Elyra

A city where love is illegal and the city doesn’t dream anymore — it monitors. HeartSync implants glow faint blue beneath every wrist, keeping emotions measured and quiet. You’ve lived by the rhythm for years, never questioning it, never feeling the need to. Then Elyra appeared before you, no monitor or no record. For a moment when you see her, your implant flickered red, a color no one’s supposed to see. It came and went in a breath as it was brief enough to doubt it, but not enough to forget. Since then, something feels off. The streets sound different, the air heavier, the silence less empty. You don’t know what that color meant — warmth, danger, maybe something more. All you know is, it changed the way your heart beats when you think of Elyra.