Final Chapter: The Departure He Didn't Choose
After a long journey lasting eleven hours and forty minutes, the plane finally touched down at Sana'a Airport. When Ahmed's feet first hit the ground of his homeland, he felt a fleeting sense of peace. The air of Sana'a was different… warm, familiar, carrying the scent of home and memories.
But that weight inside his head did not vanish. The pain was still there... faint, but present. As if something foreign was living inside him, watching him in silence.
He hired a small car and sat in the back seat, staring through the window the entire way. The distant mountains, the streets he knew, the city's noise… everything looked familiar, yet he felt as if he were seeing it for the last time.
The Return
When he arrived home, it was midnight. He knocked on the door quietly. Moments later, it opened. It was his little brother. The child's eyes widened with pure joy.
— "Ahmed!"
Ahmed bent down quickly and embraced him tightly. He held him for a long time… a very long time. As if he were trying to cling to the last natural feeling he had left.
His little brother smiled innocently and said:
— "We missed you."
Ahmed's heart trembled. He patted the boy's hair and said in a hoarse voice:
— "I missed you more."
He entered the house quietly, greeted his mother and father briefly, then went straight to his room. He closed the door, collapsed onto his bed, and within moments... sleep overcame him.
The Takeover
No one knows how much time passed. But Ahmed woke up suddenly. He opened his eyes in a panic. He felt a coldness creeping through his limbs.
Then… he stood up.
Against his will.
He tried to stop. He tried to resist. But his body did not respond. He was moving on his own, as if invisible strings were pulling him. He walked out of his room with heavy steps and headed directly toward his father's room.
He pushed the door open violently. His father was sitting there, reading. He raised his head in surprise.
— "Ahmed?"
But Ahmed heard his father's voice as if it were coming from far away. Suddenly... harsh words he didn't choose poured from his mouth. Bitter insults. Painful accusations. Words that, if he had heard them from himself one day, he would never have believed.
His father's eyes widened in shock. He stood up.
— "What are you saying?!"
Ahmed tried to scream: "Father… no… it's not me…" but his true voice remained imprisoned inside him.
In the next moment… his body moved violently. He lunged toward his father. A blow was struck. Then another. The two clattered into a struggle. Ahmed was weeping from the inside as he watched his own hands move against him—watching himself strike the man who raised him, who carried him as a child, who was always his support.
The Final Struggle
Suddenly, his mother's voice rang through the house.
— "Stop!"
She entered, crying. Her face was pale, and her eyes were drowned in tears. She stood between them, screaming in heartbreak:
— "Why, my son?!"
— "Why are you hitting your father?!"
— "I didn't raise you to be like this…"
Ahmed's body froze. For a few seconds, her tears were stronger than the chip's commands. His hands trembled. With immense difficulty… he grabbed a pen and paper from a nearby table. His hand began to shake violently. He resisted. He fought with everything he had left.
Then he wrote:
DIAMOND GANG
His parents looked at the paper in bewilderment. But the chip returned—with even greater force. Ahmed turned toward the door. He ran out of the house. His body was moving with a strange speed, as if being pulled toward a destination he didn't know.
His father chased after him, grabbing his shoulder firmly. Ahmed turned to face him. His eyes were streaming with tears. His father looked at him for a long time, then said in a broken voice:
— "I am not sad because of what you did to me..."
— "But because I thought, for a moment... that you had betrayed me behind my back."
A tear fell from Ahmed's eye. A silent, honest tear. It was an apology... a plea for help... and a farewell, all at once.
Into the Darkness
But his feet moved again. He took a step back. Then another. Until the darkness swallowed his shadow.
He departed. To a place he didn't know, and a fate he didn't choose.
That night, Ahmed hadn't just left his home. He had left his entire old life behind. As for where he went... what the Diamond Gang wanted from him... and whether he would ever be able to return?
That... is another story.