His breathing quickened, his body twisted, and his mind tried to pull him out of that horrible nightmare. His heart hammered against his chest as if it wanted to shatter its cage and break free.
At that moment, Aiden's car stopped in front of the dark house, as if a calm before a storm.
The mother opened the car door with force, her heart a few steps ahead of her in anxiety. Her eyes searched for a glimmer of reassurance amidst the tangled shadows in her mind. She got out quickly, as if the ground were burning under her feet, then rushed toward the house door with a mix of fear and hope.
She reached out to knock on the door... but she stopped. Her grip slowly loosened.
The door was unlocked.
She grasped the cold doorknob and turned it with a tremble, then hurried inside, her heart nearly tearing from her chest.
The house was silent. Frightening. Her quickened breaths were the only thing breaking the silence.
She ascended the wooden stairs as if something unseen were leading her, an invisible but felt force—a mother's instinct.
She slowly opened the door to Arin's room, and a faint light from the hallway streamed in.
She ran to him. Knelt beside him. Reached out to touch his forehead.
Behind her, Aiden was climbing the stairs with measured steps, as if calculating every moment precisely, trying to prevent a new fracture.
When his mother touched him, his features froze for a moment.
Then he began to move slowly, as if being pulled from a heavy nightmare, from the bottom of a dream blurred by so much pain. He opened his eyes slowly, his vision hazy as if the light was stinging him.
He said in a hoarse voice, barely audible:
"Mom... how... how did you get here?"
At that moment, Aiden appeared behind her, standing silently.
The mother stood there, silent, looking at Arin as if she were seeing a shadow of her son, not his true self.
Her eyes were filled with many words, but she didn't speak.
Words stuck in her throat, heavy as embers, unable to come out.
Her gaze carried everything: fear, pain, regret, and even reproach, but she said nothing. No reproach now.
Only a mother seeing her son's ruin... and not knowing where to begin to put him back together.
Arin sat silently, his head bowed, his hands on his knees, while his mother's and Aiden's gazes intersected above him like invisible knives.
But he didn't look at them directly... he was somewhere else.
Inside, he wasn't in this room.
He was standing in the middle of a cracked chessboard.
The ground beneath his feet was made of squares the clear blue of the sky with light clouds and dark bloodstains.
The squares were shattered, as if the ground were falling apart piece by piece.
The pawns were scattered, some broken, and some had their necks snapped as if they were symbols of those who had left because of him or for his sake.
The Queen—the one who represents hope, strength, protection—was lying on her side, her head broken.
The King stood, but he was fragile... a hollow stone, as if the wind could blow him over.
No sound, only the echo of silence.
Then his gaze shifted to Aiden.
Aiden was still, but his eyes were not.
Those eyes held something...
Something Arin knew. Something left unsaid.
A secret that still hung in the air between them.
There was something...
Between the three of them... an unspoken secret.
But it was alive. Breathing. Standing in the corner, watching silently.
Arin's eyes returned to the ground.
He wasn't ready to talk.
And he wasn't ready to hear the truth either.
But he knew...
The shattered board in his mind wasn't just an illusion... but a reflection of something real, a danger.
Silence filled the space until everything could be heard—Arin's tense breaths, the ticking of the clock on the wall, and the trembling of his mother's hand, which she dared not touch him with.
Then, Aiden broke the silence with his deep, calm voice, like a faint light in a dark room.
But his words were like knives, cutting through the space relentlessly:
"Arin... she was looking for you. That's why I brought her here."
He paused for a moment, then turned, his voice dropping as if he were dropping the truth to the ground:
"It seems... she can't lose her only son, just as she lost the one before him."
Everyone fell silent.
The mother's eyes widened in shock, but she didn't move.
And Arin... he didn't even blink.
Aiden moved toward the door. His steps were steady, without haste, but each one carried the weight of years of unspoken secrets.
Outside, in front of the pharmacy,
Sera was sitting on the edge of the curb, where the pavement still held the warmth of the sun that had just set, but the air wasn't suffocating...
Instead, a beautiful, light summer breeze brushed against her face, caressing her pain.
The leaves of the nearby trees rustled softly.
Some of her hair fell across her cheek, and she lifted it with her fingertips,
Then she looked up at the sky, its stars shining like scattered glass beads on blue velvet.
She opened her phone and looked at the time.
Then she leaned her head back against the wall behind her.
She closed her eyes and inhaled the summer night air, mixed with the scent of warm earth and sleeping plants.
Then the headlights of a car appeared from the end of the road.
Every beat of her heart quickened...
She stood up, her heart a few steps ahead of her feet.
As soon as the car stopped and Aiden got out, she rushed to him.
She hugged him as if she were taking shelter from all of life.
Her tears fell silently, but the breezes were a witness to them.
Aiden didn't speak first.
He ran his hand across her cheek, which had cooled slightly in the air.
Then he wiped her tears with his fingertips,
And said with a calmness befitting a summer night like this:
"If you want to cry... do it when I'm with you."
Then he hugged her again,
While the breezes surrounded them, as if they were embracing their sorrow too.
And he said gently, but with an unbreakable resolve:
"I won't let anyone... make my only hope cry."