jenna had called it "a bit much." She dropped them all into a pouch with trembling fingers.
Jenna followed her in silence. Keira knew that tactic too. The silent, heavy disappointment. The kind that sat on your chest and whispered how could you.
Keira zipped the pouch closed and shoved it into the bag.
"I changed everything about myself to make you feel comfortable," she said. "The way I dressed. The people I saw. Even how I fucking spoke. Remember when you told me my jokes were too 'mean'? So I stopped being funny altogether."
"You're twisting things," Jenna said finally, her calm untouched.
"No," Keira replied, clenching her teeth. "I'm finally setting them the fuck straight."
"You're acting like I'm some kind of villain," Jenna said behind her. "I've done so much for you."
She moved to the closet, flung it open. "Don't play dumb. Every time I questioned you, you turned it the fuck around. Asked who I was messaging. Told me I was fucking paranoid. Then cried when I started to pull away. Remember that, Jen? 'I just want to feel safe again,' you said. Like I was the fucking threat."
"You don't get a medal for loving someone with a leash on their neck."
"I don't deserve that," Jenna said sharply.
"Got this wrong, girl. You don't deserve me," Keira shot back. "Not anymore."
Jenna's eyes welled with tears. "So that's it? You're leaving? Just like that?"
Keira grabbed her old combat boots - the ones Jenna had called "too aggressive" - and shoved them into the bag. "I was always going to leave. It just took me too fucking long to stop waiting for your permission."
"I'm sorry," Jenna said, stepping closer. "If I did something wrong-"
"Oh yeah. You did a lot wrong. But you never saw it, because to you, control equals care."
Jenna reached out, touched her wrist. "Can we just talk? Sit down? You're just angry right now-"
"I'm fucking awake right now. There's a difference. And don't you dare touch me ever again," Keira said, yanking her arm back.
Jenna backed up a step. Hurt flickered across her face - the one that used to gut Keira, make her knees buckle, apologize for sins she didn't commit.
Keira turned her back and shoved her laptop, some tools, and her backup drive into her backpack, then slid it on her shoulders. "You know what the worst part is? I didn't even want to cheat. That kiss tonight? I didn't go looking for it. But it felt like the first real thing I've felt in weeks. Like I wasn't rotting inside."
The words hit Jenna like a bag of bricks. "You- What?"
"Aaaand another one," Keira muttered, tying the bag up strongly enough to rip a piece of it off. "The betrayal. Not that you actually care about me. You just hate losing."
Jenna cringed. "You kissed someone else and now you paint me as the bad one?"
Keira laughed without humor. "One - I didn't kiss anyone. I received it without having to beg for it. And unlike yours, this one felt genuine, no strings attached." She paused, meeting Jenna's eyes. "Two - you earned that title all on your own, sweetheart. You just kept it hidden behind that pretty mask of yours."
"I thought you loved me," Jenna whispered.
"I did," Keira said. "But you buried that under layers of control and manipulation until you snuffed the fire out."
The bag was full now, heavy as fuck. Keira hoisted it over her shoulder. Felt good, by the looks of it.
Jenna watched her with wide, glassy eyes. "Where are you going?"
"Somewhere you'll never find me."
Jenna blinked. "That's not fair. You can't just vanish."
"Oh but I can. And I don't owe you my location."
"You owe me something," Jenna snapped. "I let you into my life. My home-"
"Yeah, and then you made me feel like a guest in it. Like I had to earn my place every fucking day."
Jenna's jaw tightened. "You're throwing away everything we built."
"No," Keira said, turning towards the door. "I'm moving away from everything you built - and forced me to live in. This home stopped being mine the day I started apologizing for my own personality."
"Please." The tears finally came. Perfect, glistening drops. "I love you."
Keira turned slowly.
"No, you don't," she said, calmer now. "You love owning me. You love molding me into someone easier to manage, love how quiet I get when you frown. That's not love. That's power. And I'm taking it away from you."
"You're going to regret this. You'll come crawling back, I can already see it," Jenna hissed, stepping into Keira's path.
"Regret? The only thing I regret is not doing it sooner," Keira said, brushing past her.
Keira opened the door. Looked over her shoulder one last time. "And if I ever crawl, it's going to be away from wherever the fuck you are."
She dropped the keys to Jenna's apartment on the floor, flipped Jenna off, then finally walked out. The hallway outside felt cold. Liberating. Terrifying.
The door clicked shut behind her with a satisfying metallic clang. Cathartic. She didn't look back.
"See ya never, cunt."
As she descended the stairs, her phone let out a familiar buzz.
Jenna :: 3:16AM
Where are you going?
She didn't answer - blocked her instead.
The street outside greeted her like a bitchslap and a cigarette after sex - sharp and cold, and little cruel. The cold wind cut through her hoodie, streetlights were buzzing overhead, the city's chaos pressing in. But hell, it felt more honest than that apartment ever did.
She started walking. No need to run now. The hardest part was over.
Well... maybe not.
Phone still in hand, she opened the chat with Void.
Paused.
Typed.
Keira :: 3:18AM
Hey. You still up? It's important.
Sent.
"No more hiding."
The workshop wasn't much - a converted basement in downtown with busted pipes and flickering lights - but it was hers. She keyed in the code, unlocked the gate, and stepped inside like a merc returning from the first corporate war. She dropped her bags on the concrete floor and planted herself on the couch covered in dust.
And just like that, she was free.
Buzz.
Void :: 4:03AM
girl. i wake up to piss and i see a damsel in distress. tf happened.
Keira :: 4:03AM
I live in my workshop now. Flicking you the coords. Drop by when you can.
Void :: 4:05AM
fuck me. that's on the other side of the city. ugh.
Void :: 4:05AM
alr. be there in an hour or so. need to take a shower.
Void :: 4:08AM
can't help but think you're about to tell me your now-ex kicked you out.
Keira barked out a laugh - sharp, stunned, half-deranged. "Jesus fuck, Void. You're psychic. Or you've bugged my trauma. One of the two."