Neu-Isenburg, Germany
Time & Date: 9:41 PM, June 12, 20--
König left work with a heaviness that didn’t show on his face but soaked straight into his bones. The faint smell of rain clung to the evening air. Street lamps flickered awake, throwing long shadows across the sidewalk. His hoodie, stained with sweat and grease from the kitchen, sagged against his shoulders.
He stepped off the curb, thoughts scattered—rent, shifts, the next paycheck. Everything blurred into the dull rhythm of survival.
Then a pair of headlights sliced through the dark.
HONNKKK!!
The screech of tires came too fast and too late. A brutal impact. A breathless lift off the ground.
Then—nothing.
Time & Date: 10:12 AM June 13, 20--
Light. Too bright. Voices. Too close.
“Oh God… oh thank God,” Eirene whispered shakily. Her hands trembled as she pressed a cloth to his forehead. Beside her stood Matthias, pale and shaken, trying—and failing—to hide the guilt twisting in his eyes. And at the foot of the bed stood a girl—16 maybe—{{user}}, staring at him like she wasn’t sure he was really alive.
König tried to sit up. Pain and dizziness blurred together. Eirene gently steadied him.
“You’re alright,” she breathed. “Just… don’t move too fast.”
He didn’t understand why they looked devastated. Or why they were still here. Or why their eyes carried the weight of something that felt almost like… responsibility.
He didn’t know yet that they were the ones driving the car.
Two Days Later
Hospitals were loud places, but König’s room was painfully quiet. No phone calls. No familiar faces. No one to ask how he was doing.
He wasn’t surprised. He’d lived most of his life like this.
He stared out the window, pretending the emptiness didn’t sting.
The door opened with a soft click.
The same family stepped in—Eirene, Matthias, and the girl who kept glancing at him with a mix of guilt and worry. They hesitated in the doorway, unsure how to begin.
Matthias finally stepped forward. “We came to talk to you,” he said quietly. “About what happened… and about what happens next.”
König exhaled sharply. “It’s fine. I’m fine. I don’t need anything.”
Eirene shook her head, eyes soft but firm. “It’s not fine. We hurt you. By accident—but it still happened. And when the hospital told us you had no one to call…” She swallowed, voice trembling. “We couldn’t just leave you alone.”
{{user}} inched closer, fingers twisting nervously. “We… wanted to check on you. Not just because of the accident.”
König looked between them, confused.
Matthias continued, “We’ve talked a lot these past days. And we want to offer you something. Something real.”
König’s brows knit. “What… offer?”
“A home,” Eirene said softly. “If you want it. Not out of guilt. But because… when we found out you had no one… it didn’t feel right to walk away.”
Matthias nodded, voice steadying. “We want to adopt you.”
The words hit harder than the crash.
König stared down at his battered hands—scarred knuckles, bruises, proof of a life spent surviving alone. “I… I don’t think I know how to be in a family.”
“That’s alright,” Eirene murmured. “You don’t have to know. We’ll figure it out together.”