Ethan Knox - November 2120
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The sound slices straight through sleep.
I groan, half turned into my pillow, eyes barely willing to open. 05:13 AM glows on the clock like an accusation. Whoever is out there has a death wish for both peace and humanity.
Bang-bang-bang.
"Ethan!" Sophie calls me.
Her voice doesn't match the urgency in her knocking, and that mismatch is what snaps something inside me awake. Not slowly. Not gently. Just… awake.
I'm out of bed before my brain catches up, sheets tangling around my legs as I almost eat the floor on my way to the door.
I throw it open.
Sophie is standing there, pale, glasses slightly askew, like she's been running through a thought too fast and hasn't caught up to it yet.
Something in her face makes my stomach drop before she even speaks.
"What happened?" I ask too quickly, too sharp. My voice cracks halfway through the question. "Did something happen to Kai?"
Her hands twist together. She pushes her glasses up, then lets them fall again like she's trying to find a version of herself that can say this properly.
"I went… to do the round and-" she starts, then stops.
My hands are on her arms before I even realise I've moved.
"Sophie," I say, quieter now, but barely holding together. "What is it?"
She swallows.
"He's gone."
The words don't land cleanly. They hit, but they don't settle. Like my brain refuses to accept they belong in the same world as me.
Gone.
I blink at her, once, twice, like it might rearrange itself into something less impossible.
"What do you mean he's gone?" My hand drags through my hair, tugging too hard, like pain might anchor me to sense. "Sophie"
"I checked the room," she says quickly, voice shaking now. "He wasn't there... the bed was empty."
For a second, there's nothing in me except a cold, widening space where something important used to be.
Then everything hits at once.
My breath catches, refusing to move properly. My chest locks like it's forgotten how to function.
No.
No, no, no.
I step back without meaning to, like my body is trying to create distance from the words so they stop existing.
"Go get the others," I say, too fast. "Now."
Sophie hesitates, like she wants to say something else, but I'm already moving past her.
I don't wait for permission from my thoughts.
I just run.
The corridor feels too long, too quiet, too normal for what's happening inside my head. Every step echoes like it's mocking me.
By the time I reach the medical ward, I already know what I'm going to find and I still can't prepare for it.
The door swings open hard. The room is cold and empty in the worst possible way.
Kai's bed is there, but it doesn't feel like his anymore. The sheets are twisted and fallen to the floor like something was pulled away in a hurry. The IV line hangs loose, the equipment disturbed, and there's a faint mark of blood where it was removed.
My feet stop working. My brain stops working. But my heart… doesn't.
Where is he?
The thought isn't even a question. It's panic dressed up as language.
I turn and run back out, already scanning, already searching, like I can force the world to give him back just by refusing to stand still.
"Finn! Noah!" My voice breaks halfway down the corridor.
Footsteps answer me almost immediately.
Finn and Noah come into view, both moving fast. Noah's face is already tight with calculation, but I can see it underneath, that flicker of something raw he tries to keep buried.
"Any sign of him yet?" Noah asks.
"No," I say, too quickly, breath tearing through my words. "Nothing. I should've stayed with him. I should've- I knew I should've- what if something's happened?"
My voice cracks again, and I hate it. Hate how useless it sounds.
Finn grips my shoulders firmly, grounding me like he's trying to stop me from spinning out of my own body.
"Ethan," he says, steady but firm. "You need to calm down. Panicking won't help us find him faster."
I open my mouth to argue, but nothing comes out.
Because he's right and I hate that he's right.
I drag in a breath that doesn't quite work.
Noah's voice cuts in, sharper now but controlled. "We split up. Finn take the basement. I'll check upstairs. Ethan go to the science block."
I nod immediately. There is no hesitation, no argument. Because there's only one thing my mind can hold onto right now.
Kai.
Finn hands us each a radio and without another word we all head in different directions.
The cold outside hits like a slap, frost crunching beneath my shoes as I run across the grass. The science block looms ahead, dark and silent, like it's holding its breath with me.
Every step feels too loud in my own head.
The building grows closer, swallowed in shadow, windows black and unreadable. There are no lights, no movement. There is nothing.
But I don't stop.
My hand is just about to meet the door handle when something snaps inside my head, not a thought exactly but a vision that cuts through everything like glass through water. My eyes flash blue for a fraction of a second, the present stuttering at the edges, and I see him.
Kai.
Standing at the cliff edge with the cold wind moving through his hair, completely still as if the world has already stopped asking him to move. The image is so sharp it almost feels like memory instead of possibility, and my body reacts before my mind can fully catch up.
I let go of the door immediately and change direction, turning hard on my heel as I sprint around the side of the building. My lungs burn almost instantly but I don't slow down, not even when the radio crackles against my chest.
"I think I found him," I say quickly, but I don't wait for a response. I can't afford to. My feet carry me faster as I cut across the grounds toward the cliff path, every instinct pulling me forward like a thread I can't break.
The science block disappears behind me and then the ground opens up ahead, the cliff edge coming into view under the night sky. My pace falters without permission, like something inside me already knows what I'm going to see.
And there he is.
Just like the vision.
Kai stands at the very edge of the cliff, facing the ocean, the moonlight spilling across the water below and turning it silver and restless. The wind moves through him gently, lifting his hair and tugging at his clothes, but he doesn't react to it. He doesn't react to anything. He just stands there as if he's been placed there rather than choosing to be.
My chest tightens painfully.
"Kai" I call out, and my voice comes out wrong, too thin, too broken.
He doesn't respond. Not even a shift, not even a hint that he's heard me.
"Kai" I try again, louder this time as I take a step closer, grass crunching beneath my feet far too loud in the silence.
Still nothing.
Something in me twists uneasily because this doesn't feel like him simply not hearing me. It feels like something is wrong in a way I can't immediately name, something that makes the air around him feel heavier the closer I get.
That's when I notice his feet.
The shadows around him are moving.
They curl like smoke, slow and deliberate, wrapping around his ankles and creeping up his legs and arms in ways that don't belong to normal darkness. They cling to him as if they recognise him, as if they are waiting for something.
My breath catches sharply.
"Ethan!"
Finn's voice comes from behind me, urgent, but I don't look away.
Not yet.
A second later I hear more footsteps and Finn and Noah arrive at my side, both of them freezing the moment they see Kai standing there at the edge.
And suddenly the silence doesn't feel empty anymore.
It feels like something holding its breath.
"Kai" Noah calls out, his voice stronger and steadier than mine could be.
But there's still no reaction and Noah flinches slightly.
"He hasn't moved since I got here" I say quietly, my eyes locked on him like if I look away even for a second, something will change and I'll miss it.
We all stand there in that heavy silence, watching him, waiting for something that doesn't come. Then Noah moves.
It's subtle at first, like a decision forming too quickly for anyone to stop. He steps forward, closer to Kai, and for a moment everything feels like it tightens with him, like the air itself is holding back.
Finn shifts beside me, tense, ready, but Noah doesn't stop. He keeps walking.
As he gets closer, the shadows around Kai's feet react which causes Noah to hesitate.
They move.
Not randomly, not like wind or light, but with intention. They slide across the ground and begin to coil upward, slowly wrapping around Noah's legs. The moment they touch him, Noah freezes in place.
"Noah" Finn steps forward immediately, reaching out, but Noah lifts a hand without turning.
"I'm fine" he says firmly, still facing Kai.
The shadows don't attack him. They don't lash out or try to pull him away. It's something more controlled than that. Almost like they're watching him, testing him, deciding whether he belongs near Kai or not.
The thought makes something twist painfully in my chest.
It doesn't feel like aggression.
It feels like protection.
Like Kai's mind, or whatever is left of it in this moment, is trying to keep the world at a distance.
Like nothing is allowed to get close enough to hurt him again.
I swallow hard, that realisation sitting heavy in my throat.
So I move.
I follow Noah's path, step by step, closing the distance myself. The moment I cross the invisible line around Kai, the shadows react again, curling up around my legs, tighter now, more insistent.
But I don't stop. I keep walking.
Because if this is all that's left of him trying to protect himself, then I can't be something he's afraid of.
I need him to know me.
As I get closer, something in Kai shifts and slowly, his head turns.
It's not sudden. It's careful, like movement costs him something. And when his eyes finally land on me, everything inside me stops.
He looks exhausted.
Not just tired in the way sleep can fix, but drained in a deeper way, like something has been pulled out of him and never returned. His face is empty in a way that doesn't feel natural. No expression, no emotion, no recognition.
Just… stillness.
My breath catches.
His eyes stay on me for a moment, then drift to Noah, then Finn, scanning each of us like we're strangers in a place he doesn't understand.
Nothing changes.
There's no flicker of memory. No reaction. Nothing that says he knows us at all and my chest tightens painfully.
"Hey," I say gently, forcing my voice to stay steady even as it breaks at the edges. "Do you know who I am?"
He studies me.
Not with recognition, but with something quieter. Something uncertain. Like he's trying to place me in a world that no longer feels familiar.
The shadows around him deepen slightly, as if responding to the shift in him.
And I can feel it then.
Something is wrong in a way I don't have words for yet.
"I've missed you so much" I whisper.
The words don't come out strong. They fall apart halfway through.
Tears blur my vision before I can stop them. I wipe at them with my sleeve, but they keep coming, stubborn and unstoppable.
He doesn't react. He just stands there in the cold wind, completely still, as if the world has forgotten how to reach him.
And I feel something inside me crack under the weight of it.
Because he's here.
But he isn't here.
My heart feels like it's splitting open all the way through.
I lean forward, crying harder now, but it doesn't feel like just sadness anymore. It feels like being lost in something too big to hold onto. My chest tightens so much it hurts to breathe properly.
What am I supposed to do if he does remembers me?
What if this is it?
What if he leaves me without even knowing he's leaving me?
Each tear drops down onto the ground beneath me, steady and uncontrollable, and I can't bring myself to look at him. I can't bear it. Not the emptiness in his eyes. Not the absence of recognition. Not the version of him that looks at me like I'm nothing more than air passing through.
I squeeze my chest harder, like I can physically hold myself together.
Then something changes.
The tears stop hitting the ground. Not because I stop crying, but because they land somewhere else.
A hand.
Cold at first, but gentle and real.
It rests against my cheek, slow and careful, like whoever it belongs to is afraid I might disappear if they move too fast. A thumb brushes under my eye, wiping the tears away with a softness that feels almost impossible in this moment.
My breath catches and I freeze.
Slowly, I lift my head and Kai is standing right in front of me.
Close enough that I can feel him. Close enough that the world feels like it's snapped back into place all at once and none of it makes sense.
His hand is still on my face, gently wiping away my tears like it's the most natural thing in the world. Like he's been doing it forever.
My heart stutters painfully.
I reach up immediately, gripping his wrist, not hard enough to hurt him, just enough to make sure he's real. Like if I let go, he'll disappear again.
My eyes search his face and this time-
This time they're not empty... there is hestitation. As if he's searching for something and then they shift into something else.
Into something more Kai.
Soft and present. Familiar in a way that makes something inside me ache and finally, finally settle at the same time.
"Sorry for making you wait" he says quietly.
And that's it.
That's all it takes.
Everything in me breaks open at once.
I don't think, I don't hesitate. I just step forward and pull him into me, arms wrapping around him like if I let even a second of space exist between us, I might lose him again.
And I hold on like the world finally decided to give him back.