The room fell silent after a while. Kael’s sister stood there with blood on her lips and fury in her eyes. A strand of white hair had fallen loose from her braid, sticking to her cheek where the slap had landed. Her chest rose and fell unevenly. Whether anger or fear, she didn't know, but she refused to lower her head. “I don’t care who you are,” she said through gritted teeth. “You’re not touching him again.” And for the first time since they barged into the house, the masked man hesitated. He hadn’t expected resistance, especially not after what he’d done to her. Kael noticed it too. Even through the pain flooding his body, something stirred inside him. His sister was hurt, her face bloodied, but she was still standing, protecting him. She had always been the shield between him and the world’s cruelty. She had faced it all so it would hurt him less. For one brief moment, even the men holding her seemed unsure. Then their rage returned, twice as hard. “Enough of this bi

Kael blinked slowly, trying to process the words he had just heard. “Kamen… Riders? Wait—you mean like the armored hero who saved me?” "Hero?" Tucker echoed from across the room. “Saved you?” Selena’s voice went sharp. “Now that’s quite the dangerous assumption.” Kael frowned at her newfound skepticism. “What do you mean?” Tucker let out a breath before setting his beer down with a dull thud. The bottle rattled against the wooden table. "Thing about Riders," he rubbed his jaw slowly, like he was deciding how much to explain. "there's a hell of a lot more of them than you think, each one with their own goals... their own unique way of going about things. Some will save your life today and slit your throat tomorrow if it benefits them." Kael stayed quiet. "But in the end, the end goal stays the same—” the man paused, his voice taking on a more serious tone—“be the last Rider standing. By any means fucking necessary.” The room seemed to shrink around Kael. And for a boy

The monster struck so fast he barely saw it move, sending Kael and itself falling off the rooftop. Kael managed to grab the edge in time, the sudden pull nearly ripping his arm clean out of place. He dangled over the side of the building for what felt like minutes as rain poured around him. And below him, the creature snarled. "Let go of me!" Kael yelled, his voice echoing his panic. Rainwater soaked his hand, making the metal ledge dangerously slippery. His fingers slipped for one horrifying second before tightening again with everything in him. Desperate, he kicked downward with his free leg until a final hard strike made the monster lose its grip, sending it falling to the ground below with a horrible thud. Kael stayed hanging there for several seconds, gasping desperately for breath. Then slowly, painfully, he dragged himself over the ledge and collapsed flat against the rooftop. He lay there for a long moment, catching his breath and trying to calm the pounding in his

‎Kael ran as fast as he could through the rain. His shoes splashed through puddles, and his heart pounded so hard it hurt. Behind him, the creatures screeched, getting closer. ‎He turned sharply into a narrow alley. The smell of trash and wet metal filled the air, but having lived all his life in such filth, Kael thought nothing of it. He crouched behind a broken trash bin, trying to stay quiet. ‎One of the creatures stopped at the alley entrance. Its head twitched from side to side, like it was sniffing for him. It looked like it suspected it's prey was near. ‎’Think, Kael. Think.’ His heart pounded as he scanned the alley for a way out. That was when he spotted a crushed soda can lying in the mud. Without thinking, he grabbed it. He waited for his moment, then tossed it down the opposite end of the alley. ‎The can clattered loudly. The creature’s head turned toward the noise. Then, with a shriek, it lunged that way. Kael didn't waste the opportunity. He ran in the oppos

The next morning, Kael followed Madam Kaname up to the rooftop. He carried a small metal plate of food in one hand, eating as he walked behind her. The food wasn’t much. Just cold rice and something that might have been fish, but he ate it like it was a feast. “We lost water pressure about three weeks ago,” Kaname said, pushing open the rooftop door. “For a while, I thought we’d be fine living off the water left in the tanks. But it vanished so fast you wouldn’t believe.” The door opened with a loud creak. The rooftop was covered with buckets and containers of all shapes and sizes, each filled with rainwater from the night before. Kaname sighed, brushing back a few loose strands of hair. “This is what we’ve come to. You drink it, it evaporates. You store it, and it goes bad. It’s like we’re trapped in some cruel version of the water cycle.” She crouched to scoop some dirt out of one of the buckets. Kael pointed to some plastic sheets stacked in the corner. “What about those?”