Chapter 4: Zane’s Eyes

The first time I saw Zane, my gray days took on a different hue. His gaze was intense, filled with a light that contrasted with the darkness I lived in. He was just a boy like me, but his eyes held a strength I couldn't understand. He looked at me as if he could see through my silence, as if he knew everything I kept hidden.

Zane became my first friend, the only person who could make me smile effortlessly. We found refuge in the forgotten corners of the school, where the noise of the world couldn't reach us. He told stories of impossible adventures, of heroes who defeated monsters and found happiness. Sometimes, I closed my eyes and imagined myself as the protagonist of his tales, as someone who would one day escape her prison.

I remember the time he found me crying in the back of the schoolyard. He didn't ask what was wrong; he simply sat beside me and handed me a drawing of two stars in the sky. "So you remember that darkness doesn't last forever," he said with a shy smile. That piece of paper became my most treasured possession.

Zane was the only one who made me forget, even if just for moments, how cruel the world was. But fear lived within me, and though I wanted to be closer to him, my heart always clung to silence, afraid that if I spoke too much, happiness would shatter like everything else in my life.