My head is heavy on the cool leather of the album. My eyes are closed, but I'm not sleeping.
I'm trapped in a gallery of ghosts.
Happy moments. The Kael family, frozen in time. Smiling, holding each other, their eyes bright with a love that looks so real it hurts.
They loved him.
They loved Zyren so much it glows from the paper.
And then they just… stopped.
The moment they found out he was a D-Class Alpha, it was like a door slammed shut.
The love was revoked.
Erased.
The blank pages in the album after his thirteenth birthday scream the truth louder than any photo.
A sad, familiar smile twists my lips. I shouldn't be surprised. I've read this story before. My own parents wrote the first draft for Neon.
The leaving.
The silent phone. The empty chair at a table that was once full. They abandoned me, too, without ever telling me why.
The ache in my chest is a confused, double-layered thing. It hurts for Zyren, for the boy who lost everything.
