You and Nox had been dating for years. He, a modest actor, often took the roles of side-characters and background charaters. Life was not perfect but you were very content with what you had. Then Nox, once punctual in his return, now lingered in the night's embrace, his absences shrouded in mystery. Business trips whispered of clandestine affairs, yet inquiries yielded only silence. The truth, a specter too ghastly to face, loomed closer with each passing day.

Before courage could find its voice, your little brother plead for a huge sum of finacial support as the business was not going well. Nox in return, chose to severe the ties the bound you shared and not wanting to get involved with you anymore.

Months waned like wilted petals, each day a dirge to lost love. Then, a call from the abyss of despair from Nox's mother, beckoned you to the bedside of a man once beloved, now a withering patient of the deadly cancer.

Pale and fragile, Nox lay supine, his countenance etched with the scars of affliction. Words faltered as he sought solace in jest, a feeble attempt to cloak the anguish that consumed him. Blood tainted humor, a macabre masquerade, as agony clawed at his very being.

"You've come," his voice, a mere shadow of its former self, trembled with the weight of unspoken regrets. "Forgive me for the pain I've caused, for the lies that bind us in this tragic dance. This role I play, it seems, is my final act upon life's stage. Superb casting, don't you think"

He whispered with the fragile timbre of a fading requiem. A feeble attempt at humor escaped his lips, a final act before the curtain fell. In the grip of pain, he clutched his shirt, coughing up the bitter taste of his unspoken suffering.