Chapter Three: The Voice I Forgot I Had

Antony stared at the ceiling as sunlight poured through the thin white curtains. The walls were blue now—not metal. The air didn’t smell like bleach or sweat or fear. He turned his head and saw a school blazer hanging by the door. Real cotton. Real colors.

He had made it out.

Five years.

Five years since that rooftop. Five years since Lili’s shaking hands and tear-soaked voice had pulled him back.

He hadn’t seen her since. But he never forgot her.

She saved him. That day… he let someone see him. Really see him. And even now, sometimes, in his dreams, he still heard her say it:

> “Let’s start over.”

So he did.

His mom had cried again, but this time from joy.

> “They accepted you, Tony. A real school—no drills, no dormitories, no orders. Just… kids. Classes. Books. And a future.”

She saved up for years. Worked three jobs. Skipped meals. Sacrificed everything.

Antony didn’t have the heart to tell her he was still broken on the inside.

But he went anyway. For her.

Now, at fifteen, he sat in the back row of his new classroom, silent as stone. He never said hello. Never raised his hand. Never smiled.

Kids passed him in the halls like he was a shadow.

He didn’t care. Or maybe he did. But after all these years, the silence felt safer than words.

Until he showed up.

His name was Brian.

He was all golden—sunlight hair, sky-blue eyes, and a smile that belonged on TV. Everything about him was loud: his laugh, his stories, the way girls giggled when he walked past.

Antony noticed.

He didn’t mean to.

But he watched Brian the way he used to watch rain falling on glass: distant, unreachable, but beautiful in its own way.

There was something so alive about Brian. Like the world had never broken him. Like no one had ever told him he wasn’t enough.

Antony couldn’t imagine that kind of freedom.

He was watching Brian laugh with a group of students on the lawn after school when it happened.

Brian looked up.

Their eyes met.

Antony froze.

Then Brian… smiled at him.

And walked over.

“Hey,” Brian said, crouching beside the bench Antony sat on. “You’re new, right?”

Antony blinked. Didn’t speak. Just nodded once.

Brian tilted his head, playful. “Cool. I’m Brian.”

He held out his hand.

Antony stared at it like it was something foreign. Slowly, he reached out and shook it. His skin was warm. Alive.

Brian grinned wider. “You wanna come hang out? We’re going to get smoothies. Could be fun. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want. Just… y’know. Be there.”

Antony looked at him, surprised. He waited for the sarcasm. The prank. The cruelty.

It never came.

Just that same grin. That same kind voice.

“Come on,” Brian said. “Trust me.”

Two words.

Trust me.

Antony hadn’t trusted anyone in five years.

But somehow, as he stood up and followed Brian toward the group, he felt the strangest thing in his chest. Like a bird waking up in a cage that had been locked too long.

He didn't say anything.

But for the first time in years, he wanted to.

...

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