I AM DROWNING.

And within these final slivers of light, breaking through the ceiling of still waters, there are no good memories for him to recall. Nothing but the doctor's words that echo around the silent chamber, gushing into his ears, filling his lungs and hiding his tears in its sea of condensed air, too heavy to breathe with.

—retrograde amnesia—two years—memories—others too—gone—

All gone.

The boy stares up at the moon, its round edges unshattered due to the lack of ripples above him. Wrists bound, ankles tied together, he cannot do anything. He cannot scream, he cannot move, except stare longingly at the last light he'll see.

And haloed against it, is the man who gazes down at him. Face obscured by mask and shadow, a gun in his one hand. Like an angel, almost—almost.

Were it not him who'd pushed the boy down.

Vaguely, the boy remembers being told of being meant to die, before he'd been brought to the hospital. That he'd been lured to an abandoned warehouse, his sister as bait, before being pushed off the edge. Cracking his skull and leg, to bleed out to death within minutes.

Minutes that had been interrupted by his friend—Rain.

He makes a noise, before choking, the dots of darkness multiplying.

Where is Rain now? he wonders, where is my saviour?

Has he left me? Just like my mother? Just like my father?

Gramere is not here.

My sister is gone, getting the therapy that I too need.

It is my stepfather who pays for her treatment.

And I am here. His eyelids fall, then ever-so-slowly, shut. Alone. Forgotten.

But there's another face that I remember.

Silver eyes snap back open, meeting the face of a girl. Skin as pale as the moonlight, eyes the mirror of the water's dark blue, hair as dark as the sky above. She's in front of him, suspended together with him, in this space without stars.

The boy blinks, water searing his eyes.

And screams.

His vision blinks rapidly between light and darkness now, words failing to leave his throat. Cold water burns his lungs, his heart clawing for life. All at once, it feels like the box around him is growing smaller, pressing against his thinly-clothed skin, crushing his bones, gripping his throat—killing him.

In the distance, somewhere above, he swears he hears a loud noise.

But it doesn't matter.

Save me! he screams again.

The girl reaches her hands out, grasping his face. Then she leans in, kissing his lips, gifting him her air.

When she pulls back, suddenly, her face appears even clearer to his eyes. Something familiar, someone that he knows, yet with no name that he can thank with.

She smiles.

Then pulls him right under.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

A weight is hammering against his chest.

Kaede snaps awake and chokes out water. He pushes the person above him away, hacking out the rest of the liquid, his lungs searing. Afterwards, he falls flat against the planks, unable to move. His muscles ache with agony, head pounding. Shivering, shaking and gasping, the boy struggles to remember where is.

Then his body jerks backwards. He falls limp, surrendering to the arms that cloak his chest, the face burying against his neck. Wet clothes press against dry ones, someone else that shakes against him.

Rain.

"You're safe now," he whispers. "You're safe."

Kaede gazes down at his freed limbs. The ropes before now laying to the side. "You saved me," he breathes.

But Rain only shakes his head, offering silence in return.

                                 ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

Story and Cast Aesthetics are available further down (part 3 onward).

1. This book is categorised as Romance, Mystery AND Drama.

2. There's more than one plot, with multiple mains (it's not just Kaede's story to be told).

Foreword, Part 1 will be basically a prologue, during when our main loses his memories. Part 2 is an in-between which is a very short part. Part 3, we reach NYC, followed by more parts afterwards. I hope to make your patience worth it.

Warning: this book has a dark plot, containing heavy themes, including abuse, drug abuse, suicide mentions and suicidal thoughts, dubcon & age gap. If you can't handle these themes, then please don't read this book.

As for shipping, yes, there are canon ships in this book. Just know that there are several ships that have to be the potential to be actual but are at last, not. Headcanons are cool, I like hearing your opinions, just be aware that there's a number of relationships here and the book's romance doesn't just go down a single direction.

And yes, the name says 'ARDEN' even though the name right now is 'ARYD'. ARDEN was my previous name, which as you can see, I've changed now to ARYD.