It was true.
"Sarah was right."
Adam breathed slowly, his chest rising and falling as his eyes lingered on the faces of his brother and mother. his own flesh and blood.
The very people who were meant to love him unconditionally had become the ones tearing him apart.
He stepped quietly into his father's room. A pungent scent of smoke filled the air. His father stood in silence, watching the flames consume Adam's remaining clothes. every last thread that tied him to this place. His father's eyes didn't show remorse, only satisfaction.
Adam stood frozen. What had he done to deserve this?
He had always been kind.
Maybe that had been his greatest weakness.
The hallway seemed longer than he remembered. He walked into his brother Ibrahim's old room. his sanctuary before marriage, their shared haven in youth. The door creaked open to reveal devastation. Ibrahim was inside, destroying everything that once bonded them: the game console they had spent nights playing together, shattered. Framed photos of the two of them. ripped apart and scattered like forgotten memories.
In that moment, something in Adam broke.
No, not just broke, shattered completely.
He felt like an intruder in his own home.
The walls, once a source of comfort, now seemed to push him out with unseen hands.
He left, filled with regret for ever coming back.
Regret for mourning them.
Regret for missing them.
He walked back to his own apartment, the one he shared with Sarah. the only person who had never betrayed him.
Around him, the world was frozen in time.
The people in the streets stood still, unmoving, yet Adam imagined their eyes following him. Their frozen expressions felt laced with ridicule, as though they mocked his blindness, judged his heartbreak.
He shook his head, trying to chase away the illusions, but they only grew louder in the silence.
He reached his apartment. The door shut behind him like the final note of a requiem.
He stood before the mirror.
"I trusted them," he whispered. "They're all liars. And I'm the fool."
Tears welled in his eyes, spilling before he could hold them back.
He raised his fist and slammed it into the mirror.
Glass cracked and rained down.
Blood ran down his knuckles, but he didn't care.
He moved from mirror to mirror, smashing each one.
He didn't want to see anyone, not even himself.
Dizzy, breath shallow, he staggered into the bedroom.
There she was.
Sarah.
Lifeless.
Still.
The only one who hadn't betrayed him.
The only one who had ever loved him.
The only one who had died.
Adam collapsed to his knees beside her, sobbing like a child.
He clutched his bleeding hand, trying to stop the crimson flow.
But then he let go, and reached for her hand instead.
The pain in his hand was nothing compared to the torment tearing through his chest.
His vision blurred.
The dizziness grew stronger.
His body fell to the floor beside hers.
Fingers intertwined.
This house, once full of laughter, had become a cradle for nightmares.
A woman's body.
A broken man beside her.
A final embrace beneath the silence.
And then...
Adam lost consciousness.