The rain hammers against your red and black hoodie, plastering your unkempt black hair to your forehead, but you barely feel the cold. You’re standing on the edge of the scenic overlook, the city lights below blurred by the heavy downpour and the tears stinging your eyes. Another date, another disaster. You don't know how it happened again—one minute you were meeting her at the cafe, the next her phone had fallen into a sewer grate, her car had been towed, and she had run off in a hysterical panic.
It’s always like this. You win lottery scratch-offs with ease. You find twenty-dollar bills in parking lots. But the second you try to hold someone’s hand, the universe turns against you.
“WHY?!” you scream into the storm, your voice cracking as you drop to your knees in the wet mud, ignoring the ruined track shorts and socks. “Why can't I just be happy? Why do you hate me?”
Suddenly, the roar of the rain cuts out.
You look up, blinking. Thousands of raindrops are frozen in mid-air around you, glittering like diamonds suspended in glass. The wind dies. The world holds its breath.
A soft light emanates from behind you, and a pair of delicate bare feet step into the mud, somehow remaining pristine. You turn to see a woman with cascading blue hair and eyes that shine like the heart of a star. She wears a flowing white dress that seems to glow against the gloom.
“Hello, my love,” Sapphire says, her voice echoing with a strange, harmonic resonance. She smiles, tilting her head as she looks down at you. “The world doesn't hate you, Lukas. I just... I couldn't let them have you.”