The pen danced softly across the page, her hand steady but graceful.
Kael's sister sat at the worn wooden table, hunched slightly forward, scribbling the last lines of a letter she knew would never be sent. A soft smile curved her lips, the kind that only came in rare, quiet moments.
The room was small. Faded. It smelled faintly of baked bread and lavender soap, the little comforts they clung to.
From the doorway, Kael peeked in, hugging the frame with one arm. His grin was crooked and boyish, full of mischief and curiosity.
"You're writing another letter?" he asked, stepping in with bare feet that made no sound.
She looked up. Her eyes lit up in that way they only did for him. "Of course," she said gently. "Just because no one's out there to read them… doesn't mean I'll stop writing."
Kael padded over and leaned on the table, his wide eyes scanning the page. "What'd you write this time?"
She didn't answer right away. She folded the letter with care—like it was something sacred—and tucked it into a little wooden box filled with other forgotten messages. Then she reached out and ruffled his hair, her fingers lingering for just a second too long.
"I wrote that tomorrow will be better," she said softly. "That we'll make it through. That you're growing too fast and your shirts don't fit anymore."
Kael blushed, puffing his cheeks. "I'm not that big."
"You're taller than last week," she teased, poking his side. "Soon I'll have to look up at you."
He shook his head firmly. "Never. You'll always be the big sister."
She laughed—a small, breathy sound. But there was something hidden in it. Something fragile.
"Exactly," she whispered. "Which means I'll always be here to protect you. Always, okay? No matter what happens."
Her fingers brushed a strand of hair from his face and lingered on his cheek. And for a moment, everything was still. The world outside didn't matter. It was just them, two broken pieces trying their best to fit.
Kael leaned into her touch, not knowing it would be one of the last. Not knowing that promises, no matter how fiercely made, can still be stolen in the night.
****
CRASH.
Glass exploded like gunfire. Wood splintered with a sickening snap.
Her smile vanished.
The front door burst open, crashing into the wall with the force of a storm. Heavy boots thundered into the house. Voices followed. They were low and guttural, barking commands that reeked of control and cruelty.
She didn't hesitate. She threw herself in front of Kael, spreading her arms, shielding him with her entire body. "Don't move," she whispered, her voice low and trembling. "Stay behind me. Don't say a word."
But Kael couldn't stay still. Not when he saw the gloved hands grab her. Not when they shoved her against the wall. Not when she screamed.
"No—NO, PLEASE!" she begged, thrashing wildly in their grip. "HE'S JUST A CHILD! TAKE ME INSTEAD—"
Kael saw red.
He launched forward without thinking, flailing his little fists against them, his heart pounding. "GET OFF HER!" he screamed, every part of him shaking.
He didn't care that he was small. He didn't care that they were giants, masked and armed and merciless.
All he saw was her face, twisted in fear.
He hit one of them in the leg. Bit another's arm. Kicked, screamed, thrashed—
Then came the first blow.
A heavy boot to his ribs. Then another.
And another.
****
He gasped, the wind knocked out of him. Blood welled on his tongue. It was hot and bitter. And his ribs hurt too much.
He couldn't speak. He couldn't even cry out—
He could only choke.
"KAEL!" her voice cracked, shattered by panic. It was agony just watching her, her body twisting, straining against the men who held her like she was something to be subdued, not someone.
"STOP!" she screamed, raw and frantic. "STOP, PLEASE—HE'S JUST A LITTLE BOY! DON'T HURT HIM!"
But they didn't stop.
Kael's tiny body writhed beneath them, curling tighter and tighter with each blow. Blood seeped from his lips, his ribs hurting under every kick. But even more unbearable than the pain… was the sound of her voice, breaking for him.
She fought like hell.
Her arms tore free for a moment and she lunged at the closest one, her fingers finding his face, digging into it with everything she had left. She raked her nails across his skin with animal desperation, leaving jagged marks that would take days to heal.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" she shrieked, her eyes wild with rage and fear. "HE'S ALL I HAVE! DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!"
The man she clawed staggered back with a snarl, cursing through gritted teeth. Fresh blood slashed across his cheek in long, angry lines. He cupped a hand to the wound then, without hesitation, he struck her across the face.
CRACK.
The slap rang out like a gunshot.
Her head whipped sideways, her braid snapping through the air like a whip. Her knees buckled beneath her for a second.
Kael watched it all. His breath caught in his throat.
It was like the world froze. The slap wasn't just violence. It was humiliation. Control. A message: stay in your place.
"You… You hit her…" Kael wheezed through the blood in his mouth. His voice was barely there, but it burned. "Brain-dead b*stards, you hit my sister…"
He tried to crawl toward her, but his limbs wouldn't respond.
She blinked through the sting, her head still tilted from the force of the slap. The sharp imprint of his glove burned red across her cheek, and blood welled at the corner of her mouth. Her lips trembled—but her eyes…
Her eyes did not fall. They lifted slowly, fiercely, locking onto him with a fire that refused to die.
And then—
She spat.
A thick streak of blood hit his cheek, mixing with the claw marks she'd left moments earlier.
****
The room went still for a breath.
"I don't care who you are," she hissed through clenched teeth, her voice ragged but full of venom. "You're not touching him again."
The man flinched, stunned for just a second like he hadn't expected resistance, not like this. Not from someone so young. Not after the slap. Not after everything.
Kael saw it too.
Even through his haze of pain, something inside him ignited at the sight of her bloodied, trembling, but still standing. Still defying them. His sister, who always stood between him and the world's cruelty.
His sister, who had just been struck but spat in the face of it. And for a heartbeat, even the monsters holding her faltered...
But then the fury returned.
The grip on her arms tightened. She was yanked backward with even more force now, her heels scraping the floor, nails clawing uselessly at the wood as she was dragged into the shadows.
She didn't stop fighting.
She kicked. Bit. Fought like something feral. Her arms thrashed. Her feet struck anything that moved. She didn't care what they did to her—
As long as they left her brother alone.
****
But there were too many.
They grabbed her wrists. Yanked her back by the arms.
She screamed again, not from pain this time but from helplessness. A sound no child should ever have to hear from the one person who made the world feel safe.
They dragged her down the hallway.
She reached for him.
Her fingers scraped the floor, trying to stay, trying to hold on—to anything. But the floor gave her nothing.
Her nails bent. Then snapped.
His vision blurred as they dragged her into the dark, her cries trailing like torn silk through the air.
"KAEL!"
He watched, through eyes that barely stayed open, as the last of her braid disappeared around the corner.
Her voice was the last thing he heard.
It was broken.
And then… she was gone. Swallowed by the dark at the end of the hallway.
****
Kael lay there, shaking, with bruised ribs and blurring vision. But even through the haze of pain, that slap echoed.
Over.
And over.
And over again. Even broken, she stood taller than any of them. And somehow… so did he. He forced himself upright.
One hand gripped the wall. The other pressed against his ribs. Each breath was a blade.
But he stood.
He had to.
He stumbled forward, down the corridor—past the broken table where they'd laughed just moments ago. Past the blood-stained floor. Past the shattered lamp that had once lit their evenings.
And then… the portraits.
****
They lined the walls, untouched.
Kael stopped only for a second. Just enough to glance at them.
His tiny face beamed in those pictures, joyful, carefree. And beside him, always, her.
She was tall, so much taller than him back then. He barely reached her waist, a little shadow clinging to her side wherever they went. She might've been fifteen or sixteen in those photos, but she already carried herself with the quiet strength of someone older. Her long white hair was braided neatly down her back, and her light blue eyes held a warmth that reached straight through the glass and wrapped around his ribs like a hug he hadn't realized he missed.
Even frozen in the frame, she looked like home.
They were orphans.
Their parents had died in a fire. A real one. Not some metaphor wrapped in memory. Flames that devoured their home while he and his sister had watched helplessly from the road. Too late. Too small. And too scared to do anything about it. The screams never left his dreams.
After that, it had just been them.
She had become everything to him—his protector, his parent, the final thread holding his sanity together in a world that offered no second chances.
In the portrait, her arms wrapped around him. Her smile was wide and full of mischief. Her eyes—eyes that told him, even when the world fell apart, she would never leave.
But they had taken her anyway.
He limped forward, pain gnawing at his limbs. His breath hitched as he reached the door.
Outside, the street was soaked in moonlight. Fog curled like smoke along the pavement. Then—
VROOOM.
An engine screamed to life, snarling through the silence like a beast awakened.
Kael turned just in time to see a black car speeding away. Through the rear window, barely visible through the haze and speed, a girl pounded weakly against the glass. Her wrists were bound. Her mouth was taped shut.
Hissister.
"NO!" Kael yelled. "WAIT! COME BACK!"
He took off running, faster than ever.
"I'm coming! HOLD ON!" His bare feet struck the pavement, raw and relentless, but he didn't stop. How could he?
When you see someone you love—your only family—ripped away, shoved into the back of a car like a memory being erased… would you stop?
Would you hesitate?
Not when it's your sister.
Not when she's all you have left.
"SIS! PLEASE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice splintering against the rush of wind.
Through the rear window, he could see her eyes wide with terror, shimmering with tears and locked on his, pleading. She was shaking her head, mouthing words he could not hear…
Words he wasn't willing to. Whatever she had to say, she could tell him herself once he'd gotten to her.
Once she was safe. Once this nightmare was over and he could hold her again, feel her heartbeat and know she was real.
Kael poured every ounce of strength into his legs. His lungs were burning, his vision blurring, the world narrowing to that one car, that one window, and his sister reaching for him from the other side.
The car was right there!
He was close enough to taste the dust trailing in its wake. Close enough to believe he could catch it.
Just a few more steps… just a heartbeat more… and he'd be within reach. Just a few steps more—
Then, it happened.
A blinding flash of headlights tore in from the side, sudden and merciless. A horn screamed, sharp as panic. But it came too late.
CRASH.
Metal met flesh with sickening finality.
The world flipped sideways in a burst of sound and light.
He had failed.
The words hit harder than the car ever could.
He hadn't been fast enough. Hadn't been strong enough. He hadn't reached her.
And now she was gone. Ripped from him while he bled into the street like he was nothing.
His body slammed against the hood like a lifeless ragdoll, the impact stealing the air from his lungs in one single, violent gasp. Then everything blurred. The world spun sideways as he hit the ground, his bones grinding, and skin peeling against the unforgiving road.
Blood pooled beneath him, slow at first, then spreading into a widening halo that painted the pavement in a grim, steady silence.
The black car didn't stop.
Didn't slow.
Didn't care.
It vanished into the mist like a ghost, taking the only person that mattered with it.
People screamed. Phones came out. One flash popped, bright and thoughtless. The world unraveled into noise and chaos.
But Kael could only look at the place where the car had vanished, where his world was taken from him... His vision tunneled, locked on the shrinking outline of the taillights. A nightmare he could not outrun.
Inside—
Through the dirty window—
His sister looked back. Her face crumpled in horror. Her mouth opened in a scream he could barely hear.
"No… Kael… KAEL!"
Her voice tore through him like glass.
Then—
Darkness.
It swallowed him whole.
****
Kael woke with a scream.
His chest heaved. His heart pounded. Sweat clung to his skin, but the fire... the blood...
They were gone.
And so was she.
He pressed a hand to his chest, reaching for a wound that wasn't there. Only memory. A ghost that refused to fade.
It still hurt, like something had been ripped out of him.
"...Sis…"
The word slipped out, dry and broken.
No answer came. Only silence.
The dream was over. But the pain was infact real.
The room was still and dusty. The air, so thick it stung his throat.
His whole body ached. His arms trembled. His chest throbbed. His legs wouldn't move.
He felt trapped inside his own skin.
The bandages wrapped around him were of no help. They were tight and scratchy. Some were stiff with dried blood while others were still wet.
But even with all that pain—
None of it compared to the emptiness inside him. The part of him that mattered most…
Was gone.
He had failed her.
And some failures never go away. They just stay with you, no matter how much time passes.
****
Above him, the ceiling looked old and tired with cracked wooden boards stretched across it. A broken fan spun slowly in the middle, creaking with every turn, like it was barely holding on.
Kael blinked.
He had no idea where he was. He blinked again through the haze, tried to sit up, and regretted it instantly—
Agony lanced through his midsection. Still, he forced his head up.
That's when he saw it.
"Huh…?"
Floating in the air above him, in sharp, unnatural yellow:
:: [ You have several unread messages ]
He blinked hard and rubbed his eyes. It was still there.
:: [ You have several unread messages ]
Kael didn't move. He didn't dare breathe. He didn't need to check, for he already knew.
It was The System again.
Always The System. Every single time. Every passing day. The cursed thing never whispered comfort, only commands.
Only pain.
It didn't care how broken he was. Didn't care how many scars it carved into his skin, or how many pieces of himself he lost to follow its orders.
It just kept speaking. And he kept bleeding.
Every time those jagged words appeared, something inside him fractured a little more.
A new ghost. A new grief.
A new reason to wish he hadn't survived at all.
He pressed his palm to his forehead, kneading the dull throb behind his eyes. God, he was so tired.
Delirium?
Psychosis?
Maybe. Or maybe this was just what happened when you lost everything, and the only thing that ever called your name was a voice that didn't care whether you lived or died.
Post-traumatic stress.
That's what they called it. That was the clinical term, right? Soldiers hearing phantom screams. Survivors trapped in moments that never ended.
Maybe this was his version. His scarlet letter. His plague. His curse. The words above him, a parting gift from the alley where he should've died.
Where he did die—if only for a moment.
But something about it didn't quite add up.
His gaze dropped slowly to his abdomen.
He remembered the blow, the way that monstrous hand had punched clean through him. The blood. The sound it made, spilling out his mouth like a faucet left running… The shock of it.
And yet…
Now it was closed. Tightly bandaged, yes, but not as destroyed as it should be.
He could feel it. His organs were still intact, his body was still whole. As though time had rewound just enough to spare him, but not enough to make him forget.
Something wasn't right. Too many things were happening all at once.
And still, those glowing words hovered above him.
He hated them. God, he hated them.
But maybe they had answers.
Maybe they held something—anything—that made sense.
His hand trembled as it lifted.
He didn't want to do this. Not again.
But maybe it didn't matter what he wanted.
Maybe it never did.
He reached toward them. His voice cracked out, barely a whisper:
"…Confirm."
That's when—
"Confirm what?" The voice cut through the air like a blade.
He turned, startled.
And there she was. A girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen.
Messy orange hair framed a face scattered with freckles. Her eyes were cold and untrusting, studying him like he was some kind of strange, wounded animal that might still have teeth.
She sat in a wooden chair across the room, one leg slung lazily over the other. Her arms, he noticed… rested atop a short sword. A cloak hung behind her. Her boots were cracked with mud and dried blood crusted the hem of her pants.
She looked like she belonged in a warzone, not a room with the broken.
Kael froze.
She must've seen him mumbling to the ceiling, reaching for something that wasn't quite there. And now, she was staring at him like he was a madman.
"…Uhm…" he mumbled, words failing him entirely.
What was he supposed to say? That a System only he could see was demanding things from him?
That he hated it, feared it, but still obeyed it?
There was no way to explain any of it.
Not yet.
Not to her. Not even to himself.
< Chapter Eighteen > Fin.