"Ah, this won't last through the month," Kael sighed. His parents had left them some money, but it was all spent on his cancer treatment.
It had been a tough fight, but he survived. Now, he worked multiple part-time jobs cooking, cleaning, sweeping to provide for his 14-year old brother.
"I should get him a chocolate," Kael thought, unaware of the tragedy that had happened while he was at work.
He reached his apartment and stepped inside.
"I'm home," Kael said, taking off his shoes and heading to his brother's room with the chocolate. He knocked. No answer. He knocked again, louder this time.
Still nothing.
He knocked once more. The silence felt wrong.
Panic rising, Kael pushed the door open.
What he saw was worse than anything he could imagine.
His brother's body lay there, stabbed and shot. One bullet in the forehead. Another wound, unclear. Blood soaked the bed.
Kael stared. This isn't real. He's just sleeping. He'll wake up.
Step by step, breath catching, he moved closer.
"No, this can't be happening. You can't be gone. Please…" His voice barely came out.
He dropped to his knees, hands trembling as they reached for his brother's cold skin.
"Wake up."
Only silence answered him.
Tears fell down Kael's face. The blood, the sight it stayed. It etched itself into his mind.
"No," he whispered, shaking his head. "This isn't real."
But it was.
Far away, in a place where time held no meaning, the cold, cruel laughter of the God of Sorrow echoed mocking, distant, eternal.
With a broken sob, Kael's hand found the knife he kept close. The same kind he had used before, when he needed to feel something.
His grip tightened. "If I can't protect you, then what's left for me?"
His vision blurred as he pressed the blade to his own skin. The pain was sharp, real.
One deep cut.
He gasped. The pain grounded him, made him feel in control.
"Maybe, maybe in death, I'll find peace."
With trembling hands, Kael sank to the floor, the knife cutting deeper.
The room darkened.
And the nightmare took him too.
----
SOME WISE WORDS FROM YOUR AUTHOR-SAN
So well this was the life of the mortal Kael who now inhabits his other self- which you guys will know in the next chapter!!!
THIS IS GOING TO BE A EPIC JOURNEY!! I REPEAT IT IS GOING TO BE SO GOOD THAT YOU WILL LOVE IT!!