0:. Prologue - Death

WARNINGS: ABUSE, SLIGHT BLOOD AND GORE, DEATH, ALCOHOL ABUSE, BROKEN BONES


"You will do well, little one. Remember to trust in yourself and those around you, it will prove beneficial in the future."


Callie was a quiet girl, often overlooked by the world around her. At 19, she had learned to navigate the harshness of life with a resilience that belied her tender age. But her home, the place where she should have felt safe, was a prison. It was there that her silence became her shield, her armour against the cruelty that surrounded her.

Her mother, cold and distant, viewed Callie as a burden, a mistake she regretted every day. Her father, once gentle, had succumbed to a dark anger that turned him into someone Callie no longer recognized. Her older brother, who should have been her protector, mirrored their parents' contempt. Having been raised as their father's copy. In that house, Callie was the target of all their frustrations, the scapegoat for their failures.

Every day was a battle. Words of hate, sharp and cutting, were thrown at her like knives. Sometimes, the verbal abuse would escalate into something worse—slaps, scratches, kicks, and fists that left her bruised and broken. But Callie never fought back. She never screamed. She never cried where they could see her. Instead, she kept her head down, trying to be as small and unnoticeable as possible. She kept everything inside, where it festered in the dark corners of her mind.

The only thing that brought her comfort was music and her favourite stuffed toy, a small black dragon plushy of Toothless. She found solace in its lyrics, in the way it spoke to her inner turmoil, the storm that raged within her that no one could see, that she would hide. At night, she would close her eyes and imagine a world where she was free, where the noise in her life could finally be silenced.

This world she dreamed of was often anything related to Transformers. It has been a huge part of her life since she could remember, having grown up mostly around the live actions and prime universe. She craved for the fatherly love from TFP Optimus, for the freedom to drive anywhere on the road, to run away from the past.

But one night, the storm outside her mind became too much to bear. Her father, drunk and seething with rage, came home late. Her mother joined in, her words venomous, her hands as violent as her husband's. Her brother, no longer content to simply watch, added his fists to the onslaught. Callie curled up on the floor, trying to disappear, but they wouldn't stop. They didn't stop until she was completely still and barely conscious, her breathing was laboured and she was shaking everywhere.

But in that stillness, something shifted. Callie felt her mind slipping into a quiet place, a space she had never fully allowed herself to enter. It was as if the pain had opened a door she had been too afraid to touch. Through the haze of agony, a voice whispered within her— a voice that sounded like her own but stronger, braver.

Run.

When the sound of her family's footsteps faded, Callie's eyes flew open. She could feel the raw energy surging through her body, propelling her to move, to fight back against the darkness that had suffocated her for so long. For the first time in years, she wasn't thinking about surviving another beating — she was thinking about escaping, about being free no matter the cost.

With a speed she didn't think possible, she bolted for the door. Her feet pounded against the wooden floor, her heart racing faster than it ever had before. She reached the front door, hands trembling as she fumbled with the lock. She could hear them behind her — her father's heavy footsteps, her mother's shrill voice, her brother's angry grunts — but she didn't stop. She couldn't stop.

Finally, the door swung open, and the cold night air hit her face like a splash of water. She ran outside, barefoot and bleeding, not daring to look back. She could hear them yelling after her, but their voices grew distant as she sprinted down the driveway and into the darkness beyond.

The street was quiet, almost eerily so, with only the soft hum of distant traffic breaking the stillness. Callie's breath came in sharp, ragged gasps, each step sending jolts of pain through her battered body. But she didn't stop. She couldn't stop. Freedom was so close, she could almost taste it.

But then, in the split second that it took for her to cross the street, everything changed.

A blinding light filled her vision. Callie turned her head, just in time to see the headlights of a speeding car bearing down on her. There was no time to scream, no time to react. The world seemed to freeze around her as the car slammed into her with a force that sent her flying through the air.

She hit the ground hard, her body crumpling like a rag doll. The pain was instant and overwhelming, a searing agony that radiated through every inch of her. For a moment, she couldn't move, couldn't think. All she could do was lie there, staring up at the sky, the stars blurred by tears she hadn't realised she was crying.

The car screeched to a halt, the driver's door flung open, and a man rushed out, his voice panicked and shaky as he called for help. But his words barely registered in Callie's mind. The world around her was fading, the sounds growing muffled, the lights dimming.

She tried to focus, tried to hold on, but the pain was pulling her under, dragging her into a darkness that was different from the night she had just escaped. This darkness was final, all-encompassing. In those final moments, Callie's mind drifted back to the house she had fled from, to the life she had fought so desperately to leave behind. She had been so close to freedom, so close to a new beginning.

But now, lying broken on the cold pavement, she realised that freedom would remain just out of reach. As her vision blurred and her body failed. And in that quiet, Callie found peace.