The cold air hit them first, while the snow drifted lazily under the golden lights.
Lucas held his dad's hand, swinging it lightly as they walked further, still buzzing from the movie they had just watched.
"That was so good... Dad, the last scene"
Raviel was so immersed in the scene, watching his father and lucas.
That he forgot about the tightening in his chest.
Until a pressure crawled up his spine.
A bad premonition that made his throat lock.
A memory he had buried.
He opened his mouth.
And a shadowy shape stepped out from behind the concrete pillar, from around the corner.
A man.
A mask.
A gun.
Pointed straight at Lucas's father.
Raviel's world froze. His hands trembled, and pure rage shimmered in his eyes.
"Dad—!" Lucas whispered. His little figure shaking as he watched the man closing the distance with a gun in his hand.
Raviel screamed, "NO..NONONO" his voice tore itself from his throat, but he didn't care about it.
He sprinted toward them, every muscle pulsing, to shove the man away.
His fist and body went right through him.
He phased through like mist.
"God NO nO PLEASE " Raviel thrashed his fist again and again uselessly in empty air as the man smiled behind the black mask.
A slow delibrate which wrinkled around the corners of the black mask near his mouth.
"Let's play a game," the man said softly. "I am bored you see"
He grabbed Lucas's father by the collar and yanked him backward toward a dark corner of the parking lot. Lucas stumbled after them with trembling legs while screaming "DAD", unable to process anything as both of them got swallowed by the darkness in the parking lot.
Raviel followed them, helpless, screaming, pushing everything, his face was now streaked with tears as he ran. each time his hands passed through their bodies like smoke. Every time it hit there was only one result, each time his hands would just phase through the man's body.
The masked man tied Lucas's father's wrists and ankles with a rough rope, pulling until the synthetic fibers cut into the skin. Dad winced in pain, muttered a curse as the rope sqeezed his arms and legs, but still forced strained smile at Lucas.
"It's alright, bud J-just… just a scratch okay? See Nothing to worry about."
Lucas shook his head, tears streaming and staining the scarf. "Dad stop please don't"
The man shoved Lucas a step back, amused as he watched the father-son duo.
"Cute," he murmured. "That fear in your eyes. Children really do make the best mirrors."
He grabbed Lucas's tiny hand. fingers trembling, soft and cold and terrified, and pressed the gun handle into his wet tear soaked hands.
Lucas gasped, chest heaving as his body froze and tears framed his face.
The man crouched behind him, holding the child's hand in his own, guiding it like showing a kid how to draw with crayons.
"Let me teach you how to handle a gun," he whispered in a calm voice. "That's what dads do right?"
"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Raviel screamed like a madman.
But his voice didn't reach.
The world wasn't kind enough to hear his pleas.
Lucas's small hands shook violently as they pressed against the metal surface.
His father's eyes widened, breath quickening as he saw what was coming for him. But he still tried to smile for lucas.
"It's okay, Lucas. It's okay. Look at me. It's just a tiny little scratch. Dad's tough, remember? Toughest in the world."
Lucas sobbed, "Dad...D-dad I don't wanna—please ..please…"
The masked man angled the gun straight at his dad's chest near the lungs.
Firmly placed Lucas's finger on the trigger with ease.
"Now," he whispered silently.
"Pull."
A single white flash.
A single burning sound.
Raviel's scream was drowned in the gunshot.
"No NO NO NO NO PLEASE STOP" He dropped to his knees, saliva mixing with his tears on the cold pavement.
Lucas collapsed backward in shock.The gun fell from his numb fingers. His father gasped for air, chest heaving in erratic beats, bleeding heavily, pain warping his face but still forcing his voice he whimpered.
"Lucas run… okay? Run."
"I'm not leaving you!" Lucas sobbed, running he clutched his father's hand.
Dad coughed blood, forcing his eyes open and trying not to cry before lucas.
"Lucas. Listen to me. You're strong. Go. Now. Before he comes, you have to listen to me Lucas"
Police sirens wailed in the distance.
The masked man walked into the darkness of the parking lot.
The masked man smirked and turned his head, tilted it like a curious creature, and slowly backed away before vanishing into the shadows from where he came from.
"Don't No Lucas DON'T LEAVE HIM! YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Raviel screamed, throat shredding his voice out as Lucas, trembled, looked terrified, but obeyed and ran.
"CALL AN AMBULANCE, HE'S STILL ALIVE CALL SOMEONE SOMEONE PLEASE—" Raviel screamed to a world that couldn't hear him, tears pouring as he reached for his father.
And his hand passed straight through.
❖❖❖❖❖
Several minutes passed.
Minutes that felt more like hours for Raviel.
Raviel's breath came in short gasp, stuttering for air as if the air itself refused to circulate in his lungs.
He clutched his hands on his chest, to let himself breathe.
"I-i.... killed my father...."
The words cracked out of his mouth.
Again.
And again.
And again.
"I killed my father… I killed my father… I-I killed him… because of me… he"
His own voice strangled his throat.
His body shook uncontrollably, a seizure so violent that it made him bend over, forehead nearly hitting the street he couldn't even touch. His tears fell through the asphalt.
His nails tried to dig into the ground but passed through nothing.
And then.
SIRENS
Red and blue lights washed over the alleyways and the dark parking lot. Broad husky voices burst from loudspeakers:
"Suspect on the run, suspected male, wearing a black mask and black coat with a glock....repeat, suspect on the run. Casualty reported at Heathen's Theatre block."
Casualty.
Casualty.
His dad was a casualty. They said.
Raviel staggered toward him, each step like drowning in thick, invisible hands pulling him down, even walking was difficult for him.
His father lay there, breaths rising in shallow bursts, eyelids dropping heavily, chest rising so softly that even his body may fail him at any given point. Tears slid from the man's eyes, tracing down his temples as it finally collpased on the cold snow.
"DAD!" Raviel screamed, falling to his knees beside him. "Hey Dad...dad, you can't die, you can't right, Mum's waiting for you she's been waiting, she still makes your stupid green tea every morning even though no one drinks it, Dad, please"
His fingers reached for his father's arm.
And passed straight through it.
Like dispersed smoke.
Like he had never existed at all.
"PLEASE LOOK AT ME!" Raviel screamed. "Please… .please I'm right here Dad, I am right here please, just LOOK"
But the man's eyes stayed on the sky. Unmoving as they traced the falling snow.
Raviel swallowed air sharply. "We didn't really get to have a men's talk right?....But guess what i learned to actually tie a tie from an online tutorial dad"
Raviel forced air into his lungs to breathe to talk again.
"Ella she's learning to cook now, Dad," he choked. "She burns everything but she's trying because you know what she says she wants her skinny boyfriend to eat healthy. I know she is delusional right, Mum still loves you she always did she said no one in this world looks more handsome than you did when you when you… when you proposed her….."
His throat collapsed on the words.
He shook harder, body folding in on itself, tears dripping into the fresh snow piling up that swallowed them.
"Big sis, she's getting married soon, Dad," he whispered, voice trembling like a child begging the dark not to take him. "She wanted you to walk her down the aisle. She kept saying you'd come back someday…she said you would, wouldn't you?"
He laughed. Choking on his tears
A weak, broken and tired laugh.
"You know… I watched the Batman movie twice at night on my tenth birthday," Raviel stammered, wiping his face though nothing stopped his tears. "I pretended you were sitting next to me, and I held the blanket so it didn't look like I was watching alone, so mum Wouldn't shout, but guess what she found out"
His voice shattered.
"And you know what?" Raviel lifted a shaking finger at his father, even though it passed through him. "You're my Batman and I'm Robin, a cool one. We'd be a really good duo dad we really would…"
The world around him blurred, into tiny dots of white and gold.
"You know I even made friends with Max…but he's a tsun bastard and I got transmigrated into a novel but I still didn't cry, I didn't cry even then…."
His shoulders convulsed.
"I scammed a black-market dealer, Dad… I'm getting smarter see… see? I- I'm growing up…"
He leaned closer, forehead almost touching the ground his body couldn't touch.
"Wake up, Dad."
Silence.
"Dad…"
Nothing.
"All I… all I wanted to say…"
His voice was a whisper soaked with grief so heavy it hurted to listen.
"…Is I loved the movie, Dad."
His breath cracked.
"So please wake up."
But the man lying in his own blood didn't move. Didn't look at him. Didn't smile.
Didn't tell him it was "Just a scratch" anymore.
He stared at the sky. At nothing.
At everything he would never see again.
And Raviel? Raviel knelt beside him.
A ghost, a boy, an unworthy son. Unable to even touch his father in his final moments,
unable to be seen, unable to be heard,
unable to say goodbye in a way that actually mattered.
So he screamed.
A scream that no one heard.