Chapter 0: An Innocent Bystander

The slap of a shoe against damp pavement echoes like a gunshot in the misty morning air. A shout. A laugh. A cry. I keep my head low, my footsteps soft, blending into the shadows of the brick walls and narrow alleyways. A girl’s sobbing trembles through the schoolyard ahead, thin and broken, like a bird with crushed wings.

It’s not me.

Three boys circle her like sharks, dragging her bag through the mud, taunting her with jeering voices that cling to the cold air. Their laughter is jagged, metallic. I can smell the cheap sweat under their bravado. She doesn’t fight back. Of course, she doesn’t. What would be the point? Against them, she’s nothing. Against them, we’re all nothing.

But that isn’t quite true, is it?

I stop just behind the corner of the school’s gymnasium, the brick rough against my back. I could walk away. I should walk away. That’s what I always do. The shy, quiet boy who blends in, who keeps his mouth shut, who doesn’t stand out. I’ve been perfecting the art of invisibility since I was six. But today, I linger.

Today, something feels… off.

The tallest of the boys shoves the girl against the chain-link fence. She yelps as the metal bites into her arms. He grins. “No one’s coming to help you, freak. Where’s your knight in shining armor?”

They always say things like that. They need someone to be the hero so they can keep playing the villain. It’s a game, simple and brutal, and they don’t even realize how pathetic it is. But she doesn’t answer. Just stares at the mud. That makes them angrier.

I clutch the straps of my backpack tighter. My nails dig into my palms. They deserve to hurt. I hate how small I feel in these moments. How powerless. I hate that I don’t do anything. But even more, I hate them for making me this way.

“You want me to be the knight?” I murmur, voice barely audible, even to myself. My lips twitch in something that isn’t quite a smile. “Knights fall. They bleed. They die. But monsters... they stay.”

Their laughter grates against my ears, but it’s different now. Muffled. Distant. I’ve stopped hearing it. My thoughts hum louder, sharper. My heart pounds like a war drum, and a strange, bitter heat builds in my chest. They think they’re wolves, but I know better. They’re just dogs playing with something weaker.

It would be so easy to make them stop. If I had the power. If I had the means. If someone… just gave me a little push.

The world becomes a string of ticking clocks, a thousand tiny gears grinding toward inevitability. I can see the futures. I can feel the weight of the decisions I haven’t made yet. If I step out now, they’ll beat me. They’ll call me names. They’ll laugh. I won’t win. Not today.

But one day…

Her voice cracks, sobbing as she begs them to stop. I can’t save her. Not right now. And that makes me burn with a quiet rage that boils under my skin, invisible to anyone who dares look. My eyes close for a moment as I listen to her helplessness, swallowing it like poison.

One day, they’ll be the ones crying. One day, I won’t have to walk away. One day, I’ll watch them fall apart and be powerless to stop me.

The bell rings. A sharp, shrill screech. It’s over. They leave her crumpled in the mud like garbage. I turn away, pretending I didn’t see. Just like I always do. 

One day.

Just not today.