Innocence Waning: Part 1 (Rebirth of Innocence)

Sixteen-year-old Chezdon Morrison is not discovering himself. He is already in motion, and he does not know where it leads.Melbourne is not a backdrop. It is a living thing, neon-lit, cold-breathed, full of laneways that offer exactly what you shouldn't want. Chezdon moves through it with the easy confidence of someone who has never had to question the ground beneath him. Privileged, restless, and quietly certain that the rules applying to everyone else are more like suggestions.But something is already shifting.The people he trusts begin to occupy different positions than he thought. Desire stops feeling like curiosity and starts feeling like gravity. Every choice arrives small and leaves larger than expected. And the city keeps offering, and Chezdon keeps accepting, and neither of them is keeping count.His best friend is famous. His father is absent in the particular way that money makes possible. And somewhere underneath all of it, there is a version of Chezdon he hasn't met yet, one that is being assembled from every decision he tells himself doesn't matter.Nothing about this is random. Nothing about it is reversible.Innocence Waning Part 1 is where it begins. Not where it ends. Read more