Innerskin

The rain came down in steady sheets, drumming against the window like a heartbeat-slow, insistent, haunting. Elira stared at her reflection, water tracing the glass like the tears she wouldn't let fall. She barely recognized the girl staring back. Same eyes. Same skin. But something was different now.

She wasn't supposed to be alive.

They told her the accident should've killed her. That her body had been broken beyond repair. But here she was, walking, breathing-and hiding the biggest secret of her life.

She wasn't in her body anymore.

She was in someone else's skin.

The girl who died that night had Elira's name. But the girl standing here... was someone else entirely.

A sharp knock at the bathroom door startled her.

"Elira?" It was her mother. "Are you okay?"

She forced her voice to steady. "Yeah... just getting ready."

Her voice still sounded like hers. But it wasn't. Not completely. Not anymore.

---

She peeled off the hoodie and stared at the marks that didn't belong to her. A tattoo just below her shoulder blade-delicate, floral, and absolutely unfamiliar. Goosebumps rippled across her arms.

Who had she become?

And more importantly-*why*?

The door creaked open slightly. "Don't forget, school starts in twenty."

School. As if pretending to be herself in front of people who knew her wasn't the hardest part of her day.

But she had to do it. Had to find out who this girl was. Had to find out what really happened the night of the crash.

Because someone had lied. Someone had wanted Elira gone.

And now, trapped in another body, she was going to find out why.

No matter what obstacle she had to face

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