PART 3: The Dream That Shouldn't Exist
Darkness wrapped around me like cold water. No sound. No breath. No weight.
Just… nothing.
Then suddenly—
A voice.
Soft. Fragile. Echoing as if it were coming from the bottom of a forgotten well.
"Bhai…"
Sin Kyo's voice.
My heart froze before it could even beat again.
I wasn't awake.
I wasn't fully asleep.
I was in that place between dreams and something else—
A place that should not exist for humans.
The ground beneath my naked feet pulsed like a heartbeat.
Black smoke rose like torn shadows, twisting into strange shapes.
Doors—massive, broken doors—hung in the air.
As if some ancient gates were trying to stay shut… but failing.
I stepped closer.
Whispers leaked through the cracks.
"Lin…"
"Lin Kyo…"
"Let him in…"
The whispers didn't sound human.
They didn't sound alive either.
And then—
A small hand grabbed my wrist.
Sin Kyo.
He was standing beside me… not bloody… not burned… not the way he died.
He looked exactly like he did on the last happy morning we had together—
Tiny, soft hair messy, eyes round, holding his toy in his left hand.
But he wasn't breathing.
I could feel it.
His chest wasn't moving.
"Bhai…" he whispered again, voice trembling. "Tum… hamesha mujhe… chhod kyu dete ho…?"
My throat closed.
I wanted to scream that I never left him.
But my voice refused to come out.
The ground shook violently.
The gates cracked open a little more.
A wave of burning air exploded out, smelling like metal, smoke, and old nightmares.
Sin Kyo's fingers tightened around my wrist.
"Bhai… mat jao…"
His voice broke in the middle.
Like he was fighting to stay real.
I stepped forward to hold him—
But the moment I touched him, his skin turned cold as stone.
His eyes… hollow.
Empty.
Almost dead.
"Why…" he whispered to me, the same way he whispered during the explosion, "…why are you… still… alive…?"
My breath stopped.
"Sin—"
A loud bell rang.
No, not a bell.
It was something heavier… more ancient… like a chain breaking.
The dark gates behind him split open wider.
Light—red, burning, unnatural—flooded the world.
Sin Kyo's small form flickered like a candle in storm wind.
"Don't… go…" he whispered again.
But he wasn't talking to me.
He was begging someone else.
Someone on the other side of those gates.
The ground began to collapse.
The dream twisted.
Hands—long, smoky, claw-like—reached out from the cracks, grabbing at my ankles.
For a moment, I couldn't move.
My chest tightened.
My ears rang.
My eyes stung as if they were being pulled open from the inside.
I knew this feeling.
I knew this terror.
This was the same sensation I felt right before the second explosion—
When everything turned white, then red, then nothing.
Suddenly—
Sin Kyo's voice shattered.
"Bhai… bhaago!!!"
His tiny body pushed me backward with strength he never had in life.
I stumbled—
And the moment I fell—
The world tore itself apart.
---
I Woke Up Screaming… But No Sound Came Out
My eyes snapped open.
But only one opened.
The other refused to lift—heavy, burning, bruised.
My entire body felt like cold needles were stuck into my skin.
Sweat drenched my shirt.
My throat was raw.
My left hand trembled so violently that I had to hold my wrist to stop it.
I tried to breathe, but every breath was sharp.
My lungs felt too small, too tight.
For a second, I didn't even remember where I was.
All I could hear was—
BOOM.
The explosion.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Inside my head.
And Sin Kyo's broken voice…
"Why are you still alive…?"
I pressed my palm to my right eye—the one that wouldn't open—and felt the heat.
It was swollen.
Heavy.
As if something inside it had burned.
My hands shook harder.
I tried to scream.
But… nothing.
No sound.
No voice.
Just silence.
My chest tightened more.
My breath became fast and uneven.
I curled forward, holding my stomach, waiting for the world to stop spinning.
This was trauma.
This was panic.
But it felt like something else too—
Like the dream wasn't just a dream.
I felt a strange pain behind my right eye—
As if a mark was forming.
A symbol.
Something I couldn't understand…
Something that felt connected to those broken gates.
---
A Symbolic Moment – The Eye That Carries a Gate
When I finally lifted my right eyelid a little—
Just a sliver—
I saw something in the corner of my blurred vision.
A faint glow.
Not bright.
Not supernatural.
Just… unusual.
As if my eye was remembering the light from that dream.
As if a piece of the gate had followed me out.
The pain pulsed again.
I shut my eye instantly, gasping.
Whatever this was…
It wasn't normal.
But I couldn't tell anyone.
I couldn't even tell myself the truth.
Because deep inside, I already knew—
The dream was not a dream.
It was a message.
A warning.
A beginning.
---
Lin Kyo's Suppressed Scream
My body wanted to cry.
My throat wanted to shout.
My chest wanted to break.
But nothing came out.
Not a tear.
Not a sound.
Just like always.
I had no voice for my pain—
So I picked up the only thing I could trust…
My old diary.
Hands shaking, breath uneven, eye throbbing,
I opened a new page and wrote with a trembling hand:
"I saw him again.
Sin Kyo.
He asked me why I'm alive."
The pen tip dug too hard into the paper.
Ink spread like veins.
But I couldn't stop writing.
I never can.
Because the diary is the only place where my scream exists.
Part 3 — The Aftermath
Lin wakes in his room; initial trauma and the weight of Sin's photo.
Teaser: In the next chapter, explore Lin's struggle with grief and survivor guilt.