**Chapter 3 – Afternoon Errands**
Later that afternoon, Kael walked to town.
It wasn't far — just a fifteen-minute walk down the dusty road, past the bakery, the post office, and the small pharmacy where he picked up his mother's medicine.
He stopped by the market, greeting shopkeepers by name. They nodded back — some with curiosity, others with pity.
To them, he was the youngest son who never worked. Who gave up on life after college.
He didn't correct them.
Let them believe what they wanted.
Back home, he fixed a broken chair on the porch. Sat down with a book. Listened to music.
At night, he dreamed.
A girl in a room. A flash of light. Then fire.
Then darkness.
He woke up sweating.
But the dream stayed with him.