In a slightly luxurious room, the faint buzzing of a gaming console echoed throughout the walls.
Two boys who appeared to be in their late teens could be seen inside the room.
Their spiky black hair was messy, and their black eyes glared at the screen before them.
They can certainly be considered handsome due to their facial features.
Both looked utterly similar, just not so different in their appearance; even their voices held the same similarity as their faces.
The names of the boys were Samael and Lars.
Samael embodied whimsy, a carefree spirit who did what he liked and ignored what he didn't. His actions often seemed childish, even impulsive, but now and then there was a hint of something deeper beneath his reckless facade.
Lars, on the other hand, was methodical and precise. He was the kind of person who would excel at anything he set his mind to, like studies, sports, and hobbies. He was the embodiment of perfection, a model student.
Where Samael brought chaos, Lars brought order. And while they couldn't be more different, their bond was unbreakable.
Even with their different personalities, they still had the same favorite hobby, playing video games.
For two years, that hobby had driven them through countless hours of Zero: The Broken End, a game that had become their shared obsession.
They had guided the protagonist through peril after peril, carefully leveling him up, acquiring rare gear, and unlocking hidden secrets.
Now, they stood on the brink of the game's finale: the decisive battle against the villain, an enemy so powerful it was almost laughable.
Both brothers sat shoulder to shoulder, their postures a study in contrast.
Samael, the younger twin, slouched lazily in his chair, his lips twisting into a grimace of frustration.
Meanwhile, Lars, ever the composed one, leaned forward with his back straight and his sharp eyes glued to the screen.
"This is impossible," Samael muttered while his fingers moved frantically over the controller. "Who gives a villain this many powers? It's like they want us to lose!"
Lars didn't respond immediately.
Because his focus was absolutely on the game, he also moved his fingers with precise movements.
"There has to be a way," he said at last, his voice calm but firm. "If the developers made him this strong, there's got to be a strategy to beat him."
Samael threw him an incredulous look. "Strategy? Lars, he just wiped out half the kingdom with one move. We're toast!"
But Lars wasn't giving up. He never did. "We've come this far, Samael. We can't quit now."
The battle raged on, the twins working in tandem as they always did with Samael's erratic and high-risk maneuvers complementing Lars' calculated precision.
But the villain was relentless. Hidden ability after hidden ability unfolded, each more devastating than the last. The protagonist fought valiantly, but it wasn't enough.
In the end, the villain delivers the final blow with brutal efficiency, leaving the protagonist a crumpled heap on the battlefield.
The screen darkened, and the words [Game Over] appeared in bold yet mocking letters.
For a moment, the room was silent.
"...."
"...."
Thabbbb!
Then Samael let out a frustrated yell and hurled his controller to the floor. The plastic cracked with a sharp snap.
"Why?!" Samael shouted, his voice filled with anger and disbelief. "Two years of work, gone! That was so unfair!"
Lars, ever the peacemaker, placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "It's just a game, Samael. We can try again."
"Try again?" Samael whipped around to face him. "We wasted years on this! And for what? To watch the villain stomp all over us?"
Samael's head was fuming with anger as he had wasted time developing the character for years just to witness this abrupt ending...or was it the end?
He didn't know since the company hadn't declared that it had ended.
Lars then looked at the broken controller; it was a part of the game set they had newly bought. Their anger had cost them yet another piece of hardware. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying not to laugh at how seriously they were taking this.
The game they were talking about was named 'Zero: A Broken End'. It was a fantasy game filled with magical things and astonishing fight scenes.
From the name itself, one could guess that the story wouldn't have the desired ending as the players wished, but this was exactly what drove the players to jump into it and create their new ending while playing their characters.
And with that, the player had invested a considerable amount of time crafting the magical things, strategizing the moves, and perfecting their characters.
But even after that ....they lost. The Mc lost.
This was an absolute betrayal to the story as well as the players, and Samael, being one of those players, couldn't hold himself back.
Lars sighed, his calm exterior barely masking his disappointment.
"We can replace the controller," he said, glancing at the shattered device. "And we'll find a better strategy next time."
Samael's anger simmered, but he took a deep breath as his knuckles clutched onto his hands deeper and deeper.
He was about to respond when something caught his eye—a faint red light flickering on the broken controller.
"What the—" Samael blinked and immediately rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, the light was gone.
"Now what's wrong?" Lars asked, noticing his brother's strange expression.
Samael hesitated. "I thought… never mind. Let's get some food. I'm starving."
Lars gave him a long look but decided not to push. "Fine. Let's go."
The twins left the room, their footsteps fading down the stairs.
Behind them, the broken controller sat forgotten on the floor. For a moment, all was still. Then, a faint glow returned—this time black, pulsating ominously in the dim light.
**********
"Mr. Lars... Mr. Lars... Mr. Lars... please wake up..."
"Ah...hah...ha....h.
Hah...ha....ha...Yes." Lars abruptly opened his eyes as he sensed two hands lightly shaking his shoulders and a voice calling for him.
He blinked his eyes and then looked at the person; all he could see was a blurry image.
Moving his hands, he rubbed his eyes then again, his gaze fell on the person.
This time, he recognized the said person, but due to feeling a headache, his head swirled.
A soft feminine voice reached his ears amid his uneasiness.
"Finally, you wake up. I have been calling you for a while now."
The voice was of a nurse he was quite familiar with.
"Oh. I am sorry for the inconvenience. I was sleepy; that's why I took a quick nap."
He replied, his tone grumpy with little to no energy left in his throat, barely reaching the nurse.
"No problem but I think you aren't feeling well. Should I make an appointment for you to the doctor?"
Her voice sounded concerned.
Looking at her face, Lars thought she was a kind woman.
He smiled weakly, then standing up, he said.
"It's okay, Miss. I am fine."
"If you say so, Mr. Lars." She replied then she stated the thing she was here for.
"There's good news for you, Mr. Lars. The specialist had agreed to your brother's surgery and would make an appointment for you to discuss further."
As soon as her words reached Lars's ears, the uneasiness he had felt earlier all vanished, and an expression graced his face that was full of joy and hope.
"Is it true?! "
He asked only to make sure that he wasn't hearing things due to his swirling mind.
"Yeah, it's true. He agreed to come here from America just for your brother's case."
The nurse smiled at him warmly and Lars could see that she was genuinely happy for him and his brother. After all, they had known each other for two years now, so they were rather close.
"Thanks for letting me know the news, Miss Vesila."
"No problem, Mr. Lars."
Lars smiled a little and the nurse reflected.
After that, the nurse went back to her work and Lars moved toward the door just beside him.
Standing before it, he took a deep breath calming himself down to prepare himself to face his brother.
But suddenly.....
He clenched his fist tightly as he remembered the cursed memories of two years ago, but quickly composed himself, he forced a sweet smile while extending his hand to open the door.
The door creaked open, groaning on its hinges as Lars stepped inside.
The room was bathed in the cold, sterile glow of fluorescent lights. His brother, Samael, lay motionless on the hospital bed his frail frame tethered to a maze of wires and machines.
The rhythmic beeping of monitors punctuated the heavy silence adding a stark contrast to the stillness of Samael's body.
Lars' chest tightened as he took in the sight.
Pain.
It was an emotion he knew too well, like an unwelcome shadow that clung to him without giving him a chance to fight back.
His gaze lingered on Samael's face. His brother's eyes appearing glassy and unfocused, stared blankly at the ceiling. He looked alive only in the most technical sense, with his shallow breaths keeping him stuck to this world.
Lars forced a smile as he moved closer, pulling up the stool beside the bed.
"Hey, Samael," he said softly, his voice warm but tinged with a sadness he couldn't mask. "Do you know what day it is? It's Mom's birthday."
Silence.
Obviously, he didn't expect a response. But still having the confirmation of the fact left him with a pained chest.
Samael's condition left him trapped in his mind with an unresponsive body and his thoughts locked away. Occasionally, his eyes would flicker, which would give a faint sign that some part of him was still there.
Lars clung to those moments, trying his best to convert the rarity into normality.
He reached out, his hand brushing against Samael's.
It was cold.
"Everything's okay, just wait a little. I will wake you up," Lars continued, filling the void with his voice.
Then, he spoke of some memories related to their mom like Mom's favorite cake, of the time Samael had accidentally spilled juice on her new dress and turned her scolding into laughter. He talked as if his words could break through the wall separating them as if sheer willpower could pull Samael back to him.
Suddenly his phone buzzed, interrupting the one-sided conversation.
Lars sighed, pulling it from his pocket.
"Yeah, Dad," he answered, his voice subdued.
—I'm on my way,' came the reply.
— 'I sent a prescription to your phone. Can you pick it up before I get there?'
"Got it. I'll be back soon." Lars ended the call, turning back to Samael. "I'll be right back, okay bro?."
He smiled.
Then he left the room and headed to the parking lot, climbing onto his bike. The city sprawled around him as the hum of traffic and chatter of pedestrians brought a stark contrast to the oppressive quiet of the hospital.
After picking up the prescription, Lars made a few stops. He bought snacks and a couple of comic books Samael had once loved and picked up a photo album he had ordered weeks ago.
Time slipped away as he moved through the errands, his mind never straying far from his brother.
By the time he started heading back, the sky was painted in shades of orange and yellow.
As he turned down a quiet street, a black cat darted in front of his bike.
Lars slammed on the brakes, his heart lurching. The cat froze, its golden eyes locking with his. Relief washed over him as he saw it was unharmed.
But then, something strange happened. The cat made a sound—an odd, desperate noise that almost seemed like… words. Lars shook his head, chalking it up to exhaustion. He restarted his bike, but when he glanced in the mirror, the cat was still there, chasing after him.
A chill ran down his spine. He twisted the throttle, speeding up until the reflection of the cat disappeared. But the strange encounter left a heaviness in his chest, a nagging feeling he couldn't quite shake.
Back at the hospital, Lars gathered his things and headed to Samael's room.
He had already talked about the prescription needed for Samael, and it would be given to him in time.
He walked down the hallway reaching.
Samael's room, with a happy expression, opened the door.
On the other side, he could see a tall man standing near Samael's bed, his hand had an injection that was injecting some red medicine on Samael's wrist.
He froze for a second.
But then thought of him as a medical person and moved.
However, proving him wrong was a rapid beeping of medical equipment as it showed the quickened heart rate of Samael.
Immediately, his voice echoed in the room.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing ?! "
He immediately reached for his brother and looked at the equipment, it still had an increasing heart rate.
Lars turned to the side and cast his gaze on the man as his voice dripped from the rage.
"What did you do to my brother?! And who the hell are you?!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs as his voice fumed with anger.
Due to seeing his brother's state, Lars couldn't contain his emotions and let them explode.
Not responding to him, the man took out sharp scissors and lunged forward at Lars who had his eyes widened for a second.
Quickly responding due to reflexes, Lars stepped aside as the scissors missed him by an inch. However, the man didn't stop there.
Lars saw an upcoming pair of scissors coming for his throat, his heart quickened instantly feeling the danger.
Lars barely had time to react when the man lunged at him, the glint of scissors catching the sterile glow of the hospital room lights.
His heart pounded as he stumbled back, narrowly avoiding the attack.
The man was wild; his attacks were meant to kill Lars, and that made Lars shudder in fear.
"Stay back!" Lars shouted; despite the chaos, his voice remained steady.
The man visibly ignored him and slashed again.
Thinking quickly, Lars spotted the wall behind the attacker and waited for the attack to come at him. When the scissor came down, Lars sidestepped and grabbed the right wrist of the attacker, then twisting it hard, he grabbed his other arm which was aiming for a punch.
The scissors dropped to the floor as the metallic sound followed along.
The man roared in anger but ignoring it, Lars threw his right knee at the midsection of the man.
"Urgh!!.."
Stumbling back the attacker groaned in pain as he clutched his abdomen.
Not wasting any time, Lars threw himself on the attacker with full force and slammed his head on the wall.
The man immediately lost consciousness and dropped to the floor.
Lars stood there dazed, with his chest heaving. His breaths came in shallow gasps,
" hah..hah...hah...."
He looked at the man lying on the floor and clutched his fingers hard, realizing the deed he had done.
The silence enveloped the room.
Quickly regaining composure, Lars turned to his side, but then—he felt something on his back.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
He looked down and saw drops of blood dripping on the ground.
The thick red color liquid dripping from his abdomen, the realization hit him as he felt immense pain surging at his waist.
He didn't have any time to think as the knife went deeper inside him.
"UGRH!!!" He groaned in pain.
"W...ho...?" Lars's voice became weak, barely reaching the new attacker behind him.
He quickly twisted his body and separated himself from the new attacker.
Stumbling back, he pressed his side waist hard to stop the blood and gazed at the man before him.
The reality hit him and it shattered the world around him as he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Lars froze as if the air had turned to stone around him. His heart slammed hard against his chest, each beat echoing like thunder in his ears. He blinked, his vision swimming, but the figure before him didn't vanish.
It was impossible—impossible.
"Dad?" The word slipped from his lips, barely a whisper. His voice cracked, raw, and disbelieving.
The man stood there, older but unmistakable. The same eyes, the same sharp jawline. He even carried himself the same way, shoulders squared like his dad who he had trusted the most.
He could believe anything.....
Anything except the fact that he was the one who had attacked him.
Lars shook his head, his breath coming shallow and uneven. "No… you're not..you can't be my dad."
But the man took a step forward, his expression neutral and unreadable.
"Lars," he said coldly, his voice like a ghost from the past.
Lars didn't move, didn't breathe, and was caught in a moment that shouldn't exist.
His throat tightened, and a single thought repeated over and over, hammering through his mind.
This can't be real. This can't be real.
But before he could do anything, his father moved and pierced his abdomen with another thrust using the same knife.
Barely Inches apart from their faces, Lars weakly looked at his father who had the same unreadable expression.
"W..hy...da...d?!" He asked weakly as his consciousness was fading away with time.
The man didn't say a thing and separated himself from his son.
He moved back and turned around to leave the room.
Lars slumped on the floor as a heavy amount of blood dripped from his body.
With his back against the wall, Lars just stared at the back of the person who was the closest person to him beside his brother.
The end was nearing for Lars, he turned toward his brother and saw that the line on the medical equipment was straight indicating that he was dead.
The fact left him with unimaginable pain coupled with his physical pain; he screamed internally for all of this to end; he wished to die quickly.
As if the god had reacted to his wish, his body became cold reacting to the natural process.
Several drops of tears rained down Lars's chicks as he began to lose consciousness.
Various memories flashed before his eyes, happy ones, sad ones, wholesome ones, bitter ones, all of it passed through him in an instant, and then he closed his eyes, hoping to meet his mother and brother in another life if he had the chance.
The world became blank before Lars.
And he lost himself in an endless abyss.
*********
The next day, the news was airing on the TV of some unknown house.
The journalist spoke about the incident in the hospital.
—"Good evening. Breaking news tonight: a tragic incident has unfolded at [City Hospital], leaving the community in shock and mourning. Reports confirm the loss of four individuals in this incident.
The victims have been identified as Lars Walker, Samael Walker, and James Walker with David Turner as the killer who also killed himself later on. Authorities are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those affected during this difficult time. We will continue to follow this developing story closely and provide updates as more information becomes available. Stay tuned for the latest details. Back to you."
The room of the house was eerily silent while the news broadcasted on the T.V.
However, at that particular moment, one could see a cat near the window as it quickly passed by.
*********