A Boy Who Forgot How to Smile
The night was cold, but not enough to make anyone freeze—just cold enough to remind people they were alone.
A boy walked down the empty street, his hands buried deep in his jacket pockets. His hair was messy, uncombed, and his eyes held a tiredness that didn't belong to someone his age.
His face had forgotten how to smile.
Streetlights buzzed softly as he passed. The few shops that remained open this late cast warm glow onto the wet pavement. He entered a small grocery store, bought a few snacks with exact change, and left without saying a word. No one greeted him. No one noticed.
He continued walking, slow, like someone with nowhere to go. On the way, he glanced up at a window glowing from a two-story house.
Inside, a family sat around a dinner table. Laughter. Bright eyes. Clinking spoons. A world he had once known—but now felt like a memory stolen from someone else.
He looked away.
As he stepped off the curb, something slipped from his jacket and fluttered to the ground.
Thup.
He knelt and picked it up. A worn plastic ID card.
The name stared back at him:
> Name: Alan West
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Etc.
Alan stared at it for a moment too long, as if hoping the letters might change. Like maybe, just maybe, the card would tell him who he was.
But it didn't.
He exhaled through his nose, slid the ID back into his pocket, and continued walking.
Not knowing this would be the last time he'd ever walk those streets again.
It wasn't normal. Shadows of colour twisted across the clouds, streaks of light bending and folding in impossible angles. The stars flickered, some vanishing, others burning brighter than they should. The air itself seemed heavy, charged with strange electricity.
A chill ran down his spine. He stopped, staring upward. The world around him felt unreal, silent in a way that pressed against his chest. Something was coming—something he didn't understand. Something that would change everything.
And in that moment, as the wind whispered through the empty streets, he felt it: the impossible was about to begin.