Ten years ago.
Bjorn sat in the back seat of the car, knees drawn up, staring out the window as trees blurred past. Up front, his mother's voice broke the silence.
"Where are we traveling to this time, dear?"
His father chuckled. "It's a surpri—"
WEEE-WONK!
BOOM!!
The crash came out of nowhere. Metal twisted. Glass shattered. The world flipped sideways.
And as it did, through the chaos and screaming tires, Bjorn saw something that would haunt him forever—
A woman. Standing by a flickering roadside light. Watching.
Still. Silent. Unblinking.
> They said it was an accident. A freak crash. But I remember… someone watching.
---
When he woke up, everything was different.
He lay in a cold hospital bed, face bruised, stitched at the lip. Machines beeped rhythmically. A nurse moved in the background, more shadow than person.
> I survived. Barely.
---
After the hospital, there was no reunion. No home.
Just rain.
A small, gloomy house waited at the end of a gravel road.
> After the hospital, I was sent to live with my uncle.
They gave him the room nobody wanted. Just a thin mattress. Peeling walls. Dust.
> They gave me the room no one wanted.
At the dinner table, everyone ate. Except him.
"You're too late. No food left," his aunt said.
> I wasn't family. I was the crash they didn't ask for.
---
Time passed. The storm inside him grew.
He sat by the cracked window, watching. Thinking. Burning.
> He stopped hoping. He started planning.
He knew the layout of the house now. Knew where his uncle kept the cash—hidden deep in the drawer.
> He knew exactly where the money was.
One night, while the rain poured and thunder grumbled in the distance, he packed his things.
He didn't look back.
> He didn't vanish. He escaped.
By morning, his uncle's shouts echoed through the house as he discovered the empty drawer.
> They never saw him again.
---
Out in the rain, a boy walked alone.
From the shadows, unseen by him, the silhouette of the old woman appeared again.
This time, she was smiling.