CHAPTER ONE - THE NIGHT I STOOD STILL
CHAPTER ONE - THE NIGHT I STOOD STILL
I was seventeen, and the world felt heavy.
The kind of heavy that doesn't come from age, but from silence - the silence after too many mistakes, too many questions, too many nights staring at the ceiling wondering if God still cared.
The streets were quiet that night.
The desert wind moved like a whisper through the palms, and the stars looked down like they knew something I didn't.
I remember thinking that if heaven was real, it was far away - too far for someone like me.
I had dreams once.
Big ones.
But somewhere between anger and regret, they burned out.
I was just a boy trying to look strong while everything inside me was breaking.
Then came the fire.
Not the kind that destroys - the kind that reveals.
It wasn't outside me; it was inside.
A warmth that started small, like a spark in the chest, and grew until I couldn't ignore it.
It didn't speak in words, but I heard it all the same:
"You're not forgotten."
I didn't understand it then.
I only knew that something holy had found me in the dark - and it wasn't asking me to be perfect.
It was asking me to stand.
That night, I didn't move.
I just stood still, seventeen years old, staring at the stars, feeling the fire rise inside me.
And for the first time, I wasn't afraid of the silence.
