My name is Justin. I'm a medical student at university, a career as demanding as it is rewarding. Sleepless nights have become part of my routine; sometimes I feel exhausted, but I tell myself that sacrifice builds character. That every sleepless night, every page turned over in the wee hours, is one step closer to the future I want to build.
I remember that particular afternoon. I was reviewing my notes when I heard a soft voice behind me.
"Hello," a girl with a radiant smile greeted me. It was Sofia.
She and I have always been close. I could say there's something special between us, although, deep down, I don't dare imagine a future together. Maybe because life has already taught me how fragile bonds are...
I'm an only child. My parents died three years ago, and since then, loneliness has become a silent companion. I work to pay for my studies, to afford food each day. Sometimes I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, but I can't stop. If I give up, everything I've done up until now would be meaningless.
Hey, we should go to lunch. Spending day and night buried in your books can't be healthy, Sofia told me with a mischievous smile.
I couldn't help but smile back.
Sure, shall we go now?
Of course, she replied, getting up from her seat.
We walked together toward the exit of the university building. As we went down the stairs, Sofia excitedly pointed toward the street.
Look, they're going to build some apartments.
I looked up and observed the enormous foundations already reaching toward the sky.
It's true... they look quite high. Will they be safe? I asked with a hint of doubt.
It seems so, she replied with a shrug. Then she immediately changed the subject, as she usually did. But leaving that aside, look! That cafeteria... always the same.
I let out a nervous laugh, putting a hand to the back of my neck.
Yes, the same as always, I murmured, an imaginary bead of sweat on my forehead.
Come on, Justin, she said, looking at me tenderly. "Put more energy into your life. I always see you so serious... you should be like that Steven Universe."
I was surprised by the comparison, but before I could answer, Sofia looked at me with big, bright eyes.
"That show...? Yes, it's my favorite. You watched it for me, right?"
For a moment, I felt my heart skip a beat.
"Sure, Sofia... I actually liked it," I replied as we walked toward the cafeteria. "Think about it: a kid in a world that practically looks like a post-apocalyptic zone."
"Oh?" she blinked in surprise, tilting her head. I'd never seen it that way.
I smiled, enjoying her curiosity.
"Well, Steven isn't just any kid. He's a gem, and half a diamond, no less." Something incredibly powerful, though he still can't fully control its abilities. Imagine it: a diamond in the rough, with enormous potential that even he doesn't yet understand.
Sofía placed a hand on her chest and opened her eyes in amazement.
That's right... a diamond! What a level. And for being half diamond, her potential must be immense.
Exactly, I said, satisfied with her reaction.
When we reached the counter, we ordered our coffees. While we waited, the conversation continued to flow easily, as if time had ceased to exist. We chatted about TV shows, studies, and dreams, losing ourselves in words and smiles.
In the end, we left the café still chatting, with the feeling that that moment, so simple and ordinary, would remain engraved in both of our memories.
Come on, Just, Sofía said happily. We're going out tomorrow too, aren't we?
Of course, I replied with a smile that seemed to promise a peaceful day.
However, fate had other plans.
As we walked near the newly built apartments, something unusual happened. A huge wall, part of the structure still unstable, began to collapse. No one around us noticed until it was too late.
By pure chance, I looked up... and felt a shock run through my body. A gigantic wall was about to collapse, falling directly on Sofia, who was walking carefree, unaware of the danger.
I didn't think. Something took control of me in that instant.
"Sofi!" I screamed as I pushed her with all my strength.
She fell to the ground, confused, turning her head toward me with her eyes wide open.
"Justin...?"
But it was too late. The crash of the collapse resounded like thunder. A huge, heavy, and vicious block fell in front of her. The impact was brutal, raising dust and silence.
When the air cleared, Sofia saw the blood-covered wall... just inches away. Her breath hitched as the reality sank in: that sacrifice had been Justin's. Her friend... or perhaps her love?
Justin opened his eyes, but there was no light... only darkness. An immense emptiness surrounded him, silent, as if time itself had stopped.
"What... happened?" he murmured in the solitude of his thoughts.
Suddenly, memories began to swirl in his mind: his childhood, his sleepless nights studying medicine, his laughter with Sofia, and that last moment... the wall collapsing.
I saved her... didn't I? I hope I saved her... he whispered, as if someone could hear him in that empty space.
Time passed strangely. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Maybe years. In the infinite darkness, there was no way to measure it. There was only him and his thoughts, like a prisoner of himself.
Over and over again, he relived every detail of his life. He studied his own steps, observed himself from a different perspective, like an outside spectator of his own existence. At first it hurt, then it became routine. After the hundredth repetition—or was it the thousandth?—he lost count.
"Wow... what a boring life I've had," he finally said, laughing with a hint of resignation.
The darkness embraced him, infinite and patient.
Will someone come to get me out of here? Or am I doomed to stay forever, alone with my memories?
The echo of his own voice faded, and in that silence, Justin began to wonder if the worst thing wasn't death... but being trapped with himself.
In the midst of the darkness, a voice emerged from nowhere and, simply by speaking it, filled the void with an impossible serenity.
"Hello, Steven," said the voice, warm and serene.
"Steven?" I asked, disoriented, feeling my heart tremble with confusion.
"Yes," Steven repeated the voice, this time with a smile that I could perceive even though I couldn't see a face.
I sat up, or at least I thought I did; There was no one in sight, and my body still felt strange, as if every muscle carried the weight of frozen time.
"Who are you?" I asked softly, looking around without finding an answer.
"Who I am doesn't matter," the voice replied softly. "I just want to ask you something: will you accept the name Steven?"
The name fell on my chest like a stone. The name? To change my identity in this darkness?
Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of me. It was a girl whose silhouette was painfully familiar: straight black hair falling over her shoulders, a presence that touched memory. I couldn't see her face clearly; it was as if the light refused to define it.
For a moment, silence reigned again. Then, with trembling hands, I broke that silence.
"Sofi?" I murmured, hope and wonder struggling to break through.
The figure didn't respond with words; she reached out toward me. It was a simple gesture, an invitation. I felt, with surprise and awkwardness, that my hand responded: it moved barely, stiff from the motionless time, but it reacted. A small movement that, nevertheless, felt like a miracle.
Do you accept the name Steven? the figure repeated. If you accept, you will follow a legacy full of adventures.
The idea of adopting another name filled me with a strange nostalgia. If I change my name, will I become someone else? Will I lose myself in a borrowed identity until my story dissolves? Shadows of uncertainty haunted my mind.
But the hand holding mine seemed warm and real, and within it was a promise that spoke louder than any fear. I closed my eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and in an act that was less reasoning and more surrender, I squeezed his hand.
"It's okay," I said softly. "I accept being Steven."
The figure smiled, and for the first time the darkness lost some of its fierce loneliness. A current alien to my understanding seemed to flow through me, as if the name were both a key and a door. As the voice faded, a certainty, or perhaps a beautiful doubt, settled within me: something new was beginning, and with it, an adventure that would no longer be mine alone.
The entity leaned slightly toward me. I could finally "look" at its face... though in reality there was no such thing. It had no features, no eyes, no lips, and yet that figure radiated a warmth impossible to describe, as if the very absence of a face was what conveyed peace.
"Welcome to the world of fiction," the figure said in a firm, kind voice, just as I began to fade away from before it.
I stood motionless, unable to react. The last image I perceived was that silhouette watching me with a disturbing serenity.
"This took longer than usual," the entity murmured thoughtfully, as it placed its hands behind its back and began to walk in that eternal void. "I'm surprised it didn't try to create its own world within its mind." Ha... a light, almost mocking laugh echoed in the darkness.
The figure paused for a moment, as if thinking aloud. "I hope this second chance touches your soul."
And with those words, the entity disappeared, like smoke dissolving in the wind. The dark place that had trapped Justin disintegrated with it. Nothing existed there, nor will it ever exist.
The void closed, and our protagonist vanished with it, dragged toward an unknown destination.
.
end of chapter 1.