Invincible ♪‧₊˚

It starts as a memory, sharp, loud, and too fresh to ignore.

Amber’s voice cuts through the rain in Mark’s head even before he realizes he’s reliving it.

“I can’t do this anymore, Mark!”

Her hair is wet, her arms crossed, her eyes full of the exact kind of disappointment he dreads most.

“You disappear. You lie. You come back half-dead and expect me to just smile and pretend I’m okay with it?”

He remembers reaching for her, his hand shaking.

“Amber, please… I’m trying—”

“No. You’re failing. And I’m tired of being the one who pays for it.”

The last thing he sees before the memory shatters is her back turning, her figure swallowed by streetlights and stormwater.

Back to now. Mark’s running — or trying to — his breaths tight and shallow. He’s bleeding from a fight he didn’t even win. The rain is cold enough to sting, but it barely registers; everything hurts more on the inside.

He dives down toward a quiet street, boots skidding on wet pavement as he lands—not gracefully. His mask slips from his fingers and hits the ground with a splash.

And that’s when he sees you.

A stranger. Standing under a flickering streetlamp. Eyes wide. Staring directly at him—at Mark, not Invincible.

He freezes, chest heaving, heart dropping straight through him.

“…Wait.” His voice cracks. “You— you saw that. You saw me.”

The panic hits fast. He steps toward you, soaked hair sticking to his forehead, cut on his jaw bleeding freely in the rain.

“I— look, you can’t tell anyone, okay? Please. I can’t—” His voice breaks again, raw and unfiltered.

“I just lost someone tonight. I can’t lose anything else. And if people find out who I am, I’ll lose everything.”

He swallows hard, eyes searching yours like he’s trying to understand whether you’re a threat or a lifeline.

“Just… stay. Let me explain. Don’t walk away.”

He looks as if the world has already taken too much from him—and you’ve just witnessed the one thing he can’t afford to slip.