Chapter 5: When Friends Disappear

The coins ran out faster than he expected.

One morning, he reached into his bag and found only a handful of silver. He stared at it, confused. There had been so much. Where had it all gone?

He sold his furniture first. Then the fine robes. Each sale bought a few more days, a few more nights of pretending nothing had changed.

But everything had changed.

The guests stopped coming. The music faded. The people who had chanted his name now passed him on the street without a glance.

Then the famine struck.

It swept through the land without warning — crops withering, wells drying up, bread becoming more precious than gold. The city that had glittered with abundance turned desperate overnight.

The younger son searched for Marcus. He found him outside a tavern, wearing new rings, laughing with men the son had never seen.

YOUNGER SON“Marcus. I need help. Just enough to get through the week. You know I'm good for it.”

Marcus turned. His eyes moved slowly over the son's worn clothes, hollow cheeks, desperate face.

MARCUS“I'm sorry. Do I know you?”

The son's stomach dropped.

YOUNGER SON“It's me. I gave you everything when you needed it. You said you'd never forget.”

Marcus shrugged and turned back to his friends.

MARCUS“You must have me confused with someone else.”

The door closed. Laughter echoed from inside.

The son stood alone in the street, shaking. He knocked on other doors that night — people who had eaten his food, drunk his wine, called him brother.

Every door closed. Every face turned away.

That night, he slept outside for the first time. The stones were cold against his back. His stomach ached with emptiness.

The city he had loved no longer knew his name.