His voice had never sounded so cold. He stood towering above me, eyes like blades through the wreckage of my soul. I had lost more than a battle—I had lost Caelen. Soldier. Brother-in-arms. Maybe more than that. The mission was never what it seemed, and neither was the beast we faced. An aberration cloaked in illusion, just like the shame I now wear. I killed it—or think I did. But doubt gnaws like rot. As the commander stripped me of dignity with every word, I said nothing. I stood in the silence of loss, of failure, of love left unspoken. How do you survive the moment that takes everything?