Vixen - Jia Lissa - Travelling Alone Link

Vixen didn’t ask to sit. She simply folded herself into the opposite seat like she’d always been there—all sharp angles, quiet confidence, and the faint scent of amber and cigarette smoke. Her coat was too elegant for a regional train, her boots too practical for a woman who moved like liquid shadow.

“It’s the way you hold your book,” Vixen replied, nodding at the untouched paperback in Jia’s lap. “Upside down for the last three stops. You’re not reading. You’re hiding.” Vixen - Jia Lissa - Travelling Alone

The train crested a hill. Below, a small town glittered like spilled sequins—warm windows, a single church spire, a river catching the last of the light. Jia’s stop. Or maybe just the first one that mattered. Vixen didn’t ask to sit

“You’re travelling alone,” Vixen said. It wasn’t a question. “It’s the way you hold your book,” Vixen

And for the first time all journey, Jia Lissa wasn’t hiding. She was arriving.

“I travel alone too,” Vixen said, her voice lower now, meant only for Jia. “Not because I have no one. Because I refuse to let anyone edit my story.”

The train plunged into a tunnel. For five heartbeats, there was only darkness and the syncopated click of wheels. When the light returned, Vixen had moved closer—not physically, but in the way the air between them had thickened, become a thing with weight.