1 Prologue

A blinding light.

The deafening sound of silence.

Silence? Leon's hearing was probably impaired, there was no way everything nor anything was silent. Before his eyes were the ruckus and destruction. The flaming fires and the tempest. Something a seven year old child could never imagine to experience in his life.

He feels the suffocation due to the huge amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Suddenly thrown into confusion, his mind was in a constant state of panic. His eyes were blurry as his eyes were teary due to the pain he was feeling. He saw his left hand bloodied as he touched the side of his head when he was thrown outside through the windscreen of the car due to the force of the collision. Pieces of glass shards was everywhere as he looked around in fear and agony.

His stretched his arms, hoping to reach her - a woman who was trapped inside the burning car, Leon's mother. His mind willed his body to go and rush over to her to save her, but his incapable body made sure he cannot. He felt powerless and pathetic.

He was unable to protect the most important person in his life. And this thought ran through his head over and over, as if a cursed spell upon himself. He bit his lips hard as if the pain was not enough for him, he wanted to feel for his mother too.

She has let down her life in order to save his own son and that was what he cannot seem to comprehend. It was the purest form of love; to sacrifice oneself for the sake of the others. But for him he thought it was... stupid.

'It was supposedly yourself before others, that humans are selfish. But then, why? Why did you have to die? Of all the people in the world, why is it that it has to be you. What would I be without you? This world is unfair. This is unfair. If I wasn't with you then, would she survive? Would she pick her survival against all odds and get through this?', Leon thought.

While she was slowly dying before his eyes, he was down on the ground, squirming in pain, crawling closer, hoping to reach her. Hoping to be with her in her final moments. Pain shot in his stomach, like it was turned into knots. He felt indescribable pain. He was unable to move anymore. Such willpower is not enough to overcome the physical limitations he has.

His mouth agape. His soul was howling; yet no audible sound came out of him. His heart was breaking. He was beyond torment but no tear fell from his eyes anymore, it's as if he has died with her.

'Perhaps it's better to have died with her than to escape without her. I felt bad, that she lost her chance because of me. And that I have to suffer yet live through the pain. But the reality is that she saved me, so who am I to throw that precious life away?' Leon thought.

Surviving that hell was indeed a miracle.

Before he even understood what living means, he was forced to discern the thing called death; the concept of which living means dying eventually – a cessation of being, the ultimate end - la fin. In an early age, he was faced with the reality of life - where death is equal it does not exempt anyone of status or nature. Like rain, death falls upon everyone with no exception - poor, rich, kind, sinful — death is permanent; a never changing concept of the world.

Leon forcibly opened his eyes and exhaled the breath he didn't knew he was holding. 'Again. This dream again.' Leon sighed. Ever since that day, he was unable to dream about anything else. He had been dreaming the same dream for more than ten years now, yet, the memory was as vivid as if it only happened yesterday. He felt the heat and the agony. His subconscious mind always contained nothing but the repeat of his younger self spiraling between life and death - her death.

He blinked a few times as he recuperated from his dreadful state. Glancing at the digital clock on his wooden table in his bed side he said,

"Five-thirty, huh?"

It was way too early, but, he decided he cannot go back to sleep again thinking he might experience the same hell for the second time in a day. He decided to shrug off the blanket drenched by his sweat and removed it neatly from the bed, throwing it into the wash bin. His bare foot walked the familiar marbled floor of his small room and faced his mother's altar, like his everyday routine, he lighted an incense and offered a silent prayer, after which he said, "Good morning, mother. Please keep us safe as always."

After a short bow, he proceeded to his closet, wore black jogging pants and a sweater as he decided to take a short run outside as was his daily exercise. Stepping out of his humble house, he inhaled the fresh air and admired the dawn of a new day. He was glad that it was yet another ordinary day.