Day 0 – The Hotel
The Astralis Grand's lobby glittered with light. Marble floors reflected chandeliers like frozen fire, and the soft piano in the background made time move slower. Becky ran ahead, chasing her own laughter across the glassy tiles. Laurel smiled as she tied a ribbon in her hair, then turned to me — that look that made everything else fade. For a breath, the world was perfect. Just us.
Then the blast came.
A deep, rolling concussion that tore through the walls and turned the chandeliers into raining crystal. The stairwell collapsed under a wave of smoke and heat. I grabbed Laurel's hand, lifted Becky into my arms, and ran through the haze. My only thought — please, just let us out.
The world shrank into a scream of noise and white fire behind my eyes.
When I came to, I saw Kaid Richards standing among the ruins — face cold, movements sharp, eyes like judgment itself.
---
Day 3 – The Hospital (Merged with Day 10 – The Search Begins)
The television in my room called it a success.
"Astralis Grand attack contained. Special Ops credited with swift action."
Kaid's face flickered across the screen beside banners and medals. Beneath that — two civilian names in pale blue letters.
Laurel. Becky.
My hand went through the screen before my mind caught up. Glass scattered like static.
The nurses didn't say anything. Their eyes avoided mine.
The pain that mattered wasn't physical. It was the silence after the explosion — the space where their voices should've been.
They said it was a rescue. A clean operation.
But I'd seen the footage before they buried it — Kaid's unit breaching through the smoke, muzzle flashes cutting the dark.
And then—her dress, Becky's small hand, their bodies falling.
His gun. His hand.
I learned something then: people don't change because they want to. They change because the pain of staying the same becomes unbearable.
I left the hospital with stitches, rage, and the truth that justice was never coming. Reports called it collateral damage. Kaid was commended. I was forgotten.
So I searched.
Bulletins. Classified logs. Field reports. His name — Kaid Richards — bled through every layer of lies.
I found others who'd been left behind by the system. Men who'd seen their worlds torn apart in the name of "orders." They followed because I spoke the language of loss. They obeyed because rage is a compass — it points somewhere even when you're lost.
And mine pointed to him.
---
Day 30 – The Alley
Rain blurred the city lights into streaks of glass and fire. I had watched Kaid for days. The coffee shop. The river walks. The way he smiled like he had earned peace. Then there was Aria — her laugh cutting through the air like something holy. The sight of her beside him made everything tilt.
I stepped out from the shadows. "Remember me?"
He turned, confusion first, then the shift — soldier instincts surfacing like muscle memory.
Aria moved toward him, gentle, unaware of what I'd come to do.
The knife moved before I thought.
Steel. Breath. Blood.
When it was done, she was on the ground, and Kaid's scream tore through the rain. His face collapsed in front of me — not with fear, but with recognition.
The world narrowed to the sound of her breath fading. I thought I'd feel peace. Instead, I felt nothing.
---
Bridge – The Days After
Days passed.
The city became a map of shadows I couldn't escape. Every reflection looked like her face. Every breath felt borrowed. I told myself she deserved it, that Kaid had to know what loss felt like. But the whispers wouldn't stop — murderer, murderer.
Sleep never came. When it did, I saw Laurel's hands reaching through the smoke, Becky's laughter cutting off mid-breath. I had traded ghosts for silence. And then one night, silence ended.
I heard boots. Slow. Heavy. Familiar.
The kind of rhythm you don't forget.
He came.
The Kaid I remembered — the man who took everything from me.
The man who should've died that night.
But somehow, he stood again.
And this time, he was coming for me.
---
The Warehouse
The door didn't break — it shattered.
He walked through blood and smoke, eyes burning like coals in a furnace. My men screamed, shot, begged — and died. I'd seen Kaid fight before, but not like this. This wasn't a soldier. This was something divine and monstrous. He cut through thirty men with two daggers.
When he reached me, he was drenched in their blood.
His gaze pinned me in place.
A grin spread across his face — sad, ecstatic, unhinged.
"Are you afraid?" he asked.
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried through me like thunder.
I trembled. "S-s-spare me…"
"Not enough," he said.
"What?" My voice cracked.
He tilted his head, eyes black and endless. "I want you to feel what she felt — the despair, the pain, the hopelessness."
Then his tone deepened, layered with something not human — as if a god spoke through him.
"You shall know fear."
Pain exploded in my shoulder. My left arm hit the floor. Then my legs broke. I screamed, dragged through blood until we reached the warehouse entrance. My men — the ones I'd called brothers — lay there, lifeless.
Desperation took over. I swung at him with my only good arm, a pitiful strike born from rage and regret. For a moment, I thought I'd hit him. Then my arm snapped, and I fell again.
Kaid looked down, breathing heavy, eyes hollow.
"Did you really think I forgot what I promised you?"
Blood filled my throat. My vision blurred red.
"Kill me," I whispered.
He shook his head. "No. I want you to feel despair from this moment on. You shall stare into the abyss, and you shall live inside it."
He slashed my throat — shallow, deliberate. I couldn't speak, couldn't move.
Then he said, "I've already called the ambulance. You'll live, but not as yourself. Your body will heal, your mind won't. Your bills will be paid, but your benefactor will remain a mystery."
He left me there, broken and bleeding among corpses.
---
Epilogue – The Hospital
I woke up under white lights.
Machines hummed. My throat burned when I tried to speak, but no sound came.
A nurse stood beside me, whispering words I couldn't understand.
Then, faintly, like a voice from beneath the earth, I heard it:
> "I found the best candidate."
And the world went dark again.