Prologue
The moon shimmered like a graceful bubble in the starlit sky, bathed in light.
Light that tried to reignite the flame within my soul—
to soften me, if only a little.
The boy beside me stared at the crashing waves,
their roar echoing against the shore.
We stood atop a slippery rock,
ready to fall into the abyss—
to become creatures of the unknown ocean.
It was a night beyond words.
Even the finest writer would have struggled to describe it.
Only we knew what was hidden in our humble, lost hearts,
those hearts that once soared above green fields until the sunset pulled us down.
He didn't dare look at me.
His eyes fixed on the void,
as if the ocean's dark forces were controlling him.
I shouldn't have left that party with him.
But how could I command the soul not to follow where it longs to go?
If my soul sent me into the arms of the one I once hurt,
how could I resist?
Ever since I left him—
left him alone beside the sun that once bore witness to our eternal love—
he had changed.
He once whispered to me the story of the sun and the moon.
He spoke of the ocean.
But now, it seems this is where both of us will meet our end.
With his hands in his pockets,
he turned those green eyes toward me—
eyes that could tear me apart.
The hell in his gaze was tragic and cruel.
We were like strangers from another life,
trapped in a cruel déjà vu.
The cliché story:
we fall in love, and then it all crumbles around us.
But how can anyone call a story cliché
when they've never lived what we did?
The wind howled so fiercely that I regretted only wearing a black dress and tights.
My hair whipped in every direction,
my whole body trembling from the cold.
The stranger in front of me stepped closer,
closing the distance between us.
He pressed his nose to mine,
cupped my face in his warm, steady hands,
wrapped his arms around me and held my back like I was something sacred.
A fire ignited inside me,
burning bright from the warmth of his touch.
That sandy hair,
those green eyes,
his sun-kissed skin—
they drowned me in a joy I hadn't felt in so long.
I was happy he was next to me.
But I could feel his frozen soul—
cold, because of me.
I had frozen the last ember of love inside him.
And sadly,
I no longer hold the key to bring him back.
But I've learned to live with little.
I rested my head against his chest,
hugging him harder than he hugged me.
I was cold.
And tired of hoping.
Tired of even trying.
"Why did you ignore me all night, Abel?" he asked,
his voice faint and full of sorrow.
"I thought you didn't want to see me," I answered, uncertain of my voice.
"You're right. I didn't.
But I thought... maybe you'd still come to me.
I was wrong."
"Then why did you force me into your car, Kai?
What was the point?
We've already destroyed each other!" I shouted,
all the pain pouring from me.
It felt like we were in a twisted dance,
following a choreography made only of pain and toxicity.
"I couldn't stay away from you—
even if that's what you deserved.
I look at you, Abel,
but it hurts.
Because every time I do,
I remember what we were.
And what we became."
A dark silence fell between us.
A calm, demonic silence.
And suddenly I remembered your story—
about the moon's children being the stars.
A tale that used to make me laugh like a child at a magic show.
We had known each other so long.
Yet we didn't know each other at all.
When I left,
and returned to find him changed,
everything became clear.
We had nothing in common anymore.
He wasn't even warm to his own friends.
He shut down—
like a snail into its shell,
like a fish running from a shark.
And now what?
I hope for forgiveness?
Even my heart knows it's too late for that.
With tears on my cheeks,
I looked at him and said, with a trembling voice:
"Take me home, Kai! I'm freezing and I can't take this anymore!
I want to scream from the pain,
and you don't even care!
Did you ever care?"
"I cared more than you'll ever know," he said.
"I died from missing you."
"You only died of longing—
but if you truly cared,
you would've let me go.
We could've tried distance.
At least... I thought we could."
I pulled away from his embrace with a violent motion,
stumbling,
my legs no longer mine.
I wanted to leave.
To forget who I was with Kai.
We climbed down the cliff and got into the car.
I don't know why I sat beside him,
but I knew I was making a mistake.
I stared out the window,
trying to escape him.
Tears slid down the glass that held my head.
I drowned my eyes in the stars,
ready to forget Kai—
and everything we'd lived together.
Suddenly—
a blinding light.
A truck.
The windshield shattered into a thousand pieces,
sparkling shards flying toward us.
We shielded our eyes with our hands.
A truck just hit us?
Kai had lost control.
The car was airborne.
We didn't know what was happening.
It felt like another nightmare.
An eternal curse,
meant to destroy us both.
Then came the icy wind.
Salty and sharp,
making me tremble harder.
Colder than ever.
Like hell itself—
a place with no escape.
I opened my eyes.
We were underwater.
The car had sunk.
We were trapped beneath the waves.
Kai was beside me, unconscious,
his head bleeding.
I could feel the air escaping me.
My life fading.
I'm going to die.
And I'm sorry.
Sorry that Kai and I have to die like this.
That's when I understood—
we were lost in the abyss.
We had sunk
into an ocean
of lost feelings.
