The Last Light Before I Fell

✦ My Brother — The Last Light ✦

Through everything, one person still stayed beside me.

My brother — Ren, two years older, quiet where Ray had been loud.

He wasn’t a hero—just someone brave enough to stay when staying hurt.

When our mother’s anger cracked the house open, he’d pull me behind him.

When silence filled the rooms, he’d turn on the old radio just so I wouldn’t hear it breathe.

He never said I’ll protect you. He just did.

For a while, that was enough to believe life might still listen.

I told myself, as long as Ren’s here, I can keep moving.

He became the only thread I didn’t want to snap.

My last promise to the world was simple —

I won’t let him break the way I did.

✦ The Growing Darkness ✦

Ages eleven to fourteen blurred grey.

Family shame. My mother’s betrayal. My father’s silence. Ray’s death. The poison of it all.

I hated my life. I hated myself. I begged the rain to end me. Rope. Roads. Blades. Every attempt failed.

Each failure felt like another proof of my weakness.

Day by day, my heart was turning numb.

Inside, my soul had already died; outside, I just kept moving — a body pretending to be alive.

My brother drifted further away. He stopped talking much, carrying his own silence, leaving the house for hours.

We were two brothers under the same roof, each trapped in our own prison.

School only deepened the cracks. Bullies circled. Laughter echoed. One day, they cornered me.

Bullies: “Your cousin isn’t here to protect you now.” “You’re alone, Hatoru.” "Nobody’s here to save you." “Cry if you want. We’ll wait.”

Their laughter thundered louder than storms.

Hatoru (through clenched teeth): “…I won’t cry. Not for you.”

During exams, they shoved me into a wall, twisted my arm—

CRACK.

Pain lit my wrist like fire.

The teachers didn’t care. To them, I was still “the boy with good grades.” They don't care about anything.

A week later, In Exam Hall

Teacher (irritated): “Hatoru, why are you late? Sit down. Write.”

Hatoru (quiet but firm): “I can still write. I’ll finish it.”

Teacher: “You? With one hand? ”(Scoffs) “Good luck.”

Hatoru: “I don’t need luck.” because i don't anything already!

I sat in the exam hall. Pens scratched all around me. My right hand useless, I gripped the pen with my trembling left. Each letter burned. Sweat and tears blurred ink.

“I won’t let them win… I’ll endure. Even if it kills me.”

Line by line, I wrote. When the bell rang, my arm was numb, but I had endured.

That was all survival ever was—endurance.

✦ The Mask ✦

By tenth grade, my parents split. My father crawled back to his parents. My mother dragged my brother and me to another city.

A new school. A new mask. I laughed when others laughed.

Answered when called. Pretended to be normal.

But bullies always find weakness. Again whispers. Again shoves. Again silence.

After school, I worked part-time jobs. At night, I walked alone under flickering lamps, whispering to the rain:

“Please… let me die tomorrow.”

“If there really is something above gods…. some True Eye…"

Sometimes, quieter:

“Please… let it end.”

But the rain kept falling—as if someone above still wanted to keep the rhythm, even if I couldn’t.

If this was punishment, it was gentle.

For the first time, the darkness didn’t hurt.

The rain felt different that night — heavier, almost listening. Like the sky was waiting for my decision.

Some nights, I’d look out the window and wonder if anyone would cry if I disappeared.

The thought didn’t scare me anymore — that’s what terrified me most.

I had one wish: if I ever died, I wanted no one to come to my funeral. And if they did — I hoped they wouldn’t cry.

I wasn’t living. I was dissolving, heartbeat by heartbeat.

I’d forgotten how laughter felt on my tongue, how warmth sat in my chest.

Even the stars felt indifferent — watching, but never reaching back.

And yet, some small, fragile part of me still whispered,

“Maybe tomorrow will hurt a little less.”

I never realized that was hope — the last flicker still refusing to die.

✦ The Storm Returns ✦

The storm answered.

The night was the same as my first. Black clouds piled high. Rain in sheets. Thunder like war drums.

I pedaled my bike through it. Clothes soaked. Body trembling.

Headlights flared through the curtain. A truck bore down, horn screaming.

And I… didn’t move.

It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t surprise. It was my choice—and fate colliding with it.

"Thankyou"

Eyes closed. Mouth curved into the smallest smile.

“…Finally. It’s over.”

Impact swallowed the world.

✦ Before the Light Went Out ✦

The moment the headlights filled my eyes, one thought cut through the noise.

Ray — my sun — already set.

Ren — my brother — you are my moon.

If the world still has any light left, it’s you.

So please… don’t lose your hope.

Even if mine stops breathing, let yours keep burning.

I smiled into the storm, not for myself —

but so he’d remember me that way,

a fool who still believed the moon could outlast the night.

✦ Rebirth in the Void ✦

But death was not the end.

Darkness surrounded me. No pain. No fear. Just quiet.

Then—something flickered inside that quiet.

A pulse. Not mine. Not human.

Violet-gold light cracked through the dark, pulsing like a heartbeat that refused to die.

Then—
A voice. Ancient. Calm. Unavoidable.

“Born in rain. Died in rain. You cursed your gods, your family, your fate. The world ignored your prayers… but I heard.”

Above me, a black sun ignited. It bled light and shadow both.

My body dissolved. Bones, blood, soul—reforged in fire that wasn’t fire.

Light and shadow swirled, colliding until they became one.

Something within me—small as a spark, endless as breath—awoke.

It moved through me like memory learning to live again.

“You begged for death… yet your wound remembered how to breathe. Rise, not as mortal flesh—but as one bound to the Divine Vein.

The scar that defied silence shall become your light.”

“Raindrops still fell in the void—but now, they fell upward.

And my heartbeat was no longer mine — it was Etherus learning to speak.”

My eyes opened. Golden irises burned inside the void, ringed with shadows that moved like they had their own breath.

The broken boy was gone.

But somewhere, a little boy still waited under the rain, wondering why I never came home.

And something new—radiant, terrifying, born from Fracture—had taken his place.

✦ Epigraph ✦

Born in rain. Died in rain. You cursed your gods, your family, your fate. The world ignored your prayers… but I heard.

✦ Teaser for Chapter 1 ✦

The storm had ended, but the world would soon learn it hadn’t vanished—it had been reborn, inside me. The broken boy who prayed for death had died that night on the asphalt. What rose from the void was no longer prey.

And when the gods finally looked down, they would realize too late—
their hunter had already awakened.

The storm wasn’t weather. It was the first Vein opening.

Raindrops still fell in the void—but now, they fell upward.

And my heartbeat was no longer mine—it was the echo of something divine remembering itself.

✦ End of Chapter 0.5 - The Last Light Before I Fell ✦