The city had a peculiar smell in the early morning. He noticed it while walking through the unfamiliar streets, beneath a sky that seemed to belong to another age. Before sunrise, the heavens remained almost black, streaked with strange colors that spread across the horizon like the atmosphere of some prehistoric world.

The year had barely begun. Something important had vanished from his life, leaving behind an absence he was still learning to understand. Yet there were new things to discover, another course of study to pursue and the possibility of becoming someone he had not imagined before.

The decade was alive around him. Electric guitars, restless voices and unfamiliar sounds filled the air. Music seemed to be everywhere, accompanying the ordinary rituals of youth. Some songs spoke of heartbreak, others of anger or the strange lessons that came from losing something. He listened to them all, finding pieces of himself in words written by strangers.

And then, almost without noticing, he began searching for words of his own.

At first there were only fragments. Thoughts that surfaced during long walks, memories that refused to disappear and feelings he could never quite explain. He had spent years imagining what it might be like to stand on a stage, but now another possibility was emerging. Perhaps the things he carried inside could become something worth hearing.

The mornings continued beneath that ancient sky. The colors faded as daylight reached the streets and the city resumed its familiar noise.

He had spent so much of his youth listening to other people’s dreams.

Now he was beginning to write his own.

Record Sealed.