We're constantly bombarded with stories of gridlock, partisan vitriol, and a seemingly endless cycle of political point-scoring. It's easy to become numb to it all, to throw up our hands and say, "It's always been this way," but that’s a dangerous fallacy. We’re not just witnessing partisan politics as usual; we’re witnessing a systemic breakdown.

Annabella herself was a study in quiet anxiety. Her movements were hesitant, her gaze often darting to unseen corners. Her undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia and anxiety disorder were heavy burdens, making social interaction a tightrope walk over a chasm of fear. She was also beginning to suspect, though she’d never breathed the words aloud, that her vision wasn't quite right. Sometimes, the world shimmered at the edges, patterns danced in the periphery, and colors seemed to bleed into one another. Manageable most days, a mere annoyance. Other days, the hallucinations intensified, making reality feel like a fragmented, unreliable collage.