The rain hit the pavement in soft, rhythmic taps, a cold reminder of the sorrow Allen Walker carried on his shoulders. His black suit, impeccably neat but out of place in the downpour, clung to his tall frame. His umbrella, now forgotten, lay discarded by his side as he walked. The world around him was a blur of wet concrete and shimmering streetlights, but his mind was elsewhere—lost in memories he couldn't escape.
Today was the day he buried his mother.
A part of him couldn't fathom the loss. The mother who raised him through every hardship, who fought tooth and nail to make sure he could have a future. She was gone now. The funeral had been a blur, a haze of people offering empty words of comfort, their faces fading like ghosts in his mind. He hadn't felt anything except a numb coldness. It was as if the world had taken his mother and, in the process, stole his ability to feel.
Allen's steps echoed in the empty streets, the only sound accompanying him as he walked the familiar path home. The thought of his mother's funeral still clung to his mind, each step dragging him deeper into the memories of a past he could never escape.
As a child, his life hadn't been like this. It hadn't been filled with funeral halls and whispered condolences. There had been laughter. Joy. His parents, once so in love, had been the perfect couple in his eyes. The world had been simple, a place where everything felt right, where his biggest worry had been what toy to play with next.
But all of that changed when he was five.
It was then that the truth came crashing down, shattering everything he knew. His mother had found out that his father—his hero, the man he had looked up to—was cheating on her. And not just with some stranger, but with her sister. The betrayal was a wound so deep, Allen could feel the pain even now, years later. His mother's heartbroken tears had stained his memories forever, and their life spiraled from that moment.
They moved. Far away from the life they once had, from the house where his parents had shared their first kiss, from the place where Allen had been born. Everything was different now. His mother, once vibrant and full of hope, became a shadow of herself. The burden of providing for them both weighed heavily on her shoulders, and Allen, young as he was, could sense the quiet desperation in her eyes.
It was then that he made a promise—a vow to himself that he would never let her down. He couldn't. She had sacrificed everything for him, and in return, he would do everything in his power to succeed. He poured himself into his studies, became the model student, the quiet genius that always stayed at the top of his class. He was the perfect child. He didn't need friends. He didn't need anything except to do right by his mother.
Through high school, Allen's grades never faltered. He could feel the pride in his mother's eyes every time she looked at him, even though she hid the exhaustion that plagued her every day. But something shifted when he turned 16. Something, or rather someone, changed his entire world.
Her name was Emily. She was everything he wasn't: outgoing, confident, full of life. She was the spark that lit the fire in his chest, the first person who made him feel something other than the suffocating weight of responsibility. For the first time, he had a reason to smile—someone who made him believe that maybe, just maybe, happiness was possible.
He spent days thinking of her, counting down the moments until he could see her again. His heart raced when he saw her, and his thoughts seemed to stop whenever she was near. She was everything. She was his escape.
But fate, it seemed, had other plans.
The day he had finally gathered the courage to confess to her—when he was sure that his feelings would finally be returned—the school released a devastating bombshell. Emily, the girl who had filled every empty space in his heart, was involved in a sexual scandal with one of the teachers at the school. The betrayal stung more than anything he'd ever known. His heart, fragile and full of hope, shattered in an instant.
Allen sank into isolation once again, deeper than he had ever been before. The world felt colder, emptier, and every person he had once trusted seemed to fade into the background. His mother, always the steady rock in his life, had passed away just a few months ago, leaving him with nothing. No family. No friends. No love.
And now, as he stood here in the rain, the weight of everything seemed too much to bear.
His thoughts flickered back to the last moments of his life. The bomb. The explosion. The world going up in flames.
"I just… wanted a new life," he whispered, more to himself than anyone else. "A fresh start."
But there would be no fresh start for Allen Walker. No second chance. His body had been consumed by the blast, his final wish fading along with the destruction of everything he had known.
But what if, just this once, fate had other plans?