by Priyanka Raman
Rachel was born on Prystal, a planet that looks like a childhood cartoon come to life. The streets curve too neatly. The town is filled with impossible buildings: a piano-shaped tower, a butterfly café with winged servers, an ice-cream cone shop run by a snowman. Everyone smiles too easily. But Rachel and her family don’t belong. They’re the only humans on Prystal, treated like a curse in a world that doesn’t understand them. And when strange “reset moments” begin freezing time around her, Rachel realizes something terrifying: Prystal isn’t a home. It’s a system. A containment world designed to keep humans calm, quiet… and forgetful. As Rachel’s sleep turns into vivid visions of a distant planet called Earth, she begins pulling at the threads of Prystal’s perfect reality - until the world starts glitching, the smiles start cracking, and something behind the sky begins watching her back.
