The day finally came when Bruno was discharged from the orphanage. His very being was a mere shell of its once happy demeanor.

Bruno looked as if he were exhausted, his eyes stared at the road in front of him as if it were an abyss.

A company had called the orphanage, offering Bruno a scholarship due to his outstanding marks, so right now he was waiting for one of their representatives to come and pick him up.

'It should've been you. You were always smarter than me,' smiled Bruno as a black sedan came to a stop in front of him.

A woman emerged from the car, dressed in a neat black suit.

"Bruno Desiren, I'm Clara Sufon, and I'll be taking care of you for now on," said the woman, holding out her hand.

"T-Thank you,"

***

University passed without anything exciting happening. Bruno avoided relationships of all types -whether they be friendships or more intimate ones- due to fear of losing those dear to him.

'If there is no one to take away from me, then life can't win' he would often think, pushing him to become the anti-social hermit he now was.

He had passed his degree with flying colors, graduating with a Bachelor's in Nuclear Engineering.

He had chosen that course because that was what Randy wanted to become, he thought that maybe if he did it, then Randy would be happy wherever he was.

Sadly, there wasn't a demand for nuclear engineers. The best he could manage was to be a nuclear technician at a start-up nuclear power station.

"You will eventually climb to be an actual engineer," they told him, but he knew they were just spouting lies.

He didn't mind though, a job was a job. He didn't care for its pay, he merely wanted something to make ends meet.

***

Even at his job, he continued his hermit lifestyle. Making no friends amongst his colleagues, and avoiding any and all interaction possible - which was easy for him since his main job was dealing with the cooler system-.

This sort of attitude prevented him from moving up on the corporate ladder, as his lack of networking and social skills were seen as a big turn-off to the higher-ups, even if he was performing excellently at his job.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Bruno, I need you to come early tomorrow for our routine testing. That won't be a problem right,"

'Are you kidding me? You guys have me working overtime, and now you want me to come during my break shift?' thought Bruno inwardly, but nodded instead.

"Good," said his supervisor, before marching away.

"Seriously, what do they think I am?" whispered Bruno to himself as he continued his work.

He knocked off at 6 a.m since he had a night shift, but because he would have to be back at 8, he only had time to grab a quick coffee before returning.

"One coffee please, make it a double shot," said Bruno, handing over a few coins over to the barista.

"Excuse me, this isn't enough sir,"

"Ahh, never mind then," replied Bruno, a bitter smile on his face as he took back his coins and went to a vending machine.

"This will have to do," he said, grabbing a coffee from the vending machine before going back to work.

"You're late,"

'It's 08:01, I'm not that late,' thought Bruno, however he kept it to himself out of fear of being fired.

"Whatever, this is a routine testing of the cooling system. You know what to do right," instructed his supervisor, looking at him with a sardonic expression.

"Yes ma'am," he replied, getting into his hazmat suit.

"Okay, ready," he said, raising his thumb.

The technicians working at the computers turned a few knobs, starting the nuclear phase of the plant, before stopping it.

"Cooling systems are all green ma'am," said one of the technicians.

"Very good, let's pack up," she said before turning to walk away.

All of a sudden a loud ringing broke out, followed by the flashing of red lights.

"What's going on?" shouted the supervisor.

"One of the gates seem to be open. Dammit, how didn't we notice this," grunted the technician, his fingers dancing across the keyboard.

"It's going into meltdown, we have to close the secondary gates quickly,"

"There are still people in there,"

The lock on Bruno's door was faulty, if the higher-ups had taken proper care in maintenance then this wouldn't have happened.

However it was too late to think about that now, Bruno tried desperately to close it. Based on his knowledge the nuclear meltdown could still be avoided, however he had to close it now.

The people around him kept screaming for everyone to head out before the core went full meltdown, but Bruno kept trying.

He knew that even if they could close the gates, considerable damage would still be dealt to the building, putting even those people behind the secondary gate at risk.

'Why am I doing this?' he wondered to himself as he tried to close the door one more time.

"Fuck, It's not working. Seems I have no choice," he grunted to himself before making for the door.

"Hold the door, there's still someone in there," shouted one of the technicians as Bruno came into view.

However the core meltdown was dangerously close, and the doors were already closing.

"Someone do something," shouted someone else, but no one reached for the button. Putting so many people at potential risk just to save one person was foolish, especially since none of them were his friends.

"Don't close!" shouted Bruno, but everyone simply looked at him with pity, none of them willing the leave the door open for him.

"So that's how it is, huh?" whispered Bruno as he stopped running, the realization that he would die finally hitting him.

"I guess you won, life! Well played!" he began shouting hysterically.

"Now I can finally rest. Randy, mom, I'm coming," he whispered to himself, falling to his knees.

A bright light engulfed him, before a searing pain radiated from his body as his skin was burnt off, before finally, he felt... nothing.