I just want everything to stay the same—a life that never changed, a story that never ended. Yet life doesn't give a shit—neither did they.
I still bleed for it...
Do you remember... how happiness used to feel?
Those moments were once fond—now they just dissolve into emptiness.
Why does that warmth slip away, when all that's left are traces?
They crawl into my mind out of nowhere—dragging me.
I keep falling for them—
Even now...
"Goodbye, Axka."
—Those words...
I still hear it sometimes—back to when everything felt fragile.
I wish those weren't the last words I heard...
But it finds its way back to me, every damn step.
I waved to my friends, held it one heartbeat longer.
Our eyes met—an entire lifetime in a single glance.
Then I turned and ran—the city thrummed around me.
I should've felt comfort in the noise, the streets—but the memories drowned it all out.
The sun clung to the edge of the world—
warm, burning bright, like it still believed in permanence. But nothing ever stayed.
The hospital loomed ahead—cold, unyielding.
Sterile walls met soft light. Everything froze—indifferent to life or death.
And as I stepped inside, the present blurred...
...Like I was drifting through time instead of walking forward—
I gazed into the past, and the past also was watching me.
Faint sounds pulled me, led me deeper into the fog...
"—Croak! Croak!"
The raven's sharp call pierced the haze—an echo I didn't know had followed me this far.
Its voice mixed—familiar, yet far—one of many crowding in...
like it came from a story I thought I'd buried.
"—Close your eyes, my child..."
Mom's voice came from some far corner of memory—soft, but laced with fear. A comfort... and a mercy.
A siren wailed faintly in the distance—ghostly, like it remembered too.
"—Promise me, Axka..."
Her voice trembled through the dense—fragile, but it stuck.
Just another that remains—Sometimes louder than my own thoughts.
"...never leave his side. Even the world goes dark, be the light he clings to..."
The words whispered around me, like a sacred oath.
They carried a finality I didn't understand—only that it felt like goodbye.
Then—suddenly—the engine screamed to life.
A flash tore through—then the shot.
Violent. Blinding. Broke me.
"—Hold the goddamn kid!"
The order ripped through the panic—fury barely masked in command.
Voices clashed—screamed—cried...
Like war didn't speak one tongue, but thousands begging for mercy.
Agony tightened—then came the bangs.
One after another.
They swallowed every scream until only the silence remained.
A hollow pulse... that never really stopped.
The departing plane's rumble filled the sky, growing fainter as it left me behind.
"—Please, I just wanna... go home..."
The words slipped out—tearful, desperate—
lost in a place with too many faces and no one to hear.
But there was no home left.
Only recollection—chasing, suffocating.
I need to stop reliving these memories—but I can't...
YOU ARE READING
GAZE - Volume 1: Part 1
FantasyIn a world where supernatural and superpowered beings are rare but real, Axka, a last year high school student from a war-torn homeland, raises his younger brother alone. Unbeknownst to him, his path has been foretold by an ancient prophecy, and he...
