CHAPTER 1
Chapter 1: Blue Light Prison
The blue light of the smartphone was the only thing illuminating Aryan's face at 2:00 AM. In the sterile silence of his room, the world felt as though it had ended, leaving him the sole survivor of a quiet apocalypse. He scrolled through a relentless tide of videos, not for the content, but for the noise. The cold, artificial blue of the screen was a barricade—a digital static designed to drown out the deafening roar of his own thoughts.
For months, Aryan had lived behind a glass wall. He was a spectator to his own life, watching his classmates map out futures while he remained anchored to his bed by a heavy, invisible gravity.
Deep beneath the apathy lay a terrifying intensity. When Aryan cared, he didn't just like; he consumed. He hungered for a soul-tether so absolute it would never fray. He called himself a "psychopath" in the dark, convinced that feeling too much was a terminal defect.