‘This damn world is nothing but a breeding ground for shallow lies, where people sell their souls for a fake smile and call it happiness—everyone’s so damn eager to drown in their own corruption, and I’m just here, will watch it burn.’

  Panic grips my chest as I stumble through the pouring rain, my feet pounding on the pavement in a desperate attempt to outrun the danger behind me. The once serene sky is now a deep red, matching the blood that drips from a gash on my forehead. My heart hammers in my ears as I pass other runners, their eyes wide with fear and arms outstretched to offer something...or maybe they just want to grab hold of me. I don't know, and I don't have time to find out. All I can do is keep running for my life, the sound of footsteps and labored breathing getting closer and closer with each passing second.

  The rain battered his face, mixing with the blood from a gash above his eyebrow. He limped through the deserted streets, gasping for breath as he pushed himself to keep running.

  But his injured leg screamed in protest, and he knew he wouldn't be able to keep this pace much longer. Fear gnawed at him as he imagined what would happen if they caught up to him.

  Why the hell he was running did he do something. Oh he leaked the evidence containing corruption of ……… he forgot who was it, never mind it was not important currently.

  The world spun violently as memories crashed through Ethan's mind, threatening to consume him. He didn't have time for this now, not with everything at stake. But the images came anyway, sharp and cruel like jagged shards of glass.

  "You're throwing your life away!" Dean Morrison's voice boomed in his head, his face twisted with disappointment. "A full ride scholarship to Stanford, and you ruin it all over a fight?"

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  But they hadn't witnessed what he had. His cousin's ripped shirt, the terror in her eyes as she trembled in fear from those three entitled seniors. The way her voice shook as she called his name. They all had been quick to believe the "star athletes" over him – the troubled scholarship kid. No one would believe that the star pitcher of the baseball team had tried to...

  His stomach churned violently. The memory shifted to the aftermath: his cousin sobbing uncontrollably as she desperately tried to clean his bloodied knuckles, begging him to let her tell the truth. But he had made her promise to stay silent. The system was rigged – he had learned that lesson watching his parents' case get swept under the rug. At least this way, she could keep her job at the hospital, keep her life intact. Even if it meant sacrificing his own future.

  She blamed herself for what happened to him.

  But she was wrong. She was the only person left who saw past his flaws, who still believed in him despite everything that had happened. The only one who...

  A distant shout pierced through the chaos in his mind, bringing him back to reality – a reality filled with rain and blood and fear. His leg throbbed with each step, sending bolts of excruciating pain throughout his body. But he couldn't stop now. Not after everything he had been through. Not after everything he had sacrificed for justice and truth.

  The footsteps behind him grew louder, and the red sky seemed to pulse like a living thing. Ethan's vision swam, his injured leg finally giving out as he stumbled into a narrow alley. The brick walls pressed in around him, seeming to writhe in his blurred vision. The world tilted sickeningly.

  What happened next he even didn’t remember as his consciousness begin to waver

  He tried to scream, but no sound came out. The world around him began to stretch, reality becoming elastic. His body felt like it was being pulled in a thousand different directions at once.

  The last thing he saw before consciousness fled was a matrix of lights that seemed to extend forever, each point burning with the intensity of a sun. Then darkness took him, and he fell through @#$@#%%$@%$^^@$$, his mind mercifully shutting down to protect itself from what it couldn't process.