Chapter 7 - The Unclaimed Horizon
Winter arrived, coating the city in a sheet of biting frost.
Ryan left the diner every night with numb fingers and a clear head.
He had gathered enough money now.
He didn't buy a suit.
He didn't buy a car.
He bought a bus ticket to a city where no one knew his name.
He left his cot.
He left his jar.
He left the ghost of his old self behind.
As the bus pulled away from the station, he looked at his reflection in the glass.
The dirt was gone.
The hunger was managed.
But the eyes—the eyes were still the same.
They were eyes that had seen the bottom of the river and chose to climb back out.
He sat back and closed his eyes, lulled by the hum of the engine.
The landscape changed from brick to pine, from alleyways to forests.
He was moving toward an unclaimed horizon.
He didn't know what he would find there.
But he knew he was walking toward it with his head held high.
The past was a lesson he had finished.
The future was a blank page.
And he was finally ready to start writing.
May you like
He was free.
At last.
