Chapter Text
Prologue: "A Cake without Frosting"
Reader Warning:
This includes drama, accidents, and mental issues or health. Reminder this is a work of fiction, none of these exist as this comes from the author's imagination only.
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Police sirens can be heard from afar, firefighters were trying to keep the citizens away from the area where the accident happened.
He held his head onto his shoulder, as tears went down his face, "wake up... Please." He was gripping onto his friend's hand as he tried to shake him.
"I-I'm sorry... Please... Don't leave me." The younger boy tried to wake the other one but couldn't. A police officer came and took Kai away. "Let go of me..." But Kai was too weak to release himself from the officer's grip.
"We'll take care of him, don't worry kid." The officer wrapped him with a blanket, then carried him in a bridal style. He left the younger one sitting at the back of the firetruck while his tears were dried on his face.
He watched as police officers, firefighters, and ambulances surrounded the place. Some of his friends were crying and were trying to comfort him. "Hey... Everything is going to be fine - I hope..." As Sophie tried to comfort him. The others were telling the officers of what had happened.
Sophie was trying to hold back tears, as she held Kai's head onto to her shoulders, as Kai's tears fell down his face. He couldn't forgive himself. "I'm sorry." He whispered to himself.
Jace was trying to keep himself calm, he watched Kai sit there, tears in his eyes. Jayden looked at him, he wanted to help his friend, he couldn't do anything, but feel helpless.
He watched his other friend, being surrounded by medicals, officers, and firefighters. He couldn't do anything to help his own friends. He almost felt useless towards them, thinking he was never useful in their eyes as he tried his best.
Meanwhile Kai felt numb, he wanted to apologize for his mistakes, he blamed himself for his carelessness. Getting his friends into trouble because of him. He wanted to disappear from his problems.
Sophie held onto Kai, as if afraid of letting him go and the losing him for good. She wanted to fix everything... She wanted to just be happy for once.
A police officer noticed the two from a distance, she walked towards them, and spoke in a soft voice, she couldn't bare to watch them blaming themselves, after all.... They were only college students.
"Everything is going to be okay... I promise." She smiled as she comforted the two, knowing her and her colleges will solve everything... She hoped. She didn't want them facing a horrible life, or a tragic past that they'll never grow out of.
The words lingered in the air longer than the sirens, softer than the crackle of the radios around them. Kai didn't answer. He only nodded weakly, as if agreeing would make it true. The blanket around his shoulders felt too heavy, too warm, like it was trying to hold him together when he was already falling apart.
He stared at the ground, at the dark stains soaking into the pavement. He knew better than to ask whose blood it was. His hands still felt sticky, still remembered the warmth of his friend's fingers going cold in his grasp. No matter how hard he clenched them into fists, he couldn't shake the feeling away.
The officer stayed beside them for a while, her presence quiet but steady. She spoke to the paramedics, to the firefighters, to someone over the radio-her voice calm, practiced. Kai wondered how many nights like this she had seen. How many promises she had made that couldn't always be kept.
An ambulance door slammed shut. The sound made Kai flinch.
"They're taking him to the hospital now," the officer said gently. "The doctors will do everything they can."
Everything they can.
The phrase echoed in his mind, hollow and uncertain.
Sophie tightened her grip around him when the ambulance began to pull away, its lights painting the street red and blue. "You hear that, Kai?" she whispered, her voice breaking. "They're helping him. He's strong. He'll be okay."
Kai wanted to believe her. He wanted to believe anyone. But the image of his friend lying still refused to leave his head, burned into him like a scar he didn't know how to carry.
As the sirens faded into the distance, the crowd slowly thinned. People went home. The street grew quieter. But for Kai, the night had only just begun.
Because no matter how softly the officer spoke, no matter how tightly Sophie held onto him, one thought kept repeating itself-louder than everything else:
What if okay was already out of reach?
And even as the world around him tried to move forward, Kai remained there on the cold pavement, holding onto a moment that had already slipped through his fingers, unaware that this night would follow him for the rest of his life.
The street was quiet now, the sirens fading into the distance. He hugged his knees to his chest, the chill biting through his clothes, but it didn't matter. All he could feel was the emptiness left behind-the warmth that had vanished with his friend's hand.
He closed his eyes, wishing he could undo everything, wishing he could go back and change even one small thing. But the night held him in place, heavy and unyielding, and for the first time, Kai realized that some moments, some losses, stay with you forever.
The wind whispered past him, carrying the faint echoes of laughter, of voices he would never hear again. He felt hollow, yet strangely aware-this pain, sharp as it was, would become part of him. A quiet lesson written into his bones: that life moves on, whether you are ready or not, and that some goodbyes, no matter how much you want to, can never be taken back.
How did this all happen?
Who is to Blame?
What are they talking about?
We'll never know... Or... We do... Let's hope for the future chapters.