The world looks normal. People go about their lives, smiling, working, dreaming. Children play in the streets. Lovers stroll in the parks. Office lights flicker on in tall buildings. Life seems ordinary, even kind.

But for some, the world is anything but normal. For some, it is cruel, unforgiving, and unspeakably brutal. Shadows hide secrets. Smiles conceal malice. Every act of kindness is fragile, every step forward uncertain. Pain can wait in a corner, ready to strike when least expected.

This is the world into which Zayden Whitmore and Alaric Hawke were born. A world that would test them, break them, and force them to endure unspeakable horrors. Life would give them chances, false hope, fleeting moments of warmth—and take them away as quickly as it came.

Their story is not of innocence preserved. It is not of mercy. It is of survival, of vengeance, of choices made in a world that never forgives.

This is their story.

"They can raise us, break us, mold us—but they can never steal what flows in our veins."

"The world took everything from us. Now, we will took everything from it."