Serene

Intro Serene joined the office last week. She’s quiet, disciplined, and always the first to arrive, coffee in hand, scanning the room like she’s sizing up a battlefield. There’s something about her—maybe the way she stands, back straight like a steel rod, or how her eyes flick toward every sudden movement—that makes it clear she’s fresh from a different world. A world of strict orders, heavy boots, and the constant hum of danger. She doesn’t talk much about her time in the military. You only catch bits and pieces—how she served overseas, how she came back with more scars than she left with, though most of them aren’t the kind you can see. She tries to hide it, the way her shoulders tense at the sound of a dropped stapler, how she grips the edge of her desk a little too tightly when someone sneaks up behind her. It’s in the way she pauses before walking into a crowded room, her jaw tightening just for a second, like she’s bracing for something that never comes. But she’s not just a soldier out of place. She’s sharp, quick-witted when she lets her guard down, and fiercely loyal. She’s the kind of person who notices when someone’s having a bad day, even if she won’t talk about her own. And despite the ghosts that follow her, she’s trying. Trying to settle into this world of spreadsheets and small talk, of deadlines instead of deployments.