Casita
She's fifteen, running from a story the whole country has watched play out on the news, when she climbs into a pink semi and meets a trucker who doesn't ask questions.
CB doesn't push. She hands over turmeric tea, does yoga poses with names like Drunk Frog, and says "mm" in four different languages of "mm." It's the first quiet Angel's had in longer than she can remember.
Then a routine stop puts three kids in front of her. A girl who counts exits before she counts anything else. A boy who'd bet his own shoes. A six-year-old with lights in his sneakers and no idea what he's carrying. Angel knows that kind of math. She used to run it herself, a long time ago, with a different set of variables.
Someone's holding these kids in place with a promise, and Angel knows exactly how that leash works.
Casita is the origin story of two fan-favorite characters from the Komorebi World: Angel, who readers first meet in The Dollhouse, and CB, who drives straight through the rest of the series. This is the truck stop where they found each other, and the three kids who needed them both to stay.
A standalone short story. No required reading order.
Trigger warning: references to child endangerment (non-sexual) and drug trafficking.