Prequel stories revealing the wounds that shaped Declan, Elena, and Ben.
Declan Rourke
An Origin Story
2015 (Age 26) • 1400 words
Declan was twenty-six when they gave him the C. Not the letter, he'd worn letters before, in junior hockey, in the AHL, but the weight. The understanding that from now on, he would carry alone.
Read StoryElena Marlowe
An Origin Story
2006 (Age 16) • 1200 words
At sixteen, Elena Lupino filed a misconduct report against a physician. This is the story of what happened when the system protected its own, and how a girl learned that documentation was the only protection she could trust.
Read StoryBen Kowalski
An Origin Story
2018 (Age 22) • 1500 words
Ben was twenty-two when his father died, smiling at breakfast, gone by lunch, with a full schedule of smiling still ahead of him. This is the moment Ben inherited the burden: carrying everything alone, performing joy until the end.
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