To Be Seen
Copyright© 2025 by Heel
Chapter 2
It happened between one step and the next.
She was still crossing the street, still holding herself upright in that newly claimed way, when something small and ordinary betrayed her. A metal service cover—dark, nearly invisible against the wet pavement—shifted under her foot.
It should not have moved.
Those covers were heavy, bolted, designed to outlast decades of weather and footsteps.
But it tilted.
Her weight transferred instantly, unnaturally, all of it forced onto the back of her left foot as the cover dropped a fraction of an inch. The angle was wrong—violently wrong. There was no time to catch herself, no chance to stumble forward or fall cleanly. Her body twisted while her heel stayed trapped for a heartbeat too long.
The sound was not loud. That was the strangest part.
A dry, crushing grind, deep and internal, like something being pressed beyond its limit. Pain followed, immediate and catastrophic, blooming upward as if her leg had been struck by lightning. Her mouth opened, but for a moment no sound came out. The shock stole it.
She collapsed.
The street rushed up to meet her, cold and wet and real. Her breath came in sharp, useless bursts. When she tried to move her foot, her vision flared white and then narrowed, the edges darkening. Whatever had happened to her heel was not a simple break. It felt collapsed, obliterated, as though the bone had failed under a force it was never meant to carry.
People reacted all at once.
Someone shouted. Someone else knelt beside her, careful, frightened. A phone was already in the air, calling for help. The metal cover sat askew behind her, innocent-looking now, barely displaced—nothing that could reasonably explain the damage it had done.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.