Chapter 1 - Vacation
"Happy Valentine’s Day, Hannah. Would you be my Valentine?"
Finally, the moment of truth had come for Vincent Winters.
On this cold night, he held out a red box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses, silently praying that she’d accept his feelings.
As Hannah stared at the offerings, the porch light of her house caught the gloss on her lips and the beautiful braids in her hair. She looked stunning. Almost as if she were expecting someone.
But after seeing him, her expression wasn’t one of joy.
"V-Vinny... I’m... I’m sorry. I can’t."
"... Huh?"
It was February 14th, 2026, and Vincent Winters had just been rejected by his childhood crush.
"You... can’t? I don’t understand. I thought you felt the same about me. I mean, we’ve always been... I even... I even got you the dark chocolates. Y’know, your favourite."
Unable to meet his eyes, Hannah looked away. "I was in love with you, Vinny."
"... Was? What changed?"
She stood quietly for a long moment as Vincent waited for an answer, almost as if trying to search for the right words, weighing the gravity of a lifetime of shared history.
Finally, she let out a tired sigh.
"Time changed," she said softly. "Specifically, my feelings. You took too long to confess, Vinny."
"What? But... If that were the case, if you also had feelings for me, why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you just confess firs–"
"I tried!" Hannah’s head snapped up with tears glistening in the corners of her eyes.
"I tried so many times! I dropped so many hints. I tried asking you out to the movies, to the diner after school, to just walk in the park. But you were always busy. It was always, ’Sorry, Han, I have to study,’ or ’Sorry, I have a practice exam coming up.’ We never spend time together like we used to!"
"That’s because between the two of us, you’ve always been the smart one! I just wanted to make sure that we could go to the same university together! I didn’t want to get left behind... And I did it! I passed the entrance exams! I can even show you the results right now!"
He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, eager to prove that his neglect had a purpose.
That it was all for them and their perfect university life together.
But before he could turn the screen toward her, Hannah gently pushed his hand down, and with a deeply pained expression, she shook her head.
"It doesn’t matter anymore, Vinny. Because there’s another reason why I can’t date you."
"Another reason?"
Vincent looked at her beautifully styled hair and the elegant dress peeking out from beneath her winter coat.
"Wait... don’t tell me... The reason you’re so dressed up tonight is because–"
HOOT! HOOT!
A loud blare of a car horn broke the heavy atmosphere between them.
Vincent slowly turned his head toward the driveway. Idling low to the ground was a vibrant shade of candy-apple red convertible supercar.
"Is that...?"
"It’s my boyfriend," Hannah whispered.
"... Since when? Since when did you have a boyfriend?"
"Since last Valentine’s Day. On that exact day a year ago, I wanted to invite you out on a date. I had it all planned. I was determined to get it right this time. But once again, you told me you were too busy. You even insisted that you couldn’t."
"The mock exams were coming up that weekend!" Vincent yelled. "I wanted to be ready!"
"And I don’t blame you for it, Vinny. I really don’t. But on that day, because I was lonely and hurt, I went out anyway. And that’s when I met him. At first, we just met as two heartbroken people.
"I’d been rejected by you again and he just found out his girlfriend was cheating on him. We met randomly at a café. We started out as friends, and as time went on... we started dating."
Rejected. Started out as friends. Dating.
The words washed over Vincent but failed to truly sink in. The grand plan he had spent the last two years sacrificing his youth for, had just crumbled into dust.
"So that’s it, huh?" he muttered while staring at the ground. "Since a year ago..."
Hannah opened her mouth, about to say something comforting, when a muffled vibrating sound stopped her. She pulled her phone out and glanced at the glowing screen.
A subtle and genuine smile touched her lips. It was a smile that was completely meant for someone else.
She looked back up at Vincent with eyes full of finality. "I’m sorry, Vinny. I really am. But I won’t date you. I’m happy with someone else now."
With a gentle but firm movement, she pushed the bouquet of roses and the box of chocolates back to him.
"Goodnight, Vinn– Vincent."
She turned and walked down the driveway toward the idling supercar.
Vincent stood paralyzed on the porch as he watched Hannah swing the passenger door open. He saw the silhouette of a young man lean over and say something that made her laugh loudly as she climbed in.
After clicking the door shut, the powerful engine roared and the red convertible tore down the street, bleeding its taillights into the darkness until they vanished completely out of sight.
Feeling heartbroken, hollowed out, and pathetic, Vincent slowly walked back to his house next door. He unlocked his front door and stepped into the warm, quiet hallway of his house.
"Kya–!" A small voice gasped the moment he reached the corner leading to the stairway.
Vincent blankly looked down to see the mop of messy brown hair belonging to his fourteen-year-old sister, Katherine.
"V-Vinny... You’re back already?"
"...."
Without a word, Vincent gave the box of chocolates to her and marched straight upstairs to his bedroom.
He kicked his door open, walked over to the plastic trash bin beside his desk, and dropped the red roses into the garbage. He then plopped himself face-first down onto his bed, burying his face into the pillows.
"...."
Knock. Knock.
Vincent didn’t move. He hoped that whoever it was behind the door would just leave him to wallow in his own misery.
However, the door creaked open anyway.
Heavy footsteps crossed the room, and the mattress dipped low as his dad sat down on the edge of the bed beside him. For a long moment, his dad didn’t say anything and just looked out the window at the quiet street.
"So, it didn’t work out, huh?" his dad finally spoke.
Vincent buried his face deeper into the pillow and let out a muffled grunt. His dad let out a long sigh while rubbing the back of his neck.
"... Maybe a change of scenery is what you need right now. What do you say? Do you want to go on a vacation?"
Rolling his head to the side, Vincent peered out from beneath the mess of his brown hair with a miserable frown.
"I have university starting on Wednesday."
"That’s still five days away. Besides, where you’re going... you might be able to meet your mother."
That pulled Vincent right out of his stupor.
He pushed himself to quickly sit up next to his dad. His heartbroken state was momentarily overwritten by sheer confusion.
"... What did you just say? Mother? I thought I didn’t have a mother. I thought she ran away or was dead."
"Huh? I never said anything like that."
"You never said anything about her!"
"Well, you never asked."
"That is such a stupid excuse!" Vincent yelled as his frustration from the rejection spilled over into anger. "You should have told me! You should have told me and Kath!"
"I wanted to tell you guys once you were old enough," his dad shrugged, unbothered by son’s outburst. "Katherine is still fourteen. But you... you’re eighteen now. I believe you’re finally ready to meet her. Lord knows how long she’s been waiting..."
"W-What does that even mean? What the hell are you saying?"
His dad didn’t answer right away. Instead, a strange, enigmatic smile crept onto his face.
"I’ll ask you one more time, Vincent. Do you want to go on a vacation?"
Vincent’s mind raced hard.
The pain of Hannah’s rejection still lingered, and the thought of potentially seeing her get into that red car every day, sounded like a living hell.
A vacation sounded better than facing reality.
"I guess so..." He reluctantly murmured. "But what about.. uh.. Mom? What’s her name? And why hasn’t she been with us, or at least visited? Does she even care to see me and Kath?"
"She does. She loves you and Katherine both very much. But due to... let’s call them ’very specific circumstances’, she cannot see you."
"But now I can? Just because I’m eighteen?"
"Yes."
"Not gonna lie, I find this all very sketchy, Dad... But whatever. Fine. When do we leave?"
His dad stood up and smoothed down the front of his shirt, turning to face Vincent fully. The strange smile was gone, and in its place was an expression that was completely unreadable.
"Not we," his dad said softly. "Only you."
Vincent stood up too and furrowed his brows in irritation. "What do you mean, only me? How am I supposed to go see her by myself if I don’t even know where she–"
The words died in his throat.
Staring him right in the face was the barrel of a pistol. As he looked into the hollow black void, his brain short-circuited, and his dad stared back at him with his grip on the weapon entirely steady.
Click.
"See you in a few hundred years, Vincent."
"... Huh–?"
BANG!
A flash of blinding fire exploded from the muzzle, and before Vincent could even register what was happening, the world faded into a terrifying darkness.