Page 2 of Mystic's Sunrise

My throat tightened. Rage simmered under my skin.

What the fuck did they leave me with?

A soft voice broke the silence.

“Kain…” A nurse stood at the doorway, her eyes gentle, careful. “You survived. That’s what matters.”

Did it?The thought flickered, bitter and sharp.

I set the mirror down, gaze fixed on the ceiling tiles. Each breath felt heavier than the last. The man I had been… he didn’t make it out of that alley.

And what was left?

Hell if I knew.

A sliver of light crept across the floor, thin, golden, uninvited.

Dawn.

The world got its sunrise.

All I got was the wreckage.

***

ONE YEAR LATER

I used to think war would be the thing that broke me.

Turns out, it was peace.

Been out almost a year now. That’s what the VA calls it—out.Like I walked away clean.

But the truth is, part of me never made it back.

The quiet’s the worst part. You’d think I’d be grateful for it after everything. But silence has teeth. It chews on your memories, gnaws on your regrets. Leaves nothing but bones.

I don’t leave the house much. Not because I’m scared. Because I’m tired.

Tired of the stares.

The pity.

The whispered comments when people think I can’t hear them. I don’t need the world to remind me I’m not the same.

I already know.

I don’t look in mirrors anymore. The air’s gone heavy. These walls feel like they’re closing in, inch by inch. I sleep in my boots, tense at every slam like war just walked in through the back door. I keep hoping time’s got a cure—but I think it’s outta medicine.

That’s when the knock came.

Heavy. Certain. Not the kind of sound you ignore.

I opened the door and found two ghosts from a different life—Adly and Calder. Or as they’re known now—Devil and Chain.

Same cocky grins. Same steel in their eyes. They looked like life hadn’t laid a hand on them. Not really.

Adly’s leather cut caught the sunlight, the patch over his chest unmistakable. Calder just leaned against the porch rail, arms crossed, like we were seventeen again and he was waiting for me to sneak out through my bedroom window.