Safsan was eighteen.
He stood still.
There was nothing unusual about the place around him.
People walked past him.
Cars moved through the streets.
Voices mixed together in the distance.
Everything looked normal.
And yet...
Safsan could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.
He didn't know what.
He didn't know why.
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He only knew that something had to be done.
But where did he even begin?
That was the problem.
He had thought about it before.
Many times.
He had imagined different possibilities.
Different choices.
Different consequences.
But every time he came close to taking the first step...
something stopped him.
Not a person.
Not a wall.
Not fear in any ordinary sense.
Something invisible.
Something he couldn't explain.
Safsan looked at his hands.
He remained silent.
He knew there was something he needed to do.
The strange part was that he wasn't even sure whether he was afraid of doing it...
or afraid of what would happen if he actually did.
He looked ahead.
For a moment, everything around him seemed distant.
He could hear people talking.
He could hear footsteps.
He could hear the world continuing without him.
But inside his own mind, everything was quiet.
Too quiet.
Safsan finally turned away.
Maybe tomorrow.
He had told himself that before.
Maybe tomorrow he would know where to begin.
Maybe tomorrow he would finally take that first step.
But tomorrow had a way of becoming another tomorrow.
And another.
Until a person could spend years waiting for the courage to do something they already knew they had to do.
Safsan didn't realize it yet...
but that night would change something.
Not because he would discover the answer.
But because someone he had lost long ago would appear in his dream.
His father.
Safsan eventually returned home.
The day passed.
Nothing extraordinary happened.
At least...
nothing he could see.
When night came, he went to sleep.
And then...
he dreamed.