They told us the Resonance changed everything. That after the signal swept across Earth, humanity would never be the same. They were right, but not in the way anyone expected. The Resonance didn’t give us telepathy or superpowers. It did something worse: it made us feel what others feel. Every emotion within a fifty-foot radius became yours too. Joy, anger, grief, love—all of it bleeding into your consciousness like radio static you couldn’t tune out. Most people went mad in the first week. I survived because I was already alone. Then I met him. Kai. Standing in the ruins of downtown, crying tears that weren’t his own, feeling heartbreak that belonged to ghosts. When our eyes met, something impossible happened. The chaos stopped. In his presence, I felt only myself. Only him. They said the Resonance made connection unbearable. They never considered it might make the right connection inevitable.
