Second Chance [3]

There are days when silence feels like a verdict, and the stars glimmer with indifference above where the sun casted a dim glow as if it forgot it was a sun.

It was one of those quiet days.

The kind of day where even the faintest whisper of wind feels like it carries a warning.

Selene had always feared days like this, though she never understood why. She stood on the threshold, watching the courtyard stretch out before her—a lifeless space bathed in a dim daylight.

"They've found us."

Selene's voice still lingered in the air. I heard the words, those three words, but their weight felt distant. I know nothing about this world. I had no idea what she meant.

But the fear in Selene's voice was real.

"Us…?"

I lay on the bed with every inch of me ached from bruises and broken ribs. The pain rooted me in place, and even if I had wanted to move, my body refused.

Outside, the day clung weakly to life. Though it was midday, the sun's light was pale like a dying candle sputtering against the inevitability of darkness. The glow turned even dimmer after the strange rumble moments ago.

Noticing Selene's grim expression, Samza asked.

"Sister, what's happening?"

Selene didn't answer him, but I could hear the panic in her movements. Like the hurried opening and closing of drawers, and the rustle of cloth being stuffed into bags.

Even the birds had fallen silent, as if they, too, felt the dread creeping in.

I closed my eyes, hoping to drown out the sounds of panic. To let the darkness pull me under. But just as I began to drift back into the haze, the door burst open and the air in the room changed.

Selene gasped. "No… not now."

And then I heard them. Footsteps, soft but deliberate, approaching from outside.

And then they appeared.

I forced my eyes open, my vision blurred, struggling to focus on the figure that stood in the doorway. At first, they were only silhouettes blending with the mirage of the room.

There was no rush in their movements, no need to hurry, for they had the certainty of those who knew the world would bend to their will.

They wore hoods, pulled low over their faces, but that was irrelevant. It was their presence that suffocated her. Their robes bore a symbol:

A moon wrapped by a serpent.

I could hear Selene's heartbeat. It was clear that she recognized the symbol they bore.

The De Sauris.

The stories had always painted them as ancient gods, beings who had come from the sky in ages past. Their bodies were human, but covered in scales. But they were not gods. Not anymore. Decades ago, the humans had driven them away—at least, that's what the stories claimed.

At least, that's what Samza told me.

And yet, here they stood, in this dim, dying light, as real as the fear that now gripped my chest.

Another figure joined the first, and then another. They filed into the room with the slow, deliberate grace of predators circling their prey.

I could hear Samza's breath hitch in his throat, his small body trembling beside his sister. Selene had pushed him behind her, her arms outstretched, as if her slender frame could shield him from them.

The tallest of the figures, the one who had entered first, took a step forward. His hood obscured his face, but I could feel his eyes on me, cold and unfeeling. There was something about his presence that felt suffocating.

"Samza," the figure said. "Come with us."

Samza's grip tightened on Selene's arm, his small fingers trembling.

"I'm scared…" he whispered.

But Selene didn't move. She stood firm, her back straight, her eyes filled with a defiance that was as fierce as it was futile.

"You cannot have him."

The figure tilted his head, as if considering her words, before taking another step forward.

"We do not ask. We take."

And just like that, everything snapped.

Selene lunged forward like a cornered animal fighting for its life. At the same time, a claw that resembled the wild appeared on her hands.

But before she could reach them, the tallest figure raised a hand, and she was thrown back as if struck by an invisible force. She hit the wall with a loud thud and her body crumpled to the floor in a heap.

Samza screamed.

"Sister!"

But she didn't respond. Selene didn't move.

The figure moved toward Samza with his hand outstretched. I wanted to shout. I wanted to scream. I wanted to do anything to stop him. But my body wouldn't listen.

I could only watch as the figure lifted Samza, cradling him in his arms like a fragile doll. Samza's small, frightened face disappeared into the folds of the figure's cloak as his cries muffled by the thick fabric.

And then, without another word, they turned and left, disappearing into the pale light.

For a long moment, the room was silent, only the faint rustling of the wind outside. My mind felt numb. My thoughts were scattered. It felt like they, too, had been carried away by the figures who had just taken Samza.

Everything happened so quickly that I could barely process it.

I heard a faint groan from the corner of the room. Selene.

She was alive.

I forced myself to move and every inch of my body screamed. I managed to drag myself to the edge of the bed, my legs dangling limply over the side as I tried to stand. The room spun, the dim light blurring into strange, distorted shapes, but I pushed forward.

Just as I reached her, the door creaked open again.

My heart stopped.

But it wasn't them. It wasn't the hooded figures who had taken Samza.

It was another boy about the same age as me, but taller. His pale face catched what little light there was. His eyes were sharp, cold, and they landed on me with an intensity that made my skin crawl.

"Neo…"

Selene whispered, but her voice was filled with something that I couldn't quite place. Fear? Recognition? Gratitude? I don't know.

But it didn't matter.

Before she could say anything more, and before she could ask why he was here, fear took hold of her once again. I guess that's what made her legs move before her mind could catch up. She turned and fled, her feet pounding against the earth, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

She didn't look back.

The boy, Neo, didn't look at her as she fled. His eyes were locked on mine, and for a moment, we simply stared at each other. After what seemed like eternity, he took a step forward.

"Lost soul."

The boy whom Selene called Neo whispered. His voice was soft, almost poetic, as though he were reciting a line from some tragic verse.

"Adrift in a sea… what tides have washed you ashore?"

His words hung in the air. I wasn't sure if he was speaking to me or to the empty room itself.

I coughed. "Who… are you?"

Neo's eyes narrowed, a small, humorless smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He leaned down, his face inches from mine, his cold breath ghosting over my skin.

"I am no one."

Neo whispered, his breath too close, a cold tickle against my ear. The words dripped slowly, like poison, seeping into my thoughts, crawling under my skin. It wasn't the words themselves, but the way he said them.

Each syllable was soft, as though caressing the silence between us.

"A traveler, much like you. Lost. Searching. Always searching."

Searching…?

The word barely formed in my mind like a whisper of a thought, and yet it echoed as if he had planted it there. But thinking about it, all my life, I was really searching for something.

Something that would alleviate my boredom.

But in this new world I woke up in, I hadn't even known what I was searching for. Did I still? Or had the need to survive, day by day, eclipsed any thoughts of greater purpose?

Neo's eyes glinted under the faint light. For a moment , it looked like it was the kind of eyes that saw too much. He leaned back slowly in the creaking chair beside me as he had all the time in the world, and I was simply his entertainment.

The silence between us stretched and I found myself trapped in it, drowning in the weight of his presence. The air felt denser that made even a simple breathing harder.

"Searching...?"

I repeated, but aloud, not in my thoughts.

His response was immediate, as if he was expecting me to ask.

"Searching for something to entertain me!"

And then he laughed, a sound that was all wrong in this quiet, oppressive room. It wasn't a laugh born from joy or humor; it was hollow and mocking. A laugh that scraped against the inside of my skull.

"Hmm? I wonder if you'll entertain me."

"..."

I blinked as his laughter rang in my ears long after it had stopped.

The way he said it—entertain me—as if everything, this entire cruel game we called life, was nothing more than a stage for his amusement. And I was a player, though I hadn't agreed to the role.

Neo's smile lingered after the laughter had faded, a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

I swallowed the weight of my own confusion that pressed against my chest.

"You… You're not one of them, are you?"

I wasn't sure who they were, but in this world, everyone seemed to belong to some force greater than themselves. And the thought that Neo might be connected to the figures who had taken Samza.

"No. I'm not one of them."

His gaze lingered as if he could see through me, past the bruises and bandages, past the flesh, down to the core of whatever I had become.

"But that doesn't matter. Not here. Not now."

It doesn't matter…?

What a simple, terrifying thought. Neo's eyes never left me, his presence filling the room in a way that was both unbearable and inescapable.

"And you?"

Finally, he spoke again.

"Who are you?"

It was such a simple question. And yet, it felt like a knife slicing through the fragile threads of my identity, of the person I once was. But now…

Who am I?

For a moment, I couldn't speak. My mouth felt dry, my throat tight. The question echoed in my mind. And the answer—the one I should have had ready, the one that would have reassured me that I was still someone, that I still existed—refused to come.

The truth was, I didn't know.

I don't know the name of this body.

I was Cyan, once. I had been a boy, brilliant, genius, or whatever they said. A boy with a mind that raced ahead of the world around me. A boy that saw patterns where others saw chaos. A boy that solved puzzles before others even knew they existed. A boy that perceived every single thing as boring.

But that was before.

That was a lifetime ago.

That was in a world that no longer belonged to me.

Now, I was nothing but a body bruised and broken, lying in a bed that wasn't mine in a world that felt like a fevered dream.

Now, the term "boring" or "predictable" doesn't apply to this world.

"I don't know."

I whispered, the words barely making it past my lips.

Neo didn't react immediately. He sat there, still and quiet, as though he had expected this answer all along. Perhaps he had. Perhaps he knew more about me than I did.

After what felt like an eternity, he sighed, a sound that was almost wistful.

"Of course you don't. None of us ever do."

"…None of us ever do?"

Neo stood slowly, and the chair creaked as he did. His gaze lingered on me for a moment longer, and I thought I saw something in his eyes…

Something that wasn't mockery like earlier.

"Rest." Neo sighed. "There's time yet."