A black mid-sized truck was already leaving the isolated lab. In it was Uncle Jo wearing a frown, four traumatized youths, and a woman with brown eyes, raven-black hair, barely noticeable wrinkles that betrayed her somewhat old age, and a mischievous grin on her face.
"Auntie, that was… uncalled for," said Nour, his face still pale.
Mona chuckled. Looking at her sternly was Uncle Jo. "I concur."
Leaning back against her seat, Mona smirked. "God forbid a woman wants to have a little fun," she said while glancing at Jonathan.
His eyes stayed on the road, his body betraying no emotion, his voice calm and precise. "So a woman's definition of fun is to jumpscare an agent with four children whilst being in a car parked in a forsaken lab in the middle of the fucking forest? No wonder I failed in my romantic life."
Laughing, Mona said, "Okay, okay, okay… my bad. I just saw how serious all of you were… and I couldn't help myself." Then she looked at him with a serious expression and thought, 'Forsaken… oh please. The most well-known lab name in the world and the ambitious inventor and leader in many scientific fields is referred to as forsaken? This man never changes'.
Breaking their conversation was Kaai, who said with an even voice, "Understandable."
Realizing how childlike they had been acting, Jonathan and Mona immediately changed topic. Nervously, Mona looked out of the window and asked, "What were you guys even talking about to have Uncle Jo this invested?"
Before the youth could answer, a stern voice—commanding attention—said, "Apparently Kaai had a nightmare, and a weird one at that."
Mona tried to wear an even expression, yet her eyes betrayed a hint of emotion. She glanced back at Kaai. "You good, baby?"
Kaai froze for a moment.' Aren't they making a big deal out of it? …But to be honest, the dream itself wasn't normal.' "Yeah, I am… just a bit disoriented." With that, the concerned faces faded, and the truck was filled with laughter and joy. Kaai looked past the window into the sunset and felt something he thought he would never feel again. It was bliss.
The truck arrived at Kaai's house. Kaai took a look at his phone. It's 8:15. Well, that's not my problem. As they were getting out of the truck and stretching, Uncle Jo said, "Sorry for the long ride, boys," then glanced to Mona and added sarcastically, "and ladies."
Mona rolled her eyes. "Oh, he is a gentleman now."
Replying to her while fixing his shirt, Jo said, "And she is still a witch." Shocked faces appeared on the youths and Mona.
She took a deep breath. "A witch?!"
Making their way to the door, Jo smirked. "Well, you work underground mixing some weird shit together and creating weird concoctions. The description isn't far off…" as the voices of Jo and Mona filled the background.
Ryan whispered to Kaai, "Is it always this… lively?"
Before Kaai could whisper back, Uncle Jo glanced back, his voice calm and precise. "Not most of the time. It's just today is a special day."
Ryan blinked at the reply, caught off guard. He hadn't expected Uncle Jo to actually hear him, let alone answer. For a second, he straightened his posture, unsure whether to feel embarrassed or impressed. Then, with a small, sheepish grin, he muttered under his breath, "Guess I'll keep my whispers quieter next time."
Kaai smirked, but said nothing.
The argument between Uncle Jo and Mona died down as they reached the house's door. Mona took out her keys with a suppressed smile that she managed to hide and opened the door. The rooms were dark—suffocatingly dark. Kaai was breathing, yet each breath he took weighed on his chest. Each one was a struggle, forcing his chest to rise. His thoughts raced, yet all he could remember was the boundless abyss.
Suddenly, light burst on—followed with a loud bang. Kaai was completely taken aback. Both his hands reached for the nonexistent gun on his waist.
In the next heartbeat, he heard voices… voices? All screamed, "Surprise!!!"
Dazed, he looked around. He saw his sister, his grandparents from both sides, his aunties, his uncles, and his nephews. Shocked, he took a moment to process what was going on. Suddenly something trapped him from behind. It was Danny, who lifted him onto his shoulders.
Kaai's voice startled. "D…Danneil!"
His friends all laughed. Danny set him on the sofa in the living room, behind a box on the table. He immediately stood up again, and all his family surrounded him. Then a young feminine voice echoed along with many more: "Happy birthday!!!"
Oli, leading the charge, hugged her brother and said, "Did you win?"
Kaai, still dazed, replied, "W… win?"
Then another voice echoed, and another, and another.
Kaai was overstimulated. After the initial hype was gone, he collapsed back into the sofa and asked, "What is going on?"
His mother, standing behind the small crowd of family members and friends, stepped through. Replying to him, her mischievous tone still there: "What else, my little genius? It's a party for your very special day."
Letting her reply sink in, both shock and joy erupted in him. He looked at his family. With a trembling voice, he asked, "All of you came?"
An array of answers flooded the room.
"Of course."
"How could we miss it?"
"Naturally."
"As if I can miss my grandson's birthday."
"Well, it is what you deserve."
His glance shifted back to his mother. Now Uncle Jo was standing beside her. He pointed at the box in front of Kaai with a gentle smile.
Kaai looked at the box. It was made out of papers… papers? "Those are… letters."
Nour came and sat beside him, wrapping his arm around Kaai. "It was your mother's idea—that everyone was to write you a letter conveying our love to you, and then make a box out of them."
An old, hoarse voice bellowed angrily—it was Kaai's grandma. "You… little goblin, you! I wanted to tell him!"
Oli pointed at it. "You can open it, you know."
Kaai leaned in closer to the table and opened it. Inside was a beautifully decorated cake. In neat frosting letters, it read:
"Happy birthday to our little doctor, who held us together when no one else did."
Kaai opened the envelope. His eyes scanned the paper once, then again, and his breath caught. A choked sound escaped him as tears welled up. It was an official transfer letter—an acceptance to Gavin University. A name as renowned as Pendragon itself, and its greatest rival.
For a long moment, silence hung in the room. Across from him, Uncle Jo and Mona sat quietly, watching. Then Jonathan cleared his throat, but the sound caught—rougher than usual. His eyes lingered on the cake, then the envelope, before settling on Kaai.
"Kaai… listen. There's something I should've said years ago. Something I should've said the night we buried your father."
His voice wavered. He clenched his fists on the table as though to steady himself, but his knuckles trembled white.
"We abandoned you. God help me, we did. I buried myself in work, Mona buried herself in her own demons… and we left you—a child—to carry the weight of everything we were too cowardly to face."
Mona lowered her eyes, shoulders hunched in silent agreement.
Jo's breath shuddered as he went on.
"You kept us alive, Kaai. You did what men twice your age would've broken under. You cooked, you cleaned, you… you held your mother's hair back when she drank herself sick. You made sure bills were paid when we should've been making sure you still had a childhood."
He looked away, swallowing hard, voice breaking as he forced the words out.
"And all that time, we told ourselves you were strong enough. That you could handle it. But that was just a lie we used to sleep at night. The truth is… we weren't there. We failed you. We failed your father's memory. We failed as family."
The last words came out almost as a whisper, thick with shame. His eyes glistened, though he blinked hard to fight it back.
"If there's one thing I'll carry to my grave, it's that I made a child bear a man's grief. And nothing I do now will ever erase that. Nothing."
Finally, he exhaled, shoulders heavy, as if the confession had taken years out of him.
"But Kaai… if you'll let us… we'll spend whatever's left of our lives trying to make it right. Not because we pity you. Not because we owe it. But because we're proud of you. So damn proud. You survived everything we failed to protect you from. And I swear to you—we won't disappear again."
Kaai heard every word Uncle Jo said. For years, his heart had carried an ever-growing void—hollow, aching, bottomless. But as those words poured out, raw and unvarnished, that void trembled. For the first time, it stopped growing. For the first time, something began to fill it.
It wasn't forgiveness yet. It wasn't healing. But it was something. A weight he didn't even know how to name lifted ever so slightly, and in its place came warmth he thought he'd buried with his father.
Kaai's throat tightened, tears blurring his vision. He clenched his fists under the table, not to fight back—but to hold onto that fragile, foreign feeling blooming in the hollow spaces of his chest. And in his struggle, he finally rusted out weeping. Weeping like he wept when his father died.
Embracing him was Uncle Jo and his mother. For the first time in a very long time, he finally felt warmth.
Kaai opened the door to his bedroom. He took out his phone and checked the time: 1:05. He then sat next to his bed, put the phone on his nightstand, and picked up a very familiar picture frame. Looking at it intensely, he said, "Happy birthday, Father… today, well… it was full of events."
Clutching the frame in his hand, he stood up and made his way to the bedroom window. He opened it and carefully put the frame next to him as he leaned on the window.
"Today was the club tournament, which I of course won. I met Uncle again after months of deployment. He even said he is taking us camping for a few days in the mountains. I am very excited about that. There was also a party today for my birthday. Mother and Uncle Jo, they…"
Kaai took a deep breath and wiped away the tears welling up in his eyes before continuing.
"They are—and were—trying. I knew that already. But today they apologized.... I"
Tears now steaming down his face
" they got me into Gavin University, and Uncle Jo pulled a few strings so my friends can come with me. On the surface it's a lot, but to me it's a lot more. For years i harbored this…void inside of me. It ate away me it. I…..I.. they uncle Jo and mother they apologized but it was more than that for they years i carried a burdened that crushing on my chest. i carried it father. Becuase i made a that promise to you. Father it was a lot more than just a university. Today after a long time I felt recognized, acknowledged and seen"
Kaai stopped for a long moment, then continued again.
"Today I learned something, Father. It's not the day you lose a loved one that hurts the most—it's the days you continue living without them. …And I lived for a long time alone."
He then went back to his bed, laid down, closed his eyes, and slept.
.
In the next morning. A pump woke up Kaai he looked around him. They were already in the wilderness Inside uncle Jo truck. He looked at him in the rearview mirror, "good morning sleepyhead". Kaai stretching replied "good morning uncle Jo"
"Sweet dreams?" Replying to him Kaai in his sluggish voice yet with a smile " no dream"
"Sad"
Continueing their conversation was Danny who asked in a nervous etoen "U..uncle Jo…are the guns really nessecary"
Uncle Jo was was calm yet his command attention " of course my boy we are hunting after all, also each of your bags has a compass as well as a map with a mark on with bright red that is a military outpost should you get lost just go there and show them your bags"
Nour concerned asked "you won't leave us in the woods right?"
Uncle Jo chuckled his voice even but with a hint of evilness " of course not nour who do you think I am?: a secret service agent working for a shady government. Pffff, if I was I would get rid of the evidence Im a more elegant way. This is simply too much work"
The 3 youths paled to uncle Jo's remarks where only Kaai laughed. He then asked his uncle "how far off are we". He replied his eyes still on the road " 20 min give or take, by the way you should check on your equipment, a hunter should alway be familiar with what his advantages are"
he then got up and went to open a small backdoor connection the truck interior to the cargo bed which was cavored with a thick layer of black cloth. He then ran through his large camping bag.
First was the rifle, wrapped in oiled cloth, followed by a hunting knife strapped to the side pocket. A pair of binoculars and a small rangefinder was at the top of compartment, their lenses carefully capped.
Next came the essentials: a rolled tent, a compact sleeping bag, fire starters, a coil of paracord, and a battered mess kit rattling faintly as it dropped in. Packets of dried meat and sealed pouches of trail mix filled the gaps, each pressed down with the efficiency of a man who'd done this a hundred times before and something out of place they were sweets. Kaai lingered for a moment before continuing.
For the weather, Jo shoved in a camouflage jacket, wool gloves, and a rain shell. Heavy boots already sat by the bag, laces neatly tucked inside.
Finally, he checked the last pieces: a folded map and compass in the side pouch, a headlamp, a multi-tool, and a small emergency beacon he held in his hand a moment longer than the rest. With a sigh, he dropped it in.
Kaai looked at the large bag and smiled ' I wonder how I look wearing'. He put on the bag and turned around. What he saw made his blood run cold
It was a white, radiant expanse stretched out before him.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints. His body locked in place. His heart skipped once, then thundered in his chest, each beat more frantic than the last. Cold sweat slicked down his back, his breath ragged and uneven.
'It's just… hallucinations. Just fragments of that cursed dream. Yes. That's all this is. Just a dream….. just a dream. I'll close my eyes, turn back, and it'll be Uncle Jo's truck. Just the truck.'
He squeezed his eyes shut, chest heaving, then spun on his heel.
But when he opened them again… it was still there. The same blinding, endless expanse of white.
His breath hitched. Panic clawed at his chest. He whipped his head to the side—
And froze. His heart was beating so hard he thought he will die
There he was. Himself. Staring back, just a second behind, as though watching an echo of his own movements.
The other Kaai turned its head to the side, and again—another version appeared, one beat later. Then another. And another. An endless procession of himself spawning into existence, each one lagging behind the last, until the horizon was choked with countless Kais.
Then, as if pulled by some unseen force, all of them collapsed inward—folding, merging, devouring one another—until only one remained.
Disoriented, his mind reeling, Kaai forced his eyes forward.
There, floating in the center of the void, was a sphere. Blue, deep and ethereal, pulsing with a light that was alive yet alien. It wasn't just color—it was depth, an ocean crammed into a single shape, infinite and suffocating. Unlike anything he had ever seen.
He drew closer to the sphere. To his surprise, it wasn't unnatural—on the contrary, it felt… familiar. Comforting. As if he had always belonged here.
Cautiously, he reached out and laid his hand against its surface.
The moment he did, a voice echoed through the endless white. Old, human, worn with sorrow.
"What have we done…"
Before Kaai could even process the words, a crack split across the sphere. Thin at first—then jagged, spreading fast.
From within burst a grotesque, pulsing mass of black ooze. It spilled outward, writhing, devouring the pristine light around it. The radiant expanse quivered, then folded in on itself, collapsing toward the sphere as though the world itself was being consumed.
For a single heartbeat, everything stilled.
Then came the sound.
A deafening boom, followed by an explosion so vast it ripped through everything—light and darkness.