The sharp chime of the doorbell shattered the apartment's suffocating silence.
Kaylen approached the entrance cautiously, his center of gravity low and every muscle tensed. Years of surviving battlefields had trained him never to trust an unexpected visitor.
Beside the door, the security monitor displayed a live feed of the hallway.
He narrowed his dark brown eyes.
Standing outside was a young woman with light-blonde hair that framed her fair face and brilliant pale-blue eyes. She wore a white shirt tucked into a light red skirt beneath a long black coat.
She's beautiful, Kaylen observed with the detached objectivity of a soldier. There was no admiration behind the thought—only recognition.
Maybe she knew the man whose body I'm inhabiting.
Seeing no obvious threat, he unlocked the door.
The heavy door slid open.
She looked exactly as she had on the monitor.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
Then—
SLAP!
The sound echoed through the apartment.
Pain flared across Kaylen's cheek.
He stood frozen.
Every instinct screamed at him to react, to seize the attacker's wrist and neutralize the threat. Yet confusion stopped him before his body could move.
What... happened?
What did this boy even do?
Slowly, he raised a hand to his burning cheek, staring at the young woman in complete bewilderment.
Tears suddenly welled in her eyes.
"It's been almost a week!" she cried, her voice cracking. "Where were you? You never answered my messages! You wouldn't open the door!"
The anger in her expression crumbled into fear.
"After everything that happened... I thought..." Her shoulders trembled violently. "I thought you were going to do something terrible."
Her strength gave out.
She dropped to her knees.
Before Kaylen could react, she grabbed the front of his white shirt with both hands, clutching it desperately as tears streamed down her face.
"Why didn't you tell me how you were feeling?" she sobbed. "Why didn't you let me help you?"
"You don't know how much i cares about you and you thought i don't know the pain you are going throughout this few dayss"
She grabs kaylen clothes very tightly.
The apartment fell silent except for her quiet crying.
Something inside Kaylen broke.
Her trembling voice pulled him backward through time.
The gleaming apartment disappeared.
The polished floor became old wooden boards.
The glowing lights faded into the dim warmth of a small house.
He was home again.
...
He remembered standing before his mother.
Outside, war had already consumed much of Romania. The invading nation of Minocia continued to advance, and every day more soldiers failed to return home.
Kaylen had made up his mind.
"If I stay here," he had said, "I'll only be waiting for coffins to come back. I want to fight."
His mother didn't shout.
She didn't scold him.
Instead, she smiled—a gentle smile filled with unbearable sadness.
"Please don't, Kaylen."
A single tear slipped down her cheek and he sees in the eyes of the kaylen and says
"I don't want to lose another child because of this war."
Seeing that tear extinguished the fire inside him.
That night, he abandoned the idea of volunteering.
But fate had already made its decision.
The very next morning, an announcement echoed through every village.
Because of the severe shortage of soldiers, military service was now mandatory.
All eligible men would be drafted.
Later that afternoon, someone pounded on their door.
Before anyone could answer, two guards entered.
His mother stiffened.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
One guard answered without emotion.
"Your son has been drafted."
The broom slipped from her hands and struck the floor.
She stepped in front of Kaylen.
"My son isn't going anywhere!"
Her voice shook with desperation.
"Why do you keep sending other people's children to die? Why don't your leaders fight instead? Why my child?"
The first guard hesitated.
The second did not.
He climbed the stairs, grabbed Kaylen by the arm, and dragged him toward the door.
"Please!" Kaylen begged. "Just let me speak to my mother once!"
The first guard refused.
The second sighed.
"One minute."
Kaylen broke free and ran back.
He threw his arms around his mother, holding her as tightly as he could.
"I'll come back," he whispered, forcing himself to smile.
"Just wait for me."
She gently held his face.
Then she leaned forward and kissed his forehead.
"Fight bravely..."
Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks.
"...and come back to me, Kaylen."
Those were the last words she ever spoke to him.
Reality returned.
The wooden house vanished.
The dirt roads disappeared.
Once again, Kaylen stood inside a apartment in the year 2526 in the body of someone else
Sofia still clung to him, her fingers gripping his shirt as she quietly cried.
His chest tightened.
He had promised his mother he would come home.
He had promised to protect his closest friend.
He had failed them both.
The wounds he had buried for so long tore open all at once.
His vision blurred.
Tears overflowed before he could stop them.
The unshakable soldier who had endured countless battles finally broke.
Silent sobs shook his body.
Sofia felt him trembling.
Confused, she slowly lifted her head.
Her pale-blue eyes widened.
She had expected annoyance.
She had expected cold silence.
Perhaps even anger.
Instead, the man standing before her looked utterly shattered.
The tears flowing down his face weren't those of someone trying to avoid responsibility.
They were the tears of someone carrying grief far older—and far heavier—than she could possibly imagine.
For the first time since she had known him, Rian looked completely broken.He fells down on the save level as her and his face fells down to her shoulder.