It was a fleeting sensation, brief yet piercing, as if time itself had slipped away.
A beautiful face I once loved… gone, like grains of sand scattering through my fingers.
The only thing I could remember was my name: Clark.
Amnesia consumed me like a strange awakening; a blend of hope, persistence, and the faint will to live. It felt as though I had surfaced from drowning, gasping for air.
I was clad in rusted battle armor, my head pounding with relentless pain.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a small campsite.
I didn't know how I got there, but the first thing I saw was a man… and the moment my gaze fell on him, unease struck me, sharp and unsettling.
He sat by a small fire, staring at the stars, the cold night breeze stirring the forest around us.
But heavier than the wind was the stench of blood.
Beside me lay a corpse, lifeless, unrecognizable—friend or foe, I couldn't tell.
The man raised his head toward me and spoke calmly:
"Don't worry… I didn't kill him. Found him there with an empty liquor bottle, nothing more."
I placed my hand on my rusty sword, eyes fixed on him with caution.
Despite the dizziness weighing on me, I forced myself to stand.
My voice came out hoarse:
"Who are you? Tell me your name… and why am I here?"
He didn't flinch, didn't bother to move from the fire.
Instead, he said coolly:
"My name is Jin. I woke up earlier in a field of corpses. The only one still breathing besides me… was you. So I brought you here. Maybe you have answers about who I am—before I even ask about you."
His words froze me in place.
"What do you mean… about who you are?" I asked.
He lowered his gaze, as though the weight of the words dragged him down, then muttered:
"I don't know. I feel like I've lost everything… only instinct remains. Survival—that's the only thing keeping me alive."
I hesitated, then sat beside him near the fire.
"I don't trust you… and I don't know you. But I'm the same. I don't know who I am either… or what happened to me."
Jin gave a faint laugh.
"Then we're on the same boat."
He lifted the bottle of liquor, took a long swig, then offered it to me.
I accepted, but my eyes drifted upward. The stars—familiar, somehow, as if I once knew their names. Yet my memory was an empty void.
One question echoed within me: Why? Why can't I remember anything about myself?
Sleep overcame me, and I surrendered to it by the fire.
When dawn broke, hunger gnawed at me, my eyes bloodshot, my stomach empty as if I hadn't eaten in ages.
I searched desperately for food, but found nothing.
Then I turned—and froze.
Jin was sitting there, tearing into the flesh of the soldier's arm with his teeth.
Hunger… ruled him.
Savage instinct… defined him.
Survival… was his only law.
My stomach churned, but the emptiness inside me screamed louder. A monster within whispered: Eat… anything… even a cold corpse.
Before I could move, footsteps echoed nearby.
Jin stopped eating, lifting his head with sharp alertness.
Smoke and the scent of fire drifted toward us.
The footsteps grew closer… and closer…
To be continued…