For three years they called me a freak—and I stayed silent—until they touched my little sister in front of everyone, and the truth I buried finally came out and changed everything.

instantly, thick and dark in the purple twilight, pooling into the palm of my hand as I widened the incision to reach the muscle fascia. I could feel the edge of the blade scraping against the metallic exterior of the beacon, the tiny cylinder resisting the steel like a buried bullet. I dropped the pen into the dirt, plunging my own index finger and continue reading …