beginning or end

The room was dim, washed in the last light of evening.

Soft shadows clung to the walls as if they didn’t want to leave.

On the bed, the boy sat quietly—pale, fragile, a soft cap resting over his head.

A fantasy novel lay in his hands, his fingers holding it with a strange kind of care… like it was something he didn’t want to let go of.

The door opened.

His parents rushed in.

No words—just arms around him, tight, desperate, breaking.

Tears fell, silent at first.

“Mom…” his voice was barely there, “let me see myself… one last time.”

Her hands trembled as she brought the mirror.

He looked into it.

Not quickly.

Not casually.

He looked… as if he was memorizing the face staring back.

She couldn’t hold herself together anymore.

“Son… may you live peacefully… in the next life…”

A faint smile touched his lips, fragile, almost invisible.

“Hmm… Mom… please read me that book… the one my friend was reading last night…”

For a second, she froze.

Then she picked it up.

“Eclipse Academy: Crown of Ash and Shadows.”

Something about the title felt unfamiliar… heavier than expected.

Her eyes lifted to her husband.

He looked at the book.

Then at their son.

Then, slowly, he nodded.

“Read it.”

Her voice shook as she began—

“…Raven Redclaw Marriott—the fallen prince of shadows—stood alone… at the end of everything…”

The words filled the room.

But he noticed something else.

Not the story.

Not the names.

The space between breaths.

At first, it was small… almost nothing.

A pause.

Then another.

His eyes shifted to his son.

Still facing his mother.

Still listening.

Still there.

Maybe I’m overthinking…

“…struck down by Laver Draper Kliers…”

His fingers curled slightly.

He watched—

Waiting for the next breath.

It didn’t come.

A soft exhale left the boy’s lips.

And then—

Nothing.

No struggle.

No sound.

Just stillness.

His chest didn’t rise again.

Time slowed.

Inside him, something broke into two—

One voice screaming: Say something. Stop her. He’s going.

The other whispering: Not yet… not like this…

“…and as Raven fell… there was no one left to hold him…”

His throat tightened.

No one?her won said in weak voice.

Her hands were shaking as she held the book…

but she kept reading, carefully, like every word mattered.

Like this moment mattered.

as if stopped now—

her son last memory wouldn’t be as wishes…

…as she continues....villain fell…blood soaked his all clothes and that the moment her the boy stopped breathing too.

but his mother didn’t know she comtinues.

“…while far from the battlefield… Laver Draper Kliers was pulled his lover peter Rander valis into an embrace…”

while his father eyes flickered once more to his son.

Still....

“…Peter Rander Valis—weak, barely standing—held tightly…his lover too as if he might disappear…again”his ...mother reads.

The irony settled in, quiet and cruel.The story gave the hero someone to hold him while the villain—nothing.

And here…

her son had never been alone, Yet he chose this story sad story before he parts his way from his mom and dad.

“…and in the end… the hero did not stand alone…”

Her voice trembled more now.

“…he chose to stay… beside the one he loved…”

A silence stretched between each word.

“…and they lived… happily ever after.”

The final line fell softly into the room.

For a moment, everything was still.

She smiled faintly through tears… as if finishing it mattered.

Then her hand reached for her son’s.

She touched him.

Paused.

Her breath broke.

“Cold…”she whispers.

The book slipped from her hands.

Her scream shattered the silence.

Her husband closed his son eyes.

Slowly, he stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder, steady, grounding… holding her together when everything else had fallen apart.

Father gaze drifted once—

to the fallen book.

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