July 22, 2005 — it began like a perfect day. A joyful family was getting ready for a friend's birthday party. Laughter echoed through the house as they dressed, gathered their things, and headed out together. The mood was light, the excitement real.
At the party, the kids played, ran around, and soaked in the fun. Among them was Nix, a curious 15-year-old boy who watched everything around him — especially his parents. He noticed them drinking, laughing a little too hard, and growing more irritated the longer they stayed. He didn't fully understand it, but something felt… off.
When the party was over, the family got back into the car. Though the father had been drinking, he insisted on driving. The car swerved slightly as they made their way home. Nix sat in the backseat, tired, quietly watching the world blur by.
Suddenly, the father leaned forward, squinting at something in the distance.
"Do you see that?" he asked, voice sharp with confusion.
The mother turned to look.
Then came the panic.
The father's eyes widened — a figure stood ahead, right in the road. A man. His hands were engulfed in flames.
In a moment of fear and disbelief, the father lost control. The car veered violently.
CRASH.
Metal twisted. Glass shattered. The night fell silent.
Emergency crews arrived quickly, racing to rescue the family from the wreck. They found the mother unresponsive — she had passed. The father was unconscious, slumped over the wheel, and Nix lay in the backseat, still and silent.
They were rushed to the hospital.
Hours passed before the father awoke, screaming in panic. His eyes darted wildly as he shouted about a man with fire for hands. But it wasn't just fear that tore through him — it was grief.
He had just realized his wife was gone.
That realization broke something inside him. The guilt, the horror, and the helplessness collided all at once. He thrashed violently, trying to escape the bed, screaming her name, begging for it not to be true.
Nurses rushed in. He tried to harm himself. They sedated him immediately.
When the police arrived to arrest him for driving under the influence, they saw the broken man before them and made a different call — he was sent to a psychiatric hospital instead.
He hadn't just lost control of the car.
He had lost everything.
A few days later, Nix woke up.
He was told what happened — that his mother was gone, and his father had been taken away. He was too young to understand it all. When asked about the man with flaming hands, Nix couldn't respond — he'd been asleep during the drive home. All he remembered was the party and the laughter.
The next day, he was released to a foster home.
That same afternoon, a family arrived at the home looking to adopt. As Nix walked into the room, they saw something in him — something they couldn't explain. As they read his file, one detail stood out: he had been born on the same day, in the same hospital, at the exact same time as their daughter, Aqua.
They took it as a sign.
A coincidence too strange to ignore.
Destiny.