The door crashed open.
A dozen figures stormed in, their boots heavy, their torches filling the small room with choking smoke.
The mother screamed, clutching her twin boys close. The children pressed against her legs, trembling, their small hands gripping her dress as if she alone could hold back the world.
One of the intruders stepped forward.
He wore a mask—blank, emotionless, faceless. His voice was calm, too calm.
"It is time. One of your sons must be given. The experiment demands it."
The mother's lips trembled, her eyes wild.
"Why?" she sobbed. "Why my children? What have they done?"
The masked man tilted his head, as though her question was silly.
"Because they are twins. Two halves of the same flesh. You will choose… or lose them both."
The words fell heavy.
The air seemed to vanish from the room.
The boys whimpered, clinging tighter. One whispered, "Mama, don't let them take us." The other buried his face in her dress, shaking.
The mother froze, trapped between terror and love, her nails digging into her sons' shoulders. Her eyes darted between them, as though searching for some impossible answer.
And then—
She pushed one child forward.
"Take him!" she screamed. Her voice cracked like shattering glass.
"Take him… and leave us alone!"
The boy stumbled forward, wide-eyed. For a moment he thought it was a mistake, a nightmare, that surely his mother would pull him back into her arms.
But her hands did not reach for him.
The masked men seized him, dragging him toward the door. His small feet scraped the floor, his voice breaking.
"Mama… Mama! Please!"
The mother turned away, clutching her other son, her sobs muffled in his hair.
"Don't worry, Yohan," she whispered, rocking him back and forth. "No one will ever harm you. I promise."
The chosen boy looked back one last time as the door slammed shut. His face was pale, his eyes empty.
In that instant, something inside him died.
It wasn't the strangers who broke him.
It was her.
The only person he believed would never let go.