The city was drowned in the constant noise of honking horns, distant voices, the smell of smoke and frying oil coming from some cheap restaurant mixing with the damp cold of the night. Kaelen walked, shoulders slumped, eyes without direction. He just walked.
Once, Kaelen was just one among many: an ordinary human with a job at a large supermarket. He did his work well, even while being constantly overlooked by coworkers who saw him as beneath them. He was invisible. A ghost of himself, drifting between aisles and shelves.
Life had never been kind. His parents had died during a violent outbreak caused by a pandemic that drove many to psychological collapse and death. His only remaining relatives were distant cousins, third-degree, who didn't even know he existed. He lived alone. Grew up alone. And learned to survive on the bare minimum.
Relationships? He tried. Many times. But they always ended in betrayal, abandonment, or indifference. He was always replaced by someone "better." Love was an unfulfilled promise.
His only true companion was a small white kitten with blue eyes, whom he had found abandoned on the cracked concrete streets of the city. She trembled, curled up between the trash and the ruthless movement of the crowd. Seeing her, Kaelen knelt down, gently extending a hand.
— "How could such a beautiful little cat... have no one to adopt or care for you?"
He took her home that very day. He stroked her soft fur, named her Cloud, and from that moment on, she became the only warmth in the grey of his existence. The next morning, he decided to buy cat food. As he prepared to leave, he looked out the window and saw a couple embracing on the sidewalk below, exchanging affection and laughter muffled by the glass.
He quickly looked away, as if the sight hurt.
He left the house with heavy steps, his mind lost in thoughts of what it would be like to have someone real, someone who would stay. Halfway there, heart still bitter, he realized he had forgotten the money. He sighed deeply and turned back, retracing the same streets that now seemed even emptier.
That's when he heard it — a scream.
A woman.
He stopped for a moment. Just another sound in a rotten city, he thought. And kept walking.
Then came the second scream, closer. And right after, a cold whisper in his ear, as if the wind itself had spoken:
— "Help…"
Kaelen stopped again. His eyes searched the alley to his right. The darkness seemed to swallow it whole, but the whisper returned, insistent:
— "Help…"
He stepped in.
Inside the alley, the screams grew louder, more real. On the far side of the shadows, he saw it: a man holding a knife, forcing a woman against the wall. She was crying. Her eyes locked with Kaelen's — a desperate plea for help.
Then the whisper came again:
— "Now…"
Kaelen didn't think. He lunged like a wild animal, unarmed, only fists and explosive adrenaline in his veins. He managed to knock the attacker down; the woman escaped, running. But when Kaelen tried to grab the knife on the ground, the criminal was faster. A slash across his hand. Then blade after blade into his abdomen. The world began to spin. His body wouldn't respond. Blood flowed from his mouth and nose.
— "Try being a hero now, you piece of shit!" — the man shouted before fleeing.
Kaelen collapsed face-down. He tried to crawl, fingers soaking in his own blood. His vision darkened, but something... something approached.
A figure dressed entirely in white.
As it stood before him, Kaelen heard:
— "When you wake... I hope you like this mask."
And then, nothing.No pain.No sound.Only darkness.