The abandoned cafe stank of stale coffee and sour milk, a scent that mirrored the decay in Kai's chest. Outside, a relentless Brooklyn rain slicked the streets, washing the city in streaks of neon and grime. Inside, Kai faced them: the girl he had believed was his everything, the one he thought he'd marry, now standing beside the man he just realized was her actual boyfriend.
"Why?" Kai's voice was flat, hollowed out. The rage he should have felt was just a vast, empty cavern inside him. He had observed patterns his entire life, but this... this broke everything.
She tilted her head, her eyes wide, as if she couldn't believe the words leaving her own lips. "Because you're useful. And because I knew you'd never fight back."
The boyfriend chuckled, a cold, mocking sound. "You see patterns in code, Kai. But you never see the ones that matter. You were born blind."
A tremor ran through Kai. Not fear, but a searing pain he'd never known. He lunged—a desperate, primal need to confront the lie, to shatter that mocking smirk, to grasp the truth of this devastating illusion. He wanted to fight, not for victory, but for some shred of himself.
That was his mistake.
He felt the cold, sharp truth before he felt the pain. The blade slid deep into his back. Her hand had trembled, just slightly, before it pierced him. He stumbled, the world blurring, collapsing onto the grimy floor. The rain drummed a hollow rhythm against the window. He lay facedown, one hand twitching on the cold tile, the other pressed to the warmth spilling from his side.
"So this is it. All of it".
He was a boy on concrete steps again, forgotten. Too quiet, they always said. Just... there. Watching dust motes dance in sunbeams while other children found new parents. He never cried. Learned not to hope. His silence wasn't empty; it was full of observation. It got him a scholarship. It helped him see the patterns in code, a cold brilliance that kept him safe. Alone.
Until her. A smile that didn't fit the world's pattern. He studied her, this beautiful, impossible variable. And he let himself believe. Said yes when she asked for help with a security bypass. Yes, when she introduced a "friend." Just for fun, she'd said. Just to see if he could.
And he could. He'd broken into the police database. Traced the data. Uncovered their secrets. He saw it all. She had two lives. And he was a key in one of them. A key she had just used and was now ready to discard.
"Even my death... is nothing. My life was a lie".
He blinked. Neon lights bled through the grimy window—red, white, blue. A car screeched somewhere. Someone laughed. Inside him, there was only a vast, consuming void. Not rage, not pain, just silence. A deeper silence than he'd ever known. Utterly, profoundly complete.
And then, a subtle shift. Not a sound, but a presence.
Something ancient and cold watched. Not with eyes, but with a comprehension that dwarfed existence. A shadow behind creation itself, waiting. It was boundless, unknowable, and it had found him in his absolute void.
As the last whisper of his breath escaped, the blood pooling beneath him turned to absolute black, then vanished. The alley was empty. No body. No blood. No noise.
Only rain...