The day was supposed to be perfect.

  The te summer sun beat down on the bustling city streets, catching the golden-blonde waves of Isabel Freya’s hair as she ughed at something Alexander had just said. She practically glowed, radiating that effortless warmth that drew everyone in - the model student, the girl everyone noticed without even trying. Alexander - Alex to her - was just a quiet loner, content to blend into the background with his solitary routines. Yet, against all odds, he was the one who got to call her his best friend, sharing ughs in css and te-night study sessions. He loved everything about her, right down to the way her smile always made his chest ache in the best possible way.

  But he wanted to be so much more than that.

  They had stopped near the edge of a busy crosswalk. The city roared around them—a blur of bring horns, chattering pedestrians, and idling engines—but all Alex could hear was the frantic, deafening hammering of his own pulse. He swallowed against the dry lump in his throat, met her bright azure eyes, and finally voiced the words he had been agonizingly rehearsing for months.

  "I've liked you for a long time. More than friends. Would you... go out with me? A real date?"

  Isabel’s breath hitched. Time seemed to stop entirely. Then, a brilliant, radiant smile broke across her face, lighting up her features like dawn.

  "I thought you'd never ask," she whispered, stepping closer, the distance between them finally vanishing.

  It was the happiest moment of his life.

  It sted exactly two seconds.

  The horrific, gut-wrenching screech of locked tires tore through the mundane symphony of the street. The heavy, acrid stench of burning rubber suddenly choked the air. A massive delivery truck had jumped the curb, its brakes entirely shot, careening like a battering ram straight toward where Isabel stood.

  There was no time to think. No time to shout her name. Alex simply reacted.

  He lunged forward, throwing every ounce of his strength into her side. He shoved her violently out of the truck's trajectory, sending her tumbling safely onto the unforgiving concrete of the pavement.

  Then came the impact. It hit him like a thundercp—metal crushing bone, a burst of blinding agony ripping through his ribs, spine, and skull. The world violently tilted, followed instantly by a sudden, terrifying weightlessness as he smmed into the asphalt.

  When Alexander’s awareness flickered back for one final, fractured second, the world was muffled, as if he were sinking deep underwater. Pain ebbed into a chilling numbness; he couldn't feel his limbs. Blood bubbled at his lips, warm and metallic. The encroaching void was pulling him down, but a single, piercing sound tethered him to the waking world: Isabel’s voice, raw and broken, screaming his name.

  Her hands pressed desperately against his shattered chest, frantic and useless. Hot tears spshed onto his rapidly chilling skin. The beautiful, innocent light in her azure eyes had been completely obliterated, repced by an agonizing, world-ending horror.

  Don't cry, he wanted to tell her, desperate to comfort her one st time. You're safe.

  But his lungs refused to fill. He had no breath left to speak. The edges of his vision blurred, and the tragic, devastating image of her weeping face—framed by a halo of golden hair against the merciless blue sky—was the very st thing Alexander saw before the world dissolved into an absolute, pitch-bck void.