Chapter 21 – The Voice Within the Silence
Darkness.
That was the first thing Joshua felt.
Not pain. Not fear.
Just darkness — soft and endless, like drifting in a sea with no surface.
And then… his thoughts began to speak.
> I've always been different.
Even before this day, Joshua knew.
He wasn't like the other kids at Black Rock Orphanage.
He never got hurt — not once.
No matter how hard he fell, no matter how hard he was hit, something always stopped the world before it could touch him.
A falling branch that split apart midair.
A stone that bounced away as if repelled.
Even sharp glass that never cut his feet.
At first, he thought it was luck.
Then… he started to wonder if it was something else.
> Sometimes I feel like someone's always with me.
Watching me. Guarding me.
There were times he could almost hear whispers — soft, warm, just behind his thoughts.
He would turn, expecting someone to be there.
But there was never anyone.
And the dreams —
they were stranger still.
Flashes of faces he'd never seen.
Places that didn't exist.
A woman crying under a burning sky.
A man standing in armor, holding a sword that glowed like the sun.
And a voice — always that same voice — calling his name.
When he told Madam Page, she only smiled, patting his head gently.
> "You're not cursed, child," she would say.
"You're special. You'll understand one day."
Her voice always calmed him.
But deep inside, he wondered if she truly believed it.
Because he didn't feel special.
He felt wrong.
As though his body was too small for something vast inside him.
Sometimes he would catch himself staring at the sky for hours, mind blank, thinking about things he couldn't even explain afterward — complex, impossible things that no child should understand.
Equations. Symbols. Languages that felt familiar yet unknown.
He'd laugh it off in front of the others, pretending it didn't matter.
But when he was alone, the emptiness inside him felt too big to ignore.
> Maybe I'm blessed.
Or maybe I'm cursed.
Those words repeated in his head — again and again.
And then, that day came.
The day the ball struck him.
He had seen it coming.
He tried to move.
But the force that had always protected him — the invisible wall that had always stopped harm — turned against him.
It didn't shield him.
It pushed him.
The world flipped upside down.
Then — silence.
---
When Joshua opened his eyes again, he wasn't on the ground.
He wasn't anywhere at all.
A vast white space stretched endlessly in every direction — pure, still, and soundless.
The air shimmered like sunlight trapped in mist.
He floated there, weightless, his breath echoing softly.
> "Finally, you're awake."
The voice came from behind him — calm, familiar, and strangely relieved.
Joshua turned.
There he was — the man from his dreams.
Golden eyes, faint wings of light at his back, and a smirk that felt both divine and mischievous.
> "who are you…" Joshua whispered.
The angel chuckled softly.
> "Joshua, listen carefully. There's an emergency. You have to awaken — now."
Joshua blinked, confusion flashing in his eyes.
> "Awaken? What do you mean—?"
The angel stepped closer, placing a glowing hand on Joshua's forehead.
> "You'll understand soon."
"For now… just hold on."
Light burst from his touch, flooding the white space like a sunrise.
Joshua's thoughts scattered —
and everything went blank.
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