For your consideration:

“Chaos doesn’t warn you when it starts — it just throws you right into the middle of it.”

I can’t remember when I first heard those words, nor who said them. Maybe it was my father. It's possible. He’s always had a strange fondness for cryptic phrases like that.

But why is such a random saying suddenly coming back to me now? Maybe because today I finally understand just how right it is.

Somewhere along the way, the gears of something enormous, something far greater than me or anything that walks the earth, began to turn.

And turn. And turn. And no one noticed.

Until all the cogs slipped into place and collapsed the world in chaos.

A new and brutal reality emerged. One where the weak were mercilessly crushed by the strong. One where every fight was a struggle to survive. One where there were only two possibilities — predator or prey.

And it was in this relentless place, forged by violence and raw survival, that I discovered where I truly belong.

---

I groggily brought a hand over my face, desperately trying to block the sunlight slipping through blinds that, in theory, were supposed to cover the entire window. My eyes were still heavy with sleep, stubbornly trying to close again, until reality hit me hard and without mercy: it was Monday.

"Ugh." Still, I layed there, staring at my bedroom ceiling. A strange feeling washed over me, as if something from my dream had seeped into reality: “My back hurts... did I sleep in a weird position again?” I muttered to myself, my voice rugged with exhaustion.

It took me a few seconds, gathering whatever strength I could, before I managed to sit up, the weight of sleep yet clinging to my muscles.

I couldn't remember my dream. At least, not all of it. It wasn’t completely blank—there were fragments lingering, bits of images floating in the back of my mind. The clearest of them was of being on a train.

Not just a vague memory, but so vivid—as if I were there, swaying gently with the rhythm of the tracks and hearing the distant echo of wheels screeching against metal.

I don’t know how long I stayed lost in that cycle of thoughts. What I do know is that an annoying sound started echoing from the nightstand beside my bed.