đź“– Rise Beyond Shadows
Chapter 13 – The Rain That Spoke
The rain always came hardest at night.
Seven-year-old Aiden sat on the orphanage steps, the stone beneath him slick and cold. Water dripped from his dark hair, sliding down his thin face, but he didn't flinch. He was used to it—the hunger in his stomach, the chill that rattled his bones, the voices behind the wooden door that never quite closed.
Tonight, the voices were sharper.
"He's too reckless," hissed a woman's voice. "Always running wild, climbing trees, fighting with the other boys."
"He'll never amount to anything," another agreed. "Mark my words, that child is nothing but trouble."
Aiden pressed his knees tighter to his chest. He knew they were talking about him. They always were. His fists clenched, fingernails digging into his skin as if pain could block the words.
"Some kids just aren't meant to rise above," the caretaker finished coldly. "He'll grow into nothing. You'll see."
The words cut deeper than the storm.
For a moment, Aiden wanted to scream, to burst into the room and prove them wrong with the sheer force of his rage. But he was small. Skinny. Powerless. The rain swallowed his voice before it could ever reach anyone.
So he sat there, teeth chattering, eyes stinging. Then he lifted his head. Lightning split the sky, illuminating the yard in a blinding flash, and Aiden whispered into the storm.
"I'll prove them wrong." His voice trembled, but the words felt heavy, important. "I'll prove I'm not nothing. I'll prove I'm the best."
Thunder answered, rolling like laughter from the heavens. Aiden didn't care. His vow had been spoken, and even if no one else believed it, he did.
That night, the storm became his witness.
Years later, the memory returned again and again, like a scar that refused to fade. Every challenge, every trial, every rival—Aiden carried that vow in his chest. The boy in the rain had spoken, and the man he would become was bound to answer.