The air was still.Not quiet — still.The kind of stillness that makes your skin crawl. The kind of silence that feels like the whole world is holding its breath just to forget you existed.
Ethan's body lay motionless on the stone floor of the ruined temple — the same place his so-called comrades had left him.
His cloak was torn. His ribs ached. Blood dried against his skin like rusted chains.But none of that hurt. Not really.
It was the space in his chest.The emptiness where love used to live.
"I'll come back for you, I swear."—Irelia's voice, soft and trembling.
She had looked back as the monsters approached. Just once.
And then she ran.
Just like the others.
He had called their names.
Luca.Irelia.Kaien.Master Ronin.
But the only response was the wind, howling through broken pillars, mocking him.
He remembered screaming.Screaming until his throat tore raw.He remembered crawling through the blood, hoping they would hear.
They didn't.
No one turned around.
No one even hesitated.
"I was supposed to be one of them," he whispered, voice shaking like dying embers."I trained with them. I bled for them. I would've died for them..."
He laughed then.A hollow sound, barely human. It echoed through the ruins like a ghost crying out for something it would never have again.
The sky above began to darken — a cruel contrast to the light his heart once carried.
Rain began to fall.First a drizzle. Then a storm.
Each drop like a nail driving deeper into him.
He didn't move.Didn't flinch.Didn't even blink.
Why should he?
The rain could drown him.The earth could swallow him.It would still hurt less than what they did.
"The world doesn't care about broken things."
That's what Master Ronin used to say.
Now Ethan finally understood.
He wasn't a warrior.He wasn't a chosen one.He wasn't even a person to them anymore.
He was a mistake they buried.A memory they were ashamed of.An inconvenience they left behind so the story could move on without him.
He tried to remember his mother's face.
He couldn't.It had been so long since he'd seen her, even before the academy.
He tried to remember what it felt like to be held.To be told he mattered.To be hugged without it being a strategy or a manipulation.
Nothing.Just more silence.
"Why am I still alive?""Why… didn't I die with my dignity intact?"
The temple around him crumbled piece by piece, just like his heart had.
He sat up slowly, pain screaming through every bone.
There was no point.No destination.No path forward.
But lying there like a discarded dog felt even worse.
If the world wanted to forget him — then he'd make sure it regretted ever knowing him.
But not yet.
He wasn't ready.He was still too broken to even hate.
"I just wanted someone to love me back...""Was that too much?"
His fingers clenched around the shard of his broken weapon.Not for defense.Not for vengeance.Just something to hold on to — something sharp enough to remind him he was still breathing.
The wind howled louder. The temple moaned as the storm grew stronger.It was like the world itself was trying to wash him away — erase the last trace of him from its memory.
"Go ahead," he whispered, lifting his eyes to the sky."Forget me like they did."
Tears mixed with the rain. But unlike the storm, they weren't temporary.
They were years in the making.
Years of being second.Of being overlooked.Of smiling while his heart cracked deeper every day.
He didn't want revenge.He didn't want power.
Not yet.
All he wanted —was to be missed.
Even just once.Even for a single second.
But no one would cry for him.
Because when the world moved on...It didn't even notice he was gone.