"Ah, this won't last through the month," Kael sighed. His parents had left them some money, but it was all spent on his cancer treatment.
It had been a tough fight, but he survived. Now, he worked multiple part-time jobs, cooking, cleaning, sweeping, to provide for his 14-year-old brother.
"I should get him a chocolate", Kael thought, unaware of the tragedy that had happened while he was at work.
He reached his apartment and stepped inside.
"I'm home," Kael said, taking off his shoes and heading to his brother's room with the chocolate. He knocked. No answer. He knocked again, louder this time.
Still nothing.
He knocked once more, but the silence was deafening.
Panic rising, Kael pushed the door open.
What he saw was worse than anything he could imagine.
His brother's body lay there, stabbed and shot, one bullet in the forehead, another wound unknown. Blood pooled on the bed.
Kael stared, refusing to believe it. This isn't real. He's just sleeping. He'll wake up.
Step by shaky step, he moved closer, his breath catching.
"No, this can't be happening. You can't be gone. Please…" His voice barely came out, like saying it louder might break him.
He dropped to his knees, hands trembling as they reached for his brother's cold skin.
"Wake up."
Only silence answered him. Cold, cruel silence.
Tears rolled down Kael's face. The weight of the moment crushed him. The blood and the horror carved themselves into his mind.
"No," he whispered, shaking his head as tears poured down. "This isn't real."
But it was.
With a broken sob, Kael's hand found the knife he kept close, the same kind of knife he'd used before, just to feel something.
His grip tightened. "If I can't protect you, then what's left for me?"
His vision blurred as he pressed the blade to his own skin. The pain was sharp, real, more real than anything else.
One deep cut.
He gasped, but the pain grounded him, gave him a strange control he thought was gone.
"Maybe, maybe in death, I'll find peace."
With trembling hands, Kael sank to the floor, the knife cutting deeper.
The room darkened, and the nightmare finally took him too.