Growing up, Jack believed the world was made of kindness, laughter echoing through summer evenings, warm embraces after long days, and smiles that made everything feel possible. But innocence was a veil easily torn. As he grew older, he saw the cracks behind the curtain, the shadows slithering behind every light. The world wasn't kind. It was cruel. And today… it bared its true face.
Jack was a research scientist, he wasn't just any research scientist, he was considered one of the top minds of the modern era. His shelves were cluttered with awards, his face plastered across scientific journals, and he had given keynote speeches to rooms filled with the brightest minds on Earth. But none of that mattered now. Not when he wasn't just studying life he was trying to conquer death.
After two sleepless nights and enough caffeine to stop a heart, he made the breakthrough. In a moment of impossible clarity, the final pieces aligned. The formula worked. He had created a serum, one vial, one chance. Enough to test the impossible. Enough to challenge mortality itself.
He held the vial in trembling fingers, heart pounding harder than it ever had in the lab. Triumph didn't flood him like he expected. Just exhaustion. He slipped the serum into a secure storage unit, shrugged on his coat, and stepped into the cold evening air.
The streets were quiet, bathed in the orange glow of streetlamps. His thoughts drifted, tangled between the weight of what he had accomplished and the fear of what came next. He didn't hear the voice until it sliced through the silence.
"Jack!"
He froze.
That voice. He knew it better than his own heartbeat.
Joan.
She wasn't just a crush. She was gravity in a world that constantly spun out of control. She was the only one who ever saw him, the real him, beneath the titles, beneath the genius. He'd spent months rehearsing what he'd say if he ever had the courage.
Tonight… something felt different.
She jogged up to him, her smile brighter than any streetlamp. Her eyes sparkled with warmth, and as she fell into step beside him, the chaos in his mind went quiet.
They walked in silence for a moment—comfortable, unforced.
"I like you," he said.
She turned, surprised. "What?"
He swallowed hard and met her gaze. "I like you, Joan. I mean it."
She blinked, stunned for a heartbeat. And then, she smiled.
"I like you too."
Just like that, she leaned in. Her lips brushed his—soft, warm, and everything he never realized he needed. He wrapped his arms around her, and for the first time in what felt like years, he felt peace.
"I need a coffee," he said, breathless. "Just to make sure I'm not dreaming."
She laughed. God, that laugh.
He turned toward the café just behind them to grab two cups. He took a single step.
Then the world shattered.
A screech of tires. A flash of blinding headlights.
Blood.
Joan's blood.
Time slowed. Her body collapsed in front of him, limp. The car, a sleek, black racing machine skidded to a halt in a perfect, practiced drift.
Jack stood frozen, his soul torn in half. The driver sat behind tinted glass. He couldn't see the man's eyes, but he felt his gaze.
The driver looked at me through the tinted window. Calm. Cold. He winked
My chest tightened. He had meant to kill us both. But why?
Why?
Why would someone target them?
Then it hit him. The serum.
He spun on his heel. The lab was only a block away. If he moved fast enough… maybe…
But his body wouldn't respond. His feet were rooted in shock, hands trembling uncontrollably.
Then the car door opened.
The driver stepped out tall, muscular, dressed in combat gear like it was part of him. He raised a pistol with the calm of a surgeon.
"No…"
The man smiled.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
Three shots. All meant for Jack.
He stumbled back, pain tearing through his side, his chest, his shoulder. The shooter turned, slid back into the car, and sped off.
He fell to his knees.
Joan.
Bleeding, gasping, I forced myself to stand. Every step felt like death clinging tighter to my shoulders, but I kept moving. I had to make it. For Joan.
Seconds. That was all he had.
The lab door slammed open under Jack's weight. He collapsed inside, crawling toward the storage unit. His vision was blurring. He couldn't save her, not if he passed out now. Not like this.
With trembling hands, he unlocked the storage case.
The vial glinted in the dim light.
No time.
No choice.
He stabbed the needle into his arm.
Pain ignited in every nerve, molten agony flooding his veins. He screamed, a sound of grief, of rage, of something primal breaking loose inside him.
The last thought that screamed through his mind, louder than the pain, louder than death itself:
This isn't over.
Then… darkness.