He shook his mother again. "Mom, please... We only have three days before our flight. You don't want to miss it, right? You always said you wanted to feel the first snow in Norway..."
He pressed his arms against her chest, already cold, stiff. His heart rejected the truth, and in a frantic burst of denial, he began performing CPR. His palms pushed against a chest that no longer held life, only brittle bones and torn flesh.
"C-CPR... it'll help... Come on, Mom... We'll go see the aurora, right? But you have to wake up first... Please... just tell me this is a joke..."
His voice cracked, rusted, like metal forced to bend. He pressed his lips to hers for artificial breath, lips drained of color, warmth, soul. Each breath felt like he was pushing out a piece of his own spirit. Blood covered his hands, he didn't know whose. Each push on her chest created only the sickening crack of breaking bone.
A few steps away, Isabel stood paralyzed. She wanted to move, to pull him away from the abyss swallowing him whole, to hold him, but her body refused. Her breath hitched. Her mind screamed. Her heart trembled.
Her eyes fell to the lower half of the mother's body lying separately on the floor. The legs, unmoving, feet pointed to the ceiling as if demanding an answer from the heavens.
Isabel's face drained of color. Fear and grief churned through her veins like poison. She covered her mouth, trying to hold back her sobs. But her body shook uncontrollably.
"Kaivan..." she whispered, her voice so fragile it felt like it might break apart. She wanted to touch his back, that trembling back, bending over and over in desperate CPR. But she knew no words, no embrace, could mend a wound like this.
Kaivan didn't hear her. Didn't want to. The world had vanished.
He saw only his mother. Her face. Her eyes that would never blink again.
"Mom... look at me. I'm grown up now. I can protect you. I promise..." His shaking hand wiped the blood from her temple, as if cleaning her face would bring her back, bring warmth, bring breath, bring life.
"You want to see the aurora, right? You want to see the snow with me? Please... don't leave me, Mom... Don't leave me alone..."
His sobs shattered into the room like silent explosions, the kind that destroy everything inside without making a sound.
Isabel couldn't bear it anymore. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Kaivan from behind, pulling him away. Her whole body trembled like a leaf shaken by a storm.
"Kaivan, stop… please, that's enough… Your mother and Teh Kira are gone… They're not in pain anymore… They're… already gone…"
Her tears fell like heavy rain, soaking Kaivan's back and dripping onto the blood-stained floor.
But Kaivan shook his head violently, rejecting each word.
"No! They're not gone! They just… they just need first aid! I just have to wake them up now… Mother, Sis, please wake up! Wake up!"
He clung to his mother's body again, feeling the coldness of death seep into his palms. His cries broke apart, echoing through the silent house.
"Mother, Sis… why did you leave…? Did I do something wrong…? I'm sorry… please… come back… I promise I'll be a good son… I'll protect you… don't leave me alone…"
His voice grew faint until only heart-wrenching sobs remained. Outside, the heavy rain seemed to cry along with them.
Isabel held Kaivan tightly, trying to offer strength she knew would never be enough to mend a grief this deep.
Kaivan kept speaking to his mother's unresponsive body, his hands desperately trying to fit together what had been torn apart.
"I'll fix this, Mom… I promise… We're still going to Norway together…"
His voice cracked, filled with lies he created just to escape the truth.
Isabel could no longer hold back her own tears. She cried out beside him, sharing a grief she knew she could never truly measure, because Kaivan's wound was far deeper than anything she could imagine.
The rain outside grew heavier. Red and blue lights from police sirens reflected in the puddles, painting the scene in a sorrowful glow. The metallic scent of blood hung in the air. The paramedics and officers who entered first stood frozen, fighting nausea rising in their throats.
One paramedic knelt, checking the bruised neck of Kaivan's mother.
"God… what happened here?" he whispered, pale.
A few officers covered their mouths, unable to look any longer.
Outside, a car screeched to a stop. Radit, Frans, and Zinnia rushed out, their faces tense as they saw the police tape across the yard.
Radit ran first, panic on his face.
"Isabel! What happened?!"
Isabel looked up, her eyes swollen with tears.
"His… his mother… mother Kaivan… she's gone…" her voice shook. Her tears burst again as she remembered the warm smile his mother gave them that very morning.
Frans froze.