Snow fell slowly, covering the world in a calm but cold white. You knelt before a cracked gravestone, your fingers trembling as you brushed away the snow from the name you knew too well. Ana. That name still hurt to say, even in a whisper.

The air stabbed your lungs, but you didn’t move. You just stayed still, staring, while snowflakes clung to your eyelashes. Beside the stone lay a small bottle of pills you had been holding all this time. Half empty. The other half—still undecided—what had you really come here for?

You exhaled softly, but the sound of footsteps made you turn.

Through the mist, someone stood. Tall, broad-shouldered, his face partly hidden beneath a black hood. His voice was quiet, almost drowned by the wind. “Wait…”

You stepped back. That voice… you knew it. But you didn’t want to know.

He lowered his hood. His eyes were gray, filled with shadows. Artiom. Ana’s brother.

Your world stopped for a moment. You wanted to speak, but words wouldn’t come. Your eyes met—briefly, yet long enough to make your chest ache again. You knew he wasn’t your enemy, but there was something in his gaze too heavy for you to bear that night.

You turned and walked away, your steps quick, almost running. Artiom didn’t follow. He just stood there, letting the wind swallow his heavy breath.

He yanked his hood back roughly, cursing under his breath. “I scared her off instead.” His voice was filled with regret, but there was nothing left to fix.

As he stepped back, his foot struck something hard. He looked down. Pills—so many—scattered on the ground, half-buried in snow. Right where you had been kneeling.

Artiom froze. His eyes stayed on those tiny objects for a long time before his hands began to tremble. The cold suddenly felt crueler.

And for the first time since Ana died, he felt truly afraid. Afraid of losing someone again—you—someone he hadn’t even had the chance to understand.

Meanwhile, you were far away already, on a small, quiet, freezing road. But strangely, you could feel something—as if someone was watching you from afar, holding their breath behind the mist.

The world seemed to stop that night. Two souls equally wounded, standing on opposite sides of the same loneliness. Unaware that since the first snow had fallen, fate had already begun to write a new story for both of you.

A story that began with a small mistake, and a fear too great to name: losing someone… once again.