A STORY JUST FOR ME

We left at dawn.

The wind was soft, the dust clung to our boots, and the sky looked more like glass than sky.

I remember Mireya walking ahead of me.

Her coat snapped in the wind like a flag.

She didn't talk much—just gave me a job.

"Guard the rear convoy. Don't touch the controls."

I didn't.

Not because I feared punishment…

But because I felt something strange humming in my chest all morning.

A warning.

A whisper.

A silence that didn't feel right.

Eui floated near my shoulder, unusually quiet too.

He said something—

"This bridge… something's wrong with it."

"I can feel a pressure under the steel. Like something… waiting."

And then it happened.

A siren—loud and shrill—ripped through the air like a scream underwater.

People shouted.

Vehicles halted.

And the earth—the very bridge beneath us—began to crack.

Then the first explosion tore through the middle of the column.

Flames.

Screams.

Steel shrieking as it buckled and snapped.

Someone grabbed my arm. I think it was Quincy.

I saw his red cloak.

He shouted something—I couldn't hear it.

And then Mireya appeared too. Her hand was outstretched—

But I never reached them.

The bridge beneath me crumbled like paper.

My fingers clutched at the rail.

My legs scraped along jagged rebar.

I saw Eui scream something.

"WANDERER!!"

And then I fell.

The wind tore through my ears like a scream.

The world twisted, turned, and then disappeared.

And then—

Water.

A cold, crushing silence swallowed everything.

I didn't remember hitting the surface.

Only the weightlessness. The pain. The distant sound of someone shouting my name.

I tried to open my eyes.

I think I did.

But all I saw was blue and black and blur.

For a moment, I thought I had died.

I don't know how long I drifted.

Maybe hours. Maybe days.

All I remember is waking up on a bed made of reeds.

A fire crackled nearby.

There were jars on the wall. Glass bottles full of leaves, dust, and glowing powder.

The roof above me was made of weathered wood, patched with old signs and scrap metal.

And then—footsteps.

A figure stood in the doorway, watching me like they weren't sure if I was real.

Their eyes were sharp but tired.

They looked like someone who had lived through ten winters in a single season.

"You finally woke up," they said.

"You were in bad shape when I found you.

Lucky the river didn't pull you deeper."

"You've been out for a while.

But you're safe now."

"What were you doing out there? "

I blinked. My throat was dry. My head felt heavy.

"…I…I don't know."

That wasn't a lie.

I didn't know where I was.

Or who this person was.

Or if you, Eui, were even still alive.

But I was breathing.

And I wasn't alone.

They didn't say their name.

They just handed me a warm drink and said,

"You should rest. You'll need strength.

You've wandered into a place where the past still breathes."

I wanted to ask what that meant.

But the drink was already pulling me down, like sleep made of smoke.

As my eyelids fluttered closed again, I thought of you.

Your floating glow.

Your laugh.

Your stubborn little voice when I touched something I shouldn't.

"Eui… where are you? "

No answer.

Only the whisper of fire.

Only the quiet of a world moving on without me.