Chapter 1: The begining after the end (1)
The street was quiet, but the air was thick with whispers. Outside a weathered, dimly lit house, a small crowd had gathered. Neighbors, strangers, all drawn by the scent of tragedy. Some stood in silence, others murmured behind their hands, their eyes fixed on the scene unfolding before them. From the doorway, police officers emerged, carrying a body wrapped in a bloodstained white sheet.
Behind them, flanked by two officers, walked a young man in handcuffs.
He looked no older than twenty-two, tall but lean, with a sharp, angular face and messy black hair that clung to his forehead. His clothes were stained, his face bruised, yet he held himself upright, eyes dark but calm, as though he had already accepted whatever judgment awaited him. His name was Rimon, the eldest son of the broken family inside.
Trailing close behind, sobbing uncontrollably, was another boy. Naofumi , the youngest son.
He was smaller, barely eighteen, with the same black hair but a softer, more delicate frame. His eyes, red and swollen, .
"Brother, don't go!" he cried,clung to his older brother Rimon's arm with desperate hands. voice cracking. "You don't have to do this!"
He turned to the police, choking on his words. "Please, officer…my brother is innocent! He didn't do anything!"
But no one answered. The cuffs stayed on. The distance between them grew.
People in the crowd started talking.
"I heard the older brother killed his own father."
"Such a monster… how could he?"
"Didn't their father drink and beat them all the time? Rimon was the one working and taking care of the family."
"What a tragic family… They used to live in a high-rise building. I heard their 11-year-old daughter fell from the balcony and died."
"Yes. After that, the mother couldn't take it. She hung herself a few weeks later."
"Truly heartbreaking. The father was never the same after that. He started drinking heavily. Lost himself."
"But still… even if the father beat them while drunk, isn't killing your own father truly cruel?"
one woman whispered, shaking her head. "That boy must be a psychopath."
No one really knew what had happened inside the house. But the crowd was quick to judge.
The officers dragged Rimon toward the waiting police van. Nafees fought to stay close, digging his fingers into his brother's shirt, sobbing uncontrollably.
But the officers forced the two brothers apart.
As Rimon was being led away, his face was battered. His wrists were bound. But a faint smile touched his lips as he looked up at the sky and said:
"The wind carries no malice. It moves on, while we stay behind, tangled in things long gone."
Then he turned his head toward his younger brother one last time and added, softly:
"Be free of this moment. And live happily, my lovable young brother."
Time moves forward like the winds, but we trap ourselves in the past- hurt, memories, losses, while life keeps flowing, light and free. His older brother urged him to find happiness.
Hearing those words, Nafees broke down even more.
Tears streamed from his eyes, mucus from his nose, and drool from his mouth, leaving his face a complete mess.
The officers took the eldest son away in the police van, the heavy doors closing with a final thud.
Nafees ran after the van with all his might, tears blurring his vision and heart breaking with every step.
But his legs couldn't keep up forever.
Suddenly, he stumbled and fell face-first onto the rough ground, Skin tore. Blood welled. Pain shot through him, but it was nothing compared to the ache in his chest.
"If only I had controlled my anger… if only...if only i had more courage...cough..cough...My big brother, who was my everything...wouldn't have had to sacrifice himself."
Nafees's voice trembled as memory dragged him backward to where everything went wrong...
* * *
Their home had always echoed with violence. Their father came home drunk, again and again, fists flying, rage unrelenting. Words were weapons. Bruises came often.
Today, like so many others, he began beating Nafees the youngest of the house again. The blows came harder than usual, fueled by depression.
Then, turning his fury toward Rimon- the eldest son, he shouted, "It's because of you that she had to die!" He meant their sister, the one who fell from the balcony.
The wound that never healed.
The father didn't stop. His fury boiled over. He grabbed a kitchen knife and lunged at Rimon, screaming obscenities.
As he lunged at Rimon, Nafees- the youngest son driven by terror, picked up another knife and swung wildly to defend his brother.
The blade cut through empty air.
It didn't hit anything. just flailed, useless and desperate.
His father froze for a moment, stunned by the sudden defiance. then turned on Nafees with burning eyes, face twisted into something inhuman.
"You dare raise a hand at me?"
He stormed toward the boy, knife raised high.
Nafees stumbled back, legs buckling beneath him. The knife clattered from his trembling grip. He fell to the floor, breath caught in his throat, heart pounding like a war drum.
Paralyzed. Small. Helpless.
Then...Rimon moved.
Bruised, bloodied, half-conscious. he surged forward.
And grabbed their father's leg. The sudden pull threw their father off balance
In that fateful instant !!
Thud...shlk!
...Nafees frozen on the floor, still gripping the knife without even realizing it...felt it...
The blade, angled upward from his trembling hands, slid into his father's throat. !!
There was silence.
The monster who tormented them lay still, and Rimon the protector, the shield took the blame.
* * *
Tears streamed down Nafees's face, hot and endless. His chest heaved, crushed beneath the weight of guilt.
"My big brother… he didn't deserve this. He took the fall for me… and I just let him..."
While Nafees was blaming himself..
A sound split the air like a thunderclap.
CRASH!
The sound tore through his spiraling thoughts like a blade of lightning. Nafees snapped his head up.
Smoke curled into the sky.
Twisted metal.
The police van had shattered the side railing of the bridge just ahead.
Time held its breath.
The steel frame hung suspended for the briefest second...then dropped.
Splash!
A column of water exploded from the river as the van crashed into it, swallowed almost instantly by the depths.
"No... no...noooooo... Rimoooon!"
His scream tore through the chaos. His heart pounded like it wanted to burst from his chest. There was no time to think, no time to fear. He scrambled to his feet and bolted, every muscle burning with purpose.
His shoes pounded against the pavement, breath sharp and ragged, each stride driven by a single, unshakable thought
'This can't be how it ends.'
Without hesitation, without a second of doubt, he ran straight to the edge and jumped.
For a moment, everything went quiet.
A violent plunge.
Icy. Suffocating. Absolute.
The water closed in around him like a fist, stealing the warmth from his body and the air from his lungs.
To be continued.....