CHAPTER 1 — The Debt Awakens
The rooftop fell into a suffocating silence.
No one clapped. No one spoke.
Phones were still raised, but even the people recording didn’t seem to breathe anymore.
The man stood.
Actually stood.
His legs—once useless, lifeless—held his full weight as if they had never forgotten how.
“What… what did you do to me?” he whispered, his voice trembling in a way it never had before.
The boy didn’t answer right away.
He just watched him.
Calm. Unblinking.
Like a judge who had already made a decision long ago.
“Three,” the boy finally said softly.
The man staggered.
A sharp pain stabbed through his chest—not physical, but something deeper. Something buried.
Images.
Memories.
His brother.
A hospital room.
Machines beeping.
A hand reaching for his.
“Please… help me…”
The man collapsed back into the chair, gasping.
“I didn’t… I couldn’t…” he muttered, shaking his head violently as if trying to erase the past.
But the boy stepped closer.
“You wouldn’t,” the boy corrected.
The words cut deeper than any blade.
The wealthy man’s face drained of color.
Years ago, his brother had begged him for money—just enough for a life-saving procedure. But the man had refused. Said it was “bad investment.” Said it wasn’t “guaranteed.”
Three weeks later, his brother was dead.
“I was protecting my future,” the man said weakly, as if repeating a lie he had told himself a thousand times.
The boy tilted his head.
“And now,” he said quietly, “your past is protecting you.”
The man looked up, confused, terrified.
“What does that mean?”
The boy’s eyes darkened.
“It means this miracle isn’t free.”
A cold wind swept across the rooftop.
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And for the first time in his life…
The man was afraid of what he had gained.
