On that day—the day everything changed—Arthur lay in his small apartment, teetering on the edge of something he couldn't quite name. He wasn't sure if it was depression, madness, or just the numbness that came from wearing a mask too long. Each passing day chipped away at his sense of self, eroded by the fake smiles and hollow routines he'd forced himself to adopt just to survive.
He didn't understand how people did it—how they moved through this world pretending, hiding, lying to themselves and each other. It all felt like some cruel joke he wasn't in on.
He lay there, staring blankly at the ceiling, until—
BOOM.
The walls rattled. The floor trembled. Glass somewhere shattered. Another explosion followed—louder, closer. Then came the screaming. Piercing, desperate, real.
Arthur's body jolted upright, instinct taking over. Panic surged through him as he scrambled off the bed and darted into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him. His breath came in short gasps. What was happening? Was it a war? A bombing? The end?
And yet… in the middle of the chaos, something stirred deep inside him. A heartbeat that felt different. Stronger. His hands were shaking, but not entirely from fear. His chest pounded, not just with terror—but something else. Something like… exhilaration.
As the sounds of the world unraveling filled the air outside, a crooked, involuntary smile crept across Arthur's face.
He didn't understand why.
But some part of him—buried under months of numbness—was finally waking up.