Tyler burst out of the hospital doors, his heart racing as he stumbled through the dark streets. His mind swirled in chaos, every piece of information he'd received about his parents' death, the cryptic murderer, and Sarah—it was too much. Everything had crumbled. His whole life had shattered, and now he was teetering on the edge. He just wanted to disappear, to die. But he wasn't brave enough to do it himself. And then there was Sarah, the one person left who he still felt an obligation to save, despite the numbness consuming him.
As he wandered aimlessly through the night, a muffled sound broke through the haze.
Ring, ring.
Tyler paused. A phone was ringing nearby. He glanced over his shoulder, spotting a trash can by the curb. The ringing was coming from underneath it.
With trembling hands, he crouched down and found a discarded phone wedged beneath the can's four legs. He glanced around—nobody was there. The street was eerily quiet. Hesitant, he picked up the phone and answered.
"H-Hello?" His voice was barely above a whisper.
"Look to your left. After you pass three trees, the fourth one will have four small stones around its base. The note is under the stone on the right," an unfamiliar voice commanded. The line went dead before Tyler could ask any questions.
He stood in stunned silence for a moment, his mind blank. Then, without thinking, his legs began to carry him in the direction he was told. Three trees. He counted. Then the fourth. Sure enough, four stones circled the base of the tree. Tyler knelt down and flipped the stone on the right, revealing a small, folded piece of paper.
He unfolded it, and scrawled in jagged handwriting was an address.
"Pfft." Tyler scoffed. The weight of it all hit him at once, an emotional shock so severe he couldn't even feel it anymore. "Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHA." His laughter echoed through the empty street, a bitter sound, completely void of joy. He was trapped in a spiral of apathy—so numb that even suffering felt like a distant memory.
Still laughing under his breath, he followed the address. It led him into a dim alleyway, the kind of place you'd instinctively avoid, but Tyler didn't care. His vision blurred as he turned left into the darkness, his footsteps echoing through the narrow passage.
And then he froze.
In the darkness ahead of him, two figures struggled. One man was choking another with a rope, his face twisted in cold concentration. A gun lay on the ground beside them.
Tyler just stood there, watching the scene play out as if it were some distant dream. The man being choked fell limp, collapsing to the ground unconscious, and the attacker finally noticed Tyler standing there.
But Tyler didn't react. He didn't flinch. He didn't run.
The man moved quickly, grabbing the gun off the ground and pointing it directly at Tyler. "Don't move. Don't scream," he warned, his voice steady, dangerous.
Tyler's face remained blank, as if the gun in front of him was nothing more than an inconvenience. He felt hollow, emptied of everything except for this gnawing void inside of him.
The man holding the gun furrowed his brow, unnerved by Tyler's lack of fear. "You alright?" he asked, his tone shifting slightly.
"Am I?" Tyler's voice cracked, and suddenly all the pent-up emotion came rushing back like a tidal wave. "AM I FUCKING ALRIGHT?!" He shouted, his voice ragged and full of raw, broken energy.
"Yo, yo!" The man panicked, grabbing Tyler by the shoulder and shoving him further down the alley, away from any potential passersby. He kept the gun pointed at Tyler's chest, but now, he was more curious than threatening. "What the hell happened to you, man?"
Tyler let out a bitter laugh. "I'm not alright. Nothing is alright. My whole life... my whole life just fell apart in two weeks!" He sobbed, tears finally breaking through his hollow exterior. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this! But someone... someone came to me, threatened me with... I don't even know what, and now my parents are dead. They MURDERED them! And Sarah... they have her. They're holding her hostage, and I'm just—I'm just a fucking pawn in their sick game!" His voice cracked as he wiped his tears with the back of his hand. "I just want to die... I just want it to stop..."
The man's face softened, confusion mixing with a glimmer of understanding. "Who's Sarah? What are you talking about?"
"Sarah... she's all I have left... but they'll kill her in front of my eyes if I don't do what they say. And now... I'm a witness to your murder. You'll probably kill me too, right? So just do it. Just fucking end it already!"
The man with the gun looked at him for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then, he sighed. "I'm not gonna kill you, kid."
Tyler blinked, taken aback. "Why not? You just killed that guy. I'm the only flaw in your perfect plan."
"That guy wasn't you." The man shrugged, glancing at the unconscious figure behind him. "I came after him for a specific reason... but it seems to not be related to what you're saying. Besides, this isn't his gun, it's mine now. If anyone asks, he never existed."
Tyler's head spun. "Oh. Wait..." He paused, "So you're not connected to ED? You don't work for him?"
The man's eyes narrowed. "Who the hell is ED?"
Tyler pointed at the body on the ground. "Then... he's the one. The gun was his. This whole thing—it's his doing."
Silence hung heavy in the air as the two men stared at each other, both realizing that neither of them knew the full story. They were both trapped in a shadowy web of lies and violence, with only a vague understanding of the forces pulling the strings.
"Well..." the man said slowly, lowering the gun. "Looks like we've both got some figuring out to do."