After that moment of reflection...
Or depression.
Depending on how charitable I wanted to be with myself.
I pushed away from the alley wall and resumed walking beneath the light rain.
Water dripped from the edges of rooftops and splashed against the pavement in uneven rhythms. My shoes stepped through shallow puddles, scattering distorted reflections of neon advertisements across the street.
The city lights shimmered on the wet ground like broken stars.
Beautiful.
If you ignored everything else.
I sighed.
"Damn it... I should've eaten at school."
The moment the words left my mouth, my stomach growled in protest.
I stared blankly ahead.
"Perfect."
"Hunger. Exhaustion. A headache."
"What a fantastic combination."
The headache pulsed behind my eyes again.
Not sharp.
Not unbearable.
Just constant.
Persistent.
Like something pressing from the inside.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
Nearby restaurants.
Fast food.
Anything edible.
At that point, my standards had dropped dramatically.
A burger restaurant appeared a few blocks away.
Good reviews.
Affordable.
Most importantly, close.
"Well..."
I shoved the phone back into my pocket.
"It's not like I have enough money to be picky."
The rain intensified.
Not suddenly.
Gradually.
As if the sky had decided to increase the pressure little by little.
I adjusted my backpack and continued walking.
The streets of Amberlath were still crowded despite the weather.
People hurried beneath umbrellas.
Public transports moved through the illuminated avenues.
Massive digital screens stretched across the sides of buildings, bathing entire streets in shifting colors.
Normal.
Everything looked normal.
At least on the surface.
My gaze drifted upward.
Dark clouds rolled across the sky.
Too low.
Too heavy.
The kind that seemed less like weather and more like a ceiling descending toward the world.
Aethran storms had always been strange.
Ever since I was a child, people had told stories about them.
Disappearances.
Shadows moving between curtains of rain.
Voices heard during thunderstorms.
Creatures glimpsed between flashes of lightning.
The sort of stories adults claimed were nonsense while simultaneously making sure nobody wandered outside after dark.
I never believed them.
Not really.
Fear had a habit of turning ordinary events into legends.
People disappeared every day.
That didn't mean monsters were dragging them into the clouds.
A flash of light caught my attention.
One of the giant screens overhead changed displays.
A weather alert filled the entire surface.
LEVEL THREE STORM APPROACHING.
CITIZENS ARE ADVISED TO REMAIN INDOORS.
AVOID OPEN AREAS DURING ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY.
Another screen displayed the same warning.
Then another.
And another.
I rolled my eyes.
"As if a storm's going to eat me."
The joke sounded less convincing than I intended.
I quickened my pace.
The air felt strange.
Heavy.
Far heavier than it should have.
Every breath seemed to require effort.
As though something invisible was slowly tightening around my chest.
I frowned.
Anxiety.
That was all.
Lately I'd been having panic attacks more often.
That feeling wasn't new.
The pressure.
The unease.
The irrational certainty that something was wrong even when everything appeared fine.
My therapist would probably have an explanation.
My brain certainly tried to invent one.
Anxiety.
Stress.
Lack of sleep.
Those answers were far more reasonable than anything else.
They had to be.
Because the alternative...
The alternative wasn't worth considering.
A cold gust of wind swept through the street.
The rain struck harder.
I pulled my jacket tighter around myself.
The restaurant finally came into view.
Warm golden light spilled through its windows onto the rain-soaked sidewalk.
The contrast was immediate.
Outside was gray.
Cold.
Restless.
Inside looked alive.
I pushed open the door.
The sound of rain vanished behind me.
Heat replaced it.
Conversation.
The clinking of dishes.
The smell of grilled meat.
Fresh bread.
Fried potatoes.
For a brief moment, I simply stood there.
Relief washed over me.
Ridiculous relief.
Embarrassingly human relief.
The kind people feel after escaping something they don't want to admit frightened them.
"Ah..."
I breathed in deeply.
"I think I love this place."
The scent alone felt almost divine.
A waitress approached carrying a menu.
She wore the standard restaurant uniform.
A brown braid rested over one shoulder.
Her smile looked tired but genuine.
"Good evening."
She handed me the menu.
"Here you are."
"Thanks."
I accepted it and headed toward an empty table beside a fogged-up window.
Before opening the menu, I glanced outside.
The rain had grown heavier.
Lightning illuminated entire buildings for a fraction of a second before plunging them back into darkness.
I watched absentmindedly.
Then froze.
Something stood at the far end of the street.
A silhouette.
Tall.
Motionless.
Watching.
I blinked.
The lightning disappeared.
The shape vanished with it.
I stared for several seconds.
Nothing.
Just a streetlamp.
I exhaled slowly.
"Great."
I rubbed my eyes.
"Now I'm seeing things too."
Sleep deprivation was definitely getting worse.
That had to be it.
There was always an explanation.
Always.
I lowered my gaze and finally opened the menu.
Outside, another flash of lightning tore across the sky.
And for the briefest moment—
I couldn't shake the feeling that something had been standing there.
Waiting.
The burger arrived before I could convince myself to leave.
The sharp hiss of the kitchen doors opening cut through the restaurant's warmth, and the waitress returned carrying a tray loaded with enough food to make my wallet cry.
A double cheeseburger.
Fries.
Chicken wings.
A large cola.
For a moment, every strange thought in my head vanished.
There are few things in life more powerful than hunger.
The waitress placed the plate in front of me.
"Enjoy."
"Trust me," I said. "I will."
She smiled faintly before walking away.
I stared at the burger for a second.
Then took a bite.
And honestly?
It was worth every coin.
The meat was juicy.
The bread was warm.
The cheese practically melted the moment it touched my tongue.
For the first time all day, I felt something close to happiness.
A small, pathetic, embarrassingly human kind of happiness.
"Mmh..."
I leaned back slightly.
"Definitely the best burgers in Amberlath."
For several minutes, the world became simple.
No headaches.
No nightmares.
No strange visions.
No impossible memories.
Just food.
Rain.
Warmth.
Normality.
Something that had started feeling increasingly distant lately.
I grabbed my drink and took a long sip.
Then every light in the restaurant flickered.
Once.
Twice.
The conversations around me died for a brief second.
Just a second.
Then everything resumed.
People kept talking.
Laughing.
Eating.
No one seemed concerned.
No one even looked up.
"Great."
I reached for another fry.
"Now we're having electrical issues too."
The storm outside growled.
A low vibration rolled through the glass.
Thunder.
Probably.
I continued eating.
Then froze.
Something felt wrong.
I wasn't sure what.
Not immediately.
It took a few seconds to realize it.
The rain.
I could still see it.
Thousands of droplets sliding down the window.
Sheets of water pouring from the dark sky.
But I couldn't hear it.
Not at all.
The sound was gone.
Completely gone.
The restaurant hadn't become quieter.
People were still talking.
Plates still clinked together.
The kitchen still rattled somewhere in the background.
Yet the rain—
had vanished.
My brow furrowed.
Slowly, I looked toward the window.
The storm continued raging outside.
Silent.
Utterly silent.
The sight felt wrong.
Violently wrong.
Like watching a fire that produced no heat.
Or seeing someone scream without making a sound.
A strange pressure began building inside my ears.
Then pain.
Sharp.
Sudden.
I winced.
"...What?"
Nobody else reacted.
Not a single person.
The family at the next table kept eating.
A couple near the entrance continued talking.
Three students were arguing over something on a tablet.
No one noticed.
No one cared.
The pressure increased.
My ears started ringing.
And then—
everything came back at once.
Rain exploded against the windows.
Voices crashed into each other.
Laughter.
Silverware.
The hum of kitchen machinery.
The storm.
All of it returning simultaneously.
I nearly dropped my drink.
A wave of dizziness hit me.
I grabbed the edge of the table.
"Migraine."
I swallowed.
"Has to be."
That made sense.
Migraines could cause auditory disturbances.
Stress could too.
Lack of sleep.
Anxiety.
Panic attacks.
My brain was probably misfiring.
That explanation was ugly.
But it was still infinitely better than the alternatives.
I took another fry.
Determined to ignore everything.
My phone vibrated.
I pulled it from my pocket.
The screen lit up.
And my stomach tightened.
Symbols covered the display.
Not letters.
Not numbers.
Symbols.
Long.
Twisted.
Angular.
They crawled across the screen like living things.
Shifting.
Rearranging themselves.
Moving beneath the glass.
I stared.
Unable to blink.
The shapes looked familiar.
Not because I had seen them before.
Because some irrational part of me felt like I should have understood them.
As if I had forgotten a language I was never supposed to know.
A chill crawled down my spine.
Then I blinked.
The symbols disappeared.
The screen returned to normal.
A weather alert.
EXTREME ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY DETECTED.
SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.
I stared at it for several seconds.
Then rubbed my eyes.
"I seriously need sleep."
The headache was getting worse.
Every pulse felt like a hammer striking the inside of my skull.
I pressed two fingers against my temple.
Breathed slowly.
Tried to relax.
Then I heard it.
A voice.
Right behind me.
Close enough to feel.
"Där..."
My entire body locked.
"...k..."
I turned so fast my neck hurt.
Nobody.
Nothing.
Only customers.
Only tables.
Only warm yellow lights.
Yet something was different.
Very different.
The restaurant had become still.
Completely still.
Not quiet.
Still.
Every person had frozen.
A woman halfway through lifting a glass.
A child reaching toward a plate.
A waiter carrying drinks.
Nobody moved.
Nobody blinked.
Nobody breathed.
The world seemed suspended.
My heartbeat slammed against my ribs.
"No."
My fingers started trembling.
A flash of lightning illuminated the restaurant.
And for a fraction of a second—
every single person turned toward me.
At the exact same time.
No eyes.
Only empty black sockets.
Endless.
Bottomless.
Watching.
I stumbled backward.
The chair crashed against the floor.
A thunderclap shook the building.
And reality snapped back into place.
People laughed.
Talked.
Ate.
Moved.
As if nothing had happened.
As if it had never happened.
I stood there breathing hard.
Cold sweat running down my neck.
"No..."
My voice barely worked.
"No. No. No."
I pressed both hands against my face.
That wasn't real.
It couldn't have been.
Panic attacks caused hallucinations.
Extreme stress caused hallucinations.
Sleep deprivation caused hallucinations.
There were explanations.
There had to be explanations.
Because if there weren't—
I didn't even want to think about what the alternative might be.
I grabbed money from my pocket.
Enough to cover the meal.
I needed air.
Immediately.
I needed distance.
The waitress appeared beside my table almost instantly.
"So soon?"
Her voice sounded strange.
Not wrong.
Just...
layered.
As if two people had spoken the exact same sentence at the exact same moment.
I looked up.
For a second—
her smile seemed impossibly wide.
Too wide.
Too perfect.
Too human to belong to a human face.
Then I blinked.
And everything was normal again.
"S-Sorry."
I handed her the money.
"I need to go."
She accepted it slowly.
The smile never leaving her face.
"You should get home before the storm gets worse."
Something about the way she said it made my stomach twist.
Not a warning.
Not concern.
Almost as if she already knew something I didn't.
I swallowed.
Nodded.
Picked up my backpack.
And headed for the door.
The moment I stepped outside, the rain hit me like a wall.
Cold.
Heavy.
Relentless.
I inhaled sharply.
The freezing air filled my lungs.
For a second, it helped.
A little.
I looked back.
The restaurant still glowed behind me.
Warm.
Crowded.
Comfortable.
Perfectly normal.
And somehow...
that made me feel even worse.
Because if everything inside was normal—
then the problem wasn't the restaurant.
The problem was me.
The storm had gotten worse.
Much worse.
The streets were nearly empty now.
Most people had already taken shelter, leaving the city looking strangely abandoned beneath the endless rain.
Neon signs flickered overhead.
Some buzzed with static.
Others had gone completely dark.
Every few seconds lightning illuminated the skyline, transforming the city into a landscape of silver and black.
And each time it happened—
the shadows seemed wrong.
Not larger.
Not darker.
Late.
As if they reacted a fraction of a second after the objects that cast them.
I kept walking.
Faster now.
Trying to ignore it.
Trying to ignore the whispers hidden beneath the rainfall.
Trying to ignore the sensation that something was following me.
Trying to ignore the certainty that no matter how many times I looked behind me—
someone was watching.
My hands remained buried inside my pockets.
My shoulders tense.
My pulse refusing to slow down.
Anxiety.
Just anxiety.
That explanation was becoming increasingly difficult to believe.
Then I heard it.
A sound unlike anything I had ever heard before.
The city shook.
Violently.
The ground lurched beneath my feet.
Storefront windows exploded.
Glass rained onto the streets.
Several streetlights burst simultaneously.
Darkness swallowed everything.
For a single moment, the entire world went black.
I froze.
My heart stopped.
And then—
something roared.
No.
Roar wasn't the right word.
A roar belongs to an animal.
A roar belongs to something alive.
This was something else.
A choir.
Thousands of voices screaming simultaneously in a language that should not have existed.
The sound came from everywhere.
Above me.
Below me.
Inside me.
It was like hearing an ocean pray.
Every instinct screamed at me to run.
To hide.
To get as far away from that sound as possible.
Instead—
I ran toward it.
Because my mind still demanded answers.
Because there had to be an explanation.
Because reality wasn't allowed to simply stop making sense.
Even if a part of me already knew it had.
Rain hammered against my face as I sprinted through the streets.
The water was so heavy it felt like being pelted by stones.
The city remained dark.
Only lightning illuminated the path ahead.
Brief flashes.
Brief glimpses.
Each revealing impossible shapes between the buildings.
Movements that vanished the instant the light disappeared.
Something long.
Something twisted.
Something watching.
"No."
My breathing grew harsher.
"You're panicking."
Another corner.
Another flash of lightning.
Another impossible silhouette.
"Stress."
Another step.
"Sleep deprivation."
Another flash.
Something moved across a rooftop.
Far too fast.
My stomach twisted.
"This isn't real."
It had to be one of those.
Anxiety.
Hallucinations.
A neurological episode.
Anything.
Anything except the alternative.
I turned sharply into a narrow side street.
Following the source of the sound.
Following the impossible choir.
And stopped.
The air vanished from my lungs.
My thoughts ceased.
My body forgot how to move.
Something stood at the far end of the street.
At first my mind tried to understand what I was seeing.
Tried to categorize it.
Human.
Animal.
Machine.
Anything familiar.
But the longer I looked—
the less possible that became.
It was enormous.
Far too large to fit comfortably between the surrounding buildings.
Its body twisted constantly.
Not moving.
Twisting.
Like molten flesh struggling to remember what shape it was supposed to have.
Limbs protruded from every part of its form.
Not arms.
Something similar to arms.
Long.
Bent incorrectly.
Jointed in places joints shouldn't exist.
Each ending in a human hand.
Sixteen.
Maybe more.
I couldn't tell.
The number seemed to change every time I blinked.
And every hand—
had eyes.
Open eyes.
Hundreds of them.
Staring.
Blinking frantically.
Watching everything.
Watching nothing.
Watching me.
A few of the palms also contained mouths.
Human mouths.
Some whispered.
Some prayed.
Some laughed.
Some cried.
All at the same time.
The sounds blended together into a horrifying chorus.
Tentacles emerged from its back.
Massive black appendages that pierced through nearby buildings as though concrete were paper.
Walls collapsed around them.
Windows shattered.
Steel bent.
Yet the creature barely seemed aware of the destruction.
Every movement produced wet sounds.
The sound of flesh tearing.
The sound of bones breaking.
The sound of something biological attempting to imitate life.
My entire body began trembling.
"...No."
I stepped backward.
The thing moved.
And suddenly the world stopped sounding normal.
The voices intensified.
Not around me.
Inside me.
Inside my skull.
Inside my thoughts.
Thousands.
Millions.
All speaking simultaneously.
None speaking a language I understood.
Yet somehow—
my mind reacted to them anyway.
Some sounded like screams.
Others like prayers.
Others like dying breaths.
A sharp pain exploded through my head.
I collapsed to my knees.
"Agh—!"
Warm liquid ran from my nose.
Blood.
I pressed both hands against my ears.
It didn't help.
The voices remained.
They weren't entering through my ears.
They were already inside.
As if the creature were speaking directly to something hidden deep within my mind.
Something ancient.
Something asleep.
Something that should have remained buried forever.
The choir grew louder.
My vision blurred.
The city warped around me.
Buildings bent.
The rain seemed to fall upward for a moment.
Reality itself felt unstable.
And then—
I saw her.
Standing directly before the creature.
Motionless beneath the storm.
A single figure dressed entirely in black.
A long cloak.
A dark hood.
Rain fell around her.
Yet somehow she seemed untouched by it.
I couldn't see her face.
Only her mouth.
And despite the distance—
despite the chaos—
despite the nightmare unfolding around us—
I felt something immediately.
Not relief.
Not hope.
Not safety.
Fear.
A different kind of fear.
A deeper one.
Because somehow—
without knowing why—
I knew.
That woman wasn't human either.
The creature noticed her.
The choir shifted.
Its voices becoming angrier.
Louder.
Hungrier.
Several enormous tentacles lashed toward her.
The impact shattered asphalt.
Buildings trembled.
The street cracked apart.
Yet she didn't move.
Not even a step.
Not even a flinch.
She merely tilted her head slightly.
As though observing an insect.
"I don't remember you being this weak."
Her voice cut cleanly through the storm.
Calm.
Cold.
Effortless.
One of the tentacles descended directly toward her.
A killing blow.
A mountain of flesh and eyes and screaming mouths crashing downward.
The woman sighed.
Almost bored.
"But I suppose this is where it ends."
The tentacle fell.
And then—
violet fire exploded around her.
Violet flames erupted around her.
Not ordinary fire.
Not anything nature could have produced.
The flames looked alive.
Like fragments of burning stars given form.
The rain evaporated instantly wherever they touched.
Steam exploded outward.
For a brief moment, the storm itself seemed to recoil.
The woman remained motionless at the center of the inferno.
Her hood was still raised.
Yet strands of dark hair drifted weightlessly around her as though gravity no longer applied to her.
And her eyes—
Her eyes shone with the same light that lived inside thunderstorms.
Ancient.
Violent.
Beautiful.
Wrong.
The instant I looked directly at them, an invisible pressure crushed against my chest.
My lungs tightened.
My heartbeat faltered.
It felt as though reality itself had noticed her existence.
The creature screamed.
No.
Not screamed.
The distinction mattered.
Screams belonged to pain.
This was something else.
Hymns.
Prayers.
Funeral songs.
Thousands of voices chanting simultaneously.
The city trembled beneath the sound.
Buildings shook.
Glass shattered.
The rain itself seemed distorted by the vibrations.
Yet the woman merely watched.
Expressionless.
Unimpressed.
As if she were observing a particularly annoying insect.
The creature's tentacles lashed forward again.
Faster.
Harder.
Dozens this time.
The air cracked beneath their speed.
Entire sections of nearby buildings collapsed.
The street split apart.
Concrete erupted into the sky.
Still—
she did not move.
Not a single step.
Not a single defensive gesture.
The tentacles descended.
And for a fraction of a second, I thought she had made a mistake.
Then she slowly raised one hand.
The movement was almost lazy.
Almost bored.
The violet flames brightened.
The world fell silent.
Instantly.
The rain vanished.
The wind disappeared.
The creature's voices stopped.
Even my own breathing ceased.
Absolute silence.
The kind of silence that should not exist.
The kind that makes the soul panic.
For one impossible moment, the entire city seemed frozen.
Then she spoke.
And reality listened.
"Þanir'is Älithir."
The words were not human.
They weren't merely spoken.
They were imposed.
Forced into existence.
The sound passed through me like blades.
Pain exploded inside my ears.
I screamed.
Or at least I tried to.
I couldn't hear myself.
Every window in sight shattered simultaneously.
Streetlights burst apart.
Car alarms died before they could even begin.
Blood poured from my nose.
Warm.
Relentless.
My vision blurred.
And then—
for a single impossible instant—
I saw something behind her.
Not physically.
Not truly.
More like a glimpse through a crack in reality.
A sky filled with eyes.
Millions of them.
Watching.
Blinking.
Waiting.
Beneath them stretched a black ocean without end.
An ocean that seemed older than existence itself.
Above it hung a broken moon.
Split apart.
Dead.
And kneeling before her—
thousands upon thousands of shadows.
Silent figures bowing toward a throne made of darkness and roots.
The image lasted less than a heartbeat.
Yet my mind instinctively understood one thing.
That vision wasn't symbolic.
It was real.
Somewhere.
Somewhen.
It existed.
Then the light came.
Violet radiance swallowed the entire street.
The creature exploded.
There was no struggle.
No resistance.
No battle.
One moment it existed.
The next—
it didn't.
Flesh erupted in every direction.
Eyes.
Teeth.
Black blood.
Chunks of impossible anatomy rained across nearby buildings.
The smell hit a second later.
Rotting fish.
Burned meat.
Ancient blood.
The scent of something that should have remained buried forever.
I gagged.
The woman extended her hand once more.
The violet flames surged outward.
Every fragment of the creature ignited.
Every drop of blood.
Every piece of flesh.
Every eye.
Within seconds, nothing remained except ash.
Not even bones survived.
Silence returned.
The storm slowly resumed.
Rain struck the pavement once more.
Wind moved through the streets.
Reality stitched itself back together.
As though none of it had happened.
My body refused to obey me.
I couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe properly.
Couldn't think.
The woman lowered her hand.
The flames vanished.
Slowly, she pulled her hood back into place.
Then—
she turned toward me.
My blood froze.
She was too far away for me to clearly see her face.
Yet somehow I knew she was smiling.
A small smile.
A faint smile.
A terrifying smile.
Not because it was cruel.
Not because it was malicious.
Because it felt familiar.
As though she had been expecting me.
Waiting for me.
Watching me long before tonight.
Our eyes met.
And in that moment, every instinct in my body screamed.
Run.
Hide.
Forget.
Do anything except remain where you are.
But I couldn't move.
I couldn't even blink.
Then she spoke.
"We'll meet again sooner than you think."
My throat closed.
The words weren't threatening.
That was what made them worse.
She sounded certain.
Certain in the way people are certain the sun will rise tomorrow.
As though our meeting wasn't a possibility.
It was inevitability.
Slowly, she lifted a finger to her lips.
A gesture for silence.
A secret.
A warning.
A promise.
I didn't know which.
Then the fog shifted.
The rain thickened.
And she vanished.
Just like that.
No dramatic exit.
No flash of light.
No portal.
No trace.
One moment she was standing there.
The next—
she was gone.
As though she had never existed at all.
My legs finally gave out.
I collapsed onto the rain-soaked street.
Black blood mixed with water around my knees.
My thoughts raced desperately.
Experimental weapons.
Hallucinogenic gas.
Terrorists.
Military technology.
A dream.
Anything.
Any explanation.
Any lie.
Anything capable of restoring order to reality.
But deep down—
beneath the panic—
beneath the denial—
beneath every rationalization my mind could construct—
I already knew the truth.
What I had witnessed tonight...
did not belong to this world.
The rain continued to fall.
Cold.
Endless.
Relentless.
Yet I could barely feel it.
My hands trembled violently as I stared at the black blood swirling around my knees.
Water carried it through the cracks in the pavement.
Dark streams flowing toward the city's drains.
As though the storm itself were trying to erase what had happened.
Erase the evidence.
Erase the memory.
Erase reality.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Breathe.
I forced air into my lungs.
My chest hurt.
My head felt like it was splitting apart.
Slowly, I tried to stand.
My legs refused.
The world tilted violently.
I nearly collapsed again.
Images kept flashing through my mind.
The eyes.
The mouths.
The impossible choir.
The violet flames.
The woman.
Most of all—
the woman.
"No..."
My voice came out weak.
Broken.
Pathetic.
"That wasn't real."
The rain answered with silence.
I swallowed.
"It couldn't have been."
But even as the words left my mouth, I knew I was lying.
Because I could still hear it.
That language.
That impossible language.
The sound lingered inside my mind like a scar.
Like something carved directly into my thoughts.
A wound that refused to close.
"Þanir'is Älithir."
The words echoed again.
Not from outside.
From within.
I immediately covered my ears.
"Stop."
The phrase remained.
Unchanged.
Unaffected.
"Stop."
My breathing accelerated.
The words repeated.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Like a prayer.
Like a curse.
Like a command.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Shut up..."
The language continued.
Patient.
Endless.
As though it knew I would eventually listen.
Then agony exploded through my skull.
I screamed.
The world vanished.
One moment I was kneeling in the rain.
The next—
everything disappeared.
No city.
No storm.
No cold.
No body.
Only darkness.
Infinite darkness.
A void without shape.
Without direction.
Without end.
I couldn't tell if I was standing.
Floating.
Falling.
There was nothing to measure against.
Nothing except the darkness itself.
Then a voice spoke.
Not from ahead.
Not from behind.
Not from above.
Everywhere.
Ancient.
Deep.
Impossible.
As though it had existed before the first star was born.
"You are where you were always meant to be."
My heart nearly stopped.
I spun around instinctively.
Looking for the source.
There was nothing.
Only darkness.
Only emptiness.
Only the voice.
"W-What...?"
My breathing became erratic.
"Who are you?"
Silence followed.
A long silence.
Then—
the voice returned.
And for the first time that night—
I felt true fear.
Not fear of monsters.
Not fear of death.
Fear of something older than both.
"She has begun to reveal herself."
A chill spread through my entire body.
"She...?"
I tried to move.
Couldn't.
It felt as though invisible chains held me in place.
"Who?"
The darkness shifted.
Images appeared around me.
Not visions.
Not dreams.
Memories.
Or perhaps possibilities.
I couldn't tell.
Black oceans.
Burning cities.
Broken moons hanging above dead worlds.
Countless people kneeling before something hidden beyond the sky.
And at the center of it all—
her.
The woman from the storm.
Standing upon a throne woven from black roots.
Watching everything.
Silent.
Unmoving.
Eternal.
"Everything revolves around her."
The voice echoed through the void.
"Her existence altered the fate of this world."
The images changed.
Violently.
Mountains of corpses.
Rivers flowing red.
Creatures crawling from fractures in the heavens.
Entire civilizations burning.
I heard crying.
Thousands of voices.
Millions.
The grief of entire worlds.
The darkness trembled beneath their suffering.
"She is a darkness deeper than the night."
Pressure built inside my chest.
I struggled to breathe.
The voice continued.
"She stands at the center of every mystery."
Then it whispered something that froze my blood.
"And you must stop her."
For a moment—
I genuinely thought I had misheard.
"What?"
The word escaped before I could stop it.
The images continued shifting around me.
I stared into the darkness.
Waiting for clarification.
For correction.
For sanity.
None came.
"You must stop her."
"No."
I laughed.
A short.
Desperate.
Disbelieving laugh.
"No."
The voice remained silent.
I pointed at myself.
"Me?"
The darkness offered no response.
"Absolutely not."
I finally managed to move one arm.
Then another.
"No."
I took a step backward.
"Pick someone else."
Another step.
"I'm busy."
The void trembled.
"I have school."
Another step.
"I have problems."
Another.
"I have enough things trying to kill me already."
The darkness continued watching.
Patient.
Silent.
"I don't want this."
The images began to distort.
The corpses moved.
The shadows turned their heads toward me.
Something enormous stirred beneath the black ocean.
"No."
The voice returned.
Louder this time.
Closer.
"Only the Original Sin can stop her."
Pain exploded inside my skull.
I collapsed to my knees.
Screaming.
The darkness fractured.
And suddenly—
the voices returned.
Thousands of them.
Whispering.
Praying.
Laughing.
Crying.
All at once.
All inside my head.
"Only another darkness can destroy the darkness."
Shadows began crawling across the void.
Moving toward me.
"The Child of Night."
Hands emerged from the darkness.
Countless hands.
Grasping.
Reaching.
Pulling.
"The Child of Sin."
The pain became unbearable.
My vision fractured.
The voices multiplied.
"She should kill him."
Another voice.
"But she cannot."
The darkness opened.
And I saw a child.
A small boy.
Covered in blood.
Standing beneath a black moon.
Crying.
Alone.
And behind him—
stood the woman.
Watching.
Waiting.
As though she had always been there.
The ancient voice broke apart.
Becoming thousands.
Millions.
A chorus of impossible sounds speaking simultaneously.
"And because of that..."
The shadows surged forward.
The black ocean roared.
The moon cracked.
The child lifted his head.
And every voice spoke together.
"All life shall suffer forever."
Something grabbed me.
The darkness shattered.
And I woke up screaming.
I ran.
Not because I understood what I had heard.
Not because I knew what was happening.
But because my mind still refused to surrender.
There had to be an explanation.
There always was.
Even now.
Even with that impossible choir echoing across the city.
I ran through rain-soaked streets while the sound continued to reverberate through Amberlath.
Each step felt heavier than the last.
The rain struck my face so hard I could barely keep my eyes open.
Streetlights remained dead.
Storefronts stood dark.
The entire city seemed swallowed by a blackness that flashed into existence only when lightning tore across the sky.
And every time the world lit up—
I thought I saw movement.
Shapes.
Long silhouettes stretching between buildings.
Things that vanished before my eyes could focus on them.
"No..."
My breath came in ragged bursts.
"This isn't real."
Another flash.
Something crossed a rooftop.
Gone.
"I'm just panicking."
That had to be it.
Stress.
Sleep deprivation.
Anxiety.
My brain was misinterpreting stimuli.
Creating patterns where none existed.
A perfectly logical explanation.
A perfectly reasonable explanation.
A perfectly useless explanation.
Because deep down—
something inside me had already begun to understand.
I turned sharply into a narrow side street.
And froze.
The air vanished from my lungs.
The world stopped.
Something stood at the far end of the street.
My mind immediately tried to categorize it.
Human.
Animal.
Machine.
Anything.
Everything.
Nothing worked.
The longer I looked at it—
the less human it became.
It was enormous.
Far too large to fit between the surrounding buildings.
Its body twisted continuously, as though it had been sculpted from melting flesh and then forgotten by whatever god had attempted to create it.
Limbs protruded from every part of its body.
Not arms.
Not exactly.
Things that resembled arms.
Long.
Bent incorrectly.
Jointed where no joints should exist.
At the end of each one hung a human hand.
Sixteen.
Perhaps more.
And every hand had eyes.
Hundreds of eyes.
Bloodshot.
Wide open.
Blinking frantically.
Watching everything.
Watching me.
Several palms possessed mouths as well.
Human mouths.
Some whispered.
Some prayed.
Some sobbed.
Some laughed.
All at the same time.
The sounds blended together into a nauseating chorus.
Tentacles burst from its back like roots tearing through soil.
They pierced walls.
Wrapped around buildings.
Crushed concrete as though it were paper.
Every movement produced wet sounds.
The sound of bones snapping inside living flesh.
The sound of meat tearing itself apart.
The sound of something that should never have existed.
My entire body began trembling.
"No..."
I stumbled backward.
One step.
Then another.
The thing spoke.
And reality stopped sounding normal.
The language was impossible.
Not foreign.
Not ancient.
Impossible.
The voices did not enter through my ears.
They appeared inside my head.
Thousands of voices speaking simultaneously beneath an endless ocean.
Some sounded like screams.
Others like prayers.
Others like laughter.
Others like words that no human mouth could ever form.
Pain exploded through my skull.
I collapsed to my knees.
"Agh—!"
Warm blood trickled from my nose.
I clutched my head.
Covered my ears.
It changed nothing.
The voices remained.
Inside me.
As if the creature were speaking directly to something hidden within my mind.
Something buried.
Something asleep.
And then—
I saw her.
Standing before the creature.
Motionless beneath the rain.
A lone figure draped in black.
A long cloak.
A deep hood.
The storm seemed unable to touch her.
I couldn't see her face.
Only her mouth.
And despite everything surrounding her—
the creature.
The voices.
The impossible horror—
the sight of that woman frightened me more.
Not because she looked dangerous.
Because she looked calm.
Far too calm.
Like someone standing before an insect rather than a monster capable of tearing apart an entire city.
The creature reacted first.
Several massive tentacles lashed toward her.
Buildings shook.
Glass shattered.
The pavement split apart.
Yet she didn't move.
Not even an inch.
She merely tilted her head slightly.
Almost disappointed.
"I don't remember you being this weak."
Her voice cut through the storm with terrifying clarity.
Soft.
Calm.
Effortless.
"But I suppose everything ends eventually."
A pause.
The corner of her lips lifted slightly.
"You're not entertaining anymore."
One of the tentacles descended directly toward her.
Then it happened.
Violet flames erupted around her body.
Not fire.
Not truly.
Fire consumed.
This looked as though stars themselves had begun burning.
The rain evaporated instantly.
Steam exploded outward.
Her dark hair slowly rose into the air.
And her eyes—
her eyes shone with the same light that lived inside thunderstorms.
My chest tightened.
An invisible pressure crushed my lungs.
Even looking at her hurt.
The creature screamed.
No.
Not screams.
Hymns.
Laments.
Prayers.
A thousand dying religions crying out together.
The city itself seemed to tremble beneath the sound.
Then the woman slowly raised one hand.
And her left eye blazed.
The world fell silent.
Instantly.
The rain vanished.
The wind vanished.
Even the monster's voice disappeared.
For one impossible moment—
existence itself seemed to stop breathing.
And then she spoke.
In that same impossible language.
"Þanir'is Älithir."
The words sliced through reality.
And through me.
Pain exploded inside my ears.
Every window in sight shattered simultaneously.
Streetlights burst apart.
Blood poured from my nose.
And for the briefest instant—
I saw something behind her.
Not a vision.
Not imagination.
Something real.
A sky filled with eyes.
A black ocean without an end.
A shattered moon hanging above an endless abyss.
Thousands of shadows kneeling before her.
Worshipping.
Fearing.
Waiting.
Then violet light consumed everything.
Then the violet light consumed everything.
For a single instant, the entire street disappeared beneath an ocean of radiance.
The creature exploded.
Not metaphorically.
Not figuratively.
It simply ceased to remain whole.
Flesh burst outward in every direction.
Eyes.
Teeth.
Bones.
Black blood.
Fragments of impossible anatomy scattered through the city like shrapnel from a dying god.
The shockwave tore through nearby buildings.
Windows shattered for blocks.
Concrete cracked.
The ground beneath my feet trembled violently.
And still—
the woman remained standing.
Untouched.
Unmoving.
Watching.
The smell reached me a second later.
Rotting fish.
Burned meat.
Ancient blood.
A scent so foul my stomach immediately twisted.
I nearly vomited.
The remains of the creature continued raining from the sky.
Pieces of flesh struck walls.
Others slid across the pavement.
Several still moved.
Twitching.
Convulsing.
As if they refused to accept death.
The woman slowly extended her hand once more.
The violet flames obeyed instantly.
They swept through the street like a living tide.
Every fragment touched by the fire vanished.
No smoke.
No ash.
No remains.
Nothing.
Within seconds, the creature had been erased completely.
As though it had never existed.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Absolute.
The rain gradually returned.
The distant sound of thunder followed.
Then the wind.
Then the city.
Reality slowly remembered how to function.
My body did not.
I couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe properly.
Couldn't think.
My mind felt shattered.
Like a mirror that had been dropped and somehow remained standing despite being broken into countless pieces.
The woman calmly lowered her hand.
The flames vanished.
The pressure crushing my chest disappeared with them.
Slowly, she pulled her hood back into place.
Then she turned toward me.
And smiled.
A small smile.
Barely visible.
Yet it sent terror flooding through my entire body.
Because somehow—
I knew.
I knew she wasn't seeing me for the first time.
That smile carried recognition.
As though she had been expecting me.
Waiting for me.
Preparing for this moment long before I was born.
My throat tightened.
I couldn't speak.
Couldn't look away.
The rain fell between us.
Neither of us moved.
Then she spoke.
"We'll meet again sooner than you think."
My heartbeat stopped.
Not figuratively.
For one horrifying second, I genuinely forgot how to breathe.
The woman raised a finger to her lips.
A simple gesture.
A request for silence.
Yet it felt less like a request and more like a command.
As if reality itself expected obedience.
Then the fog shifted.
The rain thickened.
And she disappeared.
Just like that.
No flash of light.
No dramatic farewell.
One moment she was standing there.
The next—
she was gone.
As though she had never existed.
My body finally gave out.
I collapsed onto the street.
My knees struck the wet pavement.
Black blood mixed with rainwater around me.
I stared at the dark liquid.
My thoughts desperately searched for answers.
An experimental weapon.
Hallucinogenic gas.
Terrorists.
A military operation.
A dream.
A psychotic episode.
Anything.
Any explanation.
No matter how ridiculous.
No matter how impossible.
Anything was preferable to the truth.
Because deep down—
some part of me had already accepted it.
What I had witnessed tonight did not belong to this world.
The rain continued falling.
I could barely feel it.
My hands shook violently.
My breathing refused to stabilize.
The images wouldn't leave.
The eyes.
The mouths.
The voices.
The woman.
The violet fire.
"It wasn't real..."
My voice cracked.
Weak.
Pathetic.
"It wasn't real... it wasn't real..."
A lie.
And I knew it.
Because I could still hear that language.
Still feel it.
The impossible words echoed inside my skull like a scar carved directly into thought itself.
"Þanir'is Älithir..."
I immediately covered my ears.
"Shut up..."
The words remained.
Unchanged.
Permanent.
As though something had branded them into my soul.
Then pain exploded through my head.
Far worse than before.
I screamed.
Collapsed completely onto the pavement.
And the world vanished.
The rain disappeared.
The city disappeared.
My body disappeared.
Everything disappeared.
Only darkness remained.
Endless darkness.
Infinite darkness.
The kind of darkness that existed before light was invented.
Before stars.
Before worlds.
Before life.
And within that darkness—
a voice spoke.
Ancient.
Immense.
Neither male nor female.
Neither kind nor cruel.
A voice that felt older than time itself.
"You are where you are meant to be."
My eyes snapped open.
I looked around desperately.
There was nothing.
No ground.
No sky.
No horizon.
Only darkness stretching forever.
"W-What...?"
My breathing accelerated instantly.
"Who are you?"
Silence followed.
Several seconds passed.
Then the voice spoke again.
And for the first time that night—
I felt true fear.
Not panic.
Not terror.
Fear.
The purest form of it.
"She has begun to reveal herself."
A chill spread through me.
"She...?"
I tried to move.
Couldn't.
It felt as though invisible chains held my body in place.
"Who is she?"
The darkness answered.
Not with words.
With visions.
Shadows emerged around me.
Black oceans.
Burning cities.
Broken moons hanging above crimson skies.
Countless people kneeling before something hidden beyond the heavens.
And standing at the center of every vision—
her.
The woman with violet flames.
Watching everything from a throne woven from black roots.
The voice echoed throughout the void.
"Everything revolves around her."
The images shifted.
Violently.
Mountains of corpses.
Rivers of blood.
Creatures crawling from fractures in the sky.
The cries of millions.
The collapse of civilizations.
The death of worlds.
"Her existence altered the destiny of this world."
My chest tightened.
Breathing became difficult.
The darkness itself felt heavier.
Oppressive.
Ancient.
Then the voice spoke once more.
And every image froze.
"She is a darkness deeper than the night."
The visions trembled.
"She stands at the center of every mystery."
Then came the words that froze my blood.
"And you must stop her."
"What?"
For the first time, I managed to move an arm.
"No."
I forced myself upright.
"No, no, no."
My voice shook violently.
"Pick someone else."
The darkness began to vibrate.
"I have school."
One step backward.
"I have enough problems already."
Another step.
"I don't want any of this."
The visions began to distort.
Corpses turned their heads toward me.
Shadows started crawling closer.
The voice grew louder.
Nearer.
More ancient.
More terrible.
"Only the Original Sin can stop her."
Pain erupted inside my skull.
I fell to my knees screaming.
And suddenly—
the voices returned.
Thousands of them.
Whispering.
Praying.
Laughing.
Weeping.
All at once.
"Only another darkness can destroy the darkness."
And the shadows began moving toward me.
The shadows continued to close in.
Endless.
Silent.
Hungry.
I tried to back away.
There was nowhere to go.
The darkness stretched infinitely in every direction.
No matter where I looked, the shadows remained.
Watching.
Waiting.
The ancient voice echoed through the void once more.
"The Son of Night..."
Something grabbed my arm.
I jerked violently.
A hand.
Pale.
Human.
Emerging from the darkness beneath me.
Then another.
And another.
And another.
Hundreds of hands burst from the black void.
They seized my arms.
My legs.
My shoulders.
My throat.
"The Son of Sin..."
The voices multiplied.
Thousands.
Tens of thousands.
Whispering directly into my skull.
Each voice carried a different emotion.
Fear.
Hatred.
Grief.
Despair.
Worship.
Madness.
And somehow they all spoke together.
"She should kill him."
Pain exploded through my body.
I screamed.
My vision fractured.
Cracks spread across reality itself.
Like shattered glass.
"But she cannot."
The hands pulled harder.
The darkness trembled.
The voices became louder.
And suddenly—
I saw something.
A child.
A young boy standing beneath a black moon.
His clothes were stained with blood.
His face hidden behind tears.
He looked completely alone.
Completely broken.
And behind him—
stood the woman.
The one with violet flames.
Watching.
Not smiling.
Not speaking.
Simply watching.
As though she had always been there.
As though she always would be.
"And because of that..."
The ancient voice distorted.
Thousands of voices merged into one.
Millions speaking simultaneously.
A sound too vast for the human mind.
"All life shall suffer eternally."
The darkness shattered.
Everything broke apart.
And I woke up screaming.
My back slammed against a brick wall.
Pain shot through my spine.
Cold rain poured over me.
My lungs burned.
I couldn't breathe.
Couldn't think.
Couldn't stop shaking.
"No..."
My voice cracked.
Broken.
Pathetic.
"No... no... no..."
Tears streamed down my face.
I grabbed my head desperately.
The voices were still there.
Weaker.
Far away.
But still there.
Still whispering.
Still waiting.
"Son of Sin."
"Shut up!"
My hands dug into my hair.
"Condemned to be born and suffer forever."
"SHUT UP!"
I slammed my head against the wall.
Pain exploded through my skull.
Good.
Pain was good.
Pain was real.
Pain made sense.
The voices didn't.
The creature didn't.
The woman didn't.
Nothing made sense anymore.
"She will give you a cruel death."
"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU!"
"Child of the Moon and Night."
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
I struck the wall again.
And again.
And again.
Blood mixed with rainwater.
Running down my forehead.
Dripping across the pavement.
But physical pain was easier.
Much easier.
Then—
a whisper came from directly behind me.
So close I could feel it.
"You saw her."
My heart stopped.
I spun around instantly.
Nothing.
No one.
Only darkness.
Only rain.
Only overflowing storm drains carrying water through the city.
The voices continued.
"She has awakened."
"She is coming."
"Run."
I grabbed my head harder.
As if I could physically crush the voices into silence.
The rain mixed with tears.
I couldn't tell which was which anymore.
And then—
I heard a different voice.
A real voice.
A human voice.
"Dark!"
Everything stopped.
I slowly lifted my head.
Kimberly.
She stood in front of me.
Completely soaked by the storm.
Breathing heavily.
As though she had run across half the city searching for me.
Her eyes trembled.
Not with fear.
With worry.
Pure worry.
"What happened to you...?"
Her voice broke the moment she saw the blood.
"Why are you bleeding?"
I tried to answer.
Nothing came out.
The voices still lingered.
Distant now.
Distorted.
Like echoes disappearing into the ocean.
"Dark..."
She knelt in front of me.
"Look at me."
Her hands gently held my face.
"Please."
And for the first time since everything began—
I felt something real.
Warmth.
Not fear.
Not pain.
Not confusion.
Warmth.
"Kim..."
My voice completely broke.
Something inside me finally gave up.
I grabbed her.
Held onto her as tightly as I could.
Like a drowning man finding air after sinking for too long.
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Honest.
Small.
Fragile.
"I'm scared."
Silence.
Kimberly froze.
Probably because she had never heard me say something like that before.
I was always the rational one.
The calm one.
The skeptic.
The one who explained things away.
The one who made jokes.
The one who pretended everything was fine.
But now—
I was trembling.
Broken.
And she knew it.
"It's okay..."
Her voice softened.
"It's okay."
One hand gently stroked my hair.
The same way someone comforts a frightened child.
"I'm here."
The voices grew weaker.
Further away.
"I'm not leaving you alone."
For the first time all night—
I believed someone.
The whispers slowly faded.
The darkness retreated.
The pain eased.
And just before the voices vanished completely—
one final sentence reached me.
A single whisper.
Quiet.
Certain.
Absolute.
"The darkness has already chosen him."
Everything went black.
"Ah—!"
I bolted upright.
My lungs seized.
My heart hammered violently against my ribs.
For several seconds I couldn't tell where I was.
The alley.
The rain.
The creature.
The voices.
The woman.
Everything blurred together.
Then reality slowly returned.
A room.
Cream-colored walls.
A small desk cluttered with notebooks, cosmetics, and half-forgotten trinkets.
Soft morning light filtering through the curtains.
And a faint scent of vanilla lingering in the air.
Kimberly's room.
The realization settled over me moments before the door flew open.
"Dark!"
Kimberly rushed inside.
The panic on her face disappeared the moment she saw me awake.
Relief replaced it almost instantly.
"You're finally up."
She crossed the room in seconds and grabbed my shoulders.
"Are you okay? Does anything hurt?"
I stared at her silently.
She looked exhausted.
There were dark circles beneath her eyes.
Her hair wasn't styled the way it normally was.
She probably hadn't slept much.
Because of me.
"Sorry..."
My voice sounded rough.
"It was just a nightmare."
She let out a long breath.
Relieved.
But not convinced.
"What were you even doing outside during the storm?"
Her expression hardened slightly.
"You know perfectly well it's forbidden once the warnings start."
I looked away.
I couldn't tell her.
I didn't even understand what had happened myself.
How was I supposed to explain the voices?
The creature?
The woman wrapped in violet flames?
The impossible language?
The visions?
"I had a panic attack while walking home."
I swallowed.
"So I stayed in an alley until it passed."
Kimberly studied me carefully.
As though trying to decide whether I was lying.
Maybe I was.
At least partially.
Eventually she sighed.
"You're an idiot."
Her voice wasn't angry.
It sounded frightened.
"You scared me."
Then she hugged me.
Without warning.
Without hesitation.
Tightly.
Far too tightly.
For a moment I froze.
Because nobody had ever said those words to me before.
You scared me.
Not because they were angry.
Not because they were inconvenienced.
Because they cared.
Slowly, I returned the embrace.
"Don't worry."
I forced a weak smile.
"Bad weeds never die."
The joke fell flat.
Even to me.
My voice sounded hollow.
Then, before I could stop myself, I quietly added,
"Though maybe one day I'll end up killing myself anyway."
Kimberly immediately pulled away.
The look on her face changed instantly.
Pain.
Anger.
Fear.
As though those words had genuinely wounded her.
"Don't ever say that again."
The room became silent.
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
Before either of us could continue, the door opened again.
"Has my favorite patient finally awakened?"
A new voice entered the room.
Warm.
Gentle.
Effortlessly calming.
Alya stepped inside carrying a pharmacy bag in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
Her cherry-colored hair fell loosely over her shoulders, still slightly damp from the rain outside.
Tired eyes regarded me carefully.
Eyes whose color always seemed impossible to describe.
Somewhere between dark brown and crimson.
Unlike Kimberly's explosive energy, Alya radiated something quieter.
Something steadier.
As if disasters simply forgot to happen around her.
"How are you feeling?"
She placed the coffee on the desk before approaching the bed.
"Better... I think."
I attempted to sit up.
A sharp headache immediately punished the decision.
"Easy, idiot."
Alya sighed and sat beside me.
Then she gently placed a hand against my forehead.
Such a simple gesture.
Almost meaningless.
Yet it made something inside me ache.
Because it felt safe.
And safety was dangerous.
When someone grows up without affection, they learn to cling to even the smallest kindness.
"You still have a fever."
Her voice carried genuine concern.
Kimberly crossed her arms.
"He was smashing his head against a wall."
Alya immediately turned toward me.
"What?"
Her expression became serious.
"Why would you do something like that?"
I looked away.
Again.
I couldn't explain.
Not without sounding insane.
How could I possibly tell them about the voices?
About the thing I had seen?
About the woman standing in the rain?
"I just..."
The words caught in my throat.
"I panicked."
Alya watched me for several moments.
Then she sighed.
But she didn't press further.
Because she was the kind of person who understood when someone wasn't ready to talk.
"Well."
A small smile appeared on her face.
"Then I'll take care of you until you recover."
That smile was dangerous.
Not because of anything supernatural.
Because it made people feel wanted.
Valued.
Loved.
Kimberly immediately grimaced.
"Hey. Don't flirt with him while he's traumatized."
"I'm not flirting."
"Yes, you are."
"I'm simply taking care of my future husband."
Kimberly pointed dramatically toward the hallway.
"MOM! ALYA IS HARASSING DARK AGAIN!"
"DO NOT TELL MOM THAT!"
For the first time since the storm—
I laughed.
A real laugh.
Small.
Weak.
But real.
Both sisters immediately fell silent.
Surprised.
Because my expression before that had probably been terrifying.
Alya studied me for a few seconds before gently ruffling my hair.
"Much better."
Her smile softened.
"You look more human when you smile."
Heat immediately rose to my face.
I looked away.
Unable to think of a response.
A voice echoed from downstairs.
"Breakfast is getting cold!"
The sisters left the room while continuing their argument.
Their voices faded down the hallway.
I slowly climbed out of bed.
My legs still felt weak.
But something was different.
The voices were gone.
For now.
That had to be a good sign.
Right?
I made my way downstairs.
And the smell hit me immediately.
Fresh bread.
Coffee.
Honey.
Cinnamon.
Warmth.
The kind of warmth that only exists inside homes.
Kimberly's mother smiled the moment she saw me.
"Good morning, Dark."
Her voice carried the same warmth as her daughters'.
"Good morning."
I hesitated.
"And... thank you for letting me stay here."
Her smile widened.
"No need to thank me."
She placed a plate in front of me.
Pancakes.
Fruit.
Eggs.
Far too much food.
"You need to eat properly."
She frowned.
"You're much too skinny."
Kimberly immediately pointed at me.
"See? I've been saying that for years."
"And I've been saying he looks like a walking corpse."
Alya casually sipped her coffee.
"Thank you all for the emotional support."
I muttered.
The food was incredible.
Ridiculously incredible.
And for the first time in a very long while—
I wasn't eating alone.
I sat at a table surrounded by people.
Talking.
Laughing.
Existing together.
Something so normal should not have hurt.
Yet somehow it did.
Because it reminded me of how lonely I really was.
How long it had been since I felt anything resembling family.
Alya looked at me for a moment.
Almost as though she had understood exactly what I was thinking.
Then she spoke casually.
"Oh, by the way."
I looked up.
"Hm?"
"We're stopping by a pharmacy before school."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
"Kimberly told me you're out of medication."
A small knot formed in my chest.
"It's not necessary."
"Yes, it is."
Her answer came immediately.
Firm.
But gentle.
"You can't just stop taking them."
"They're expensive."
"So?"
I stared at her.
She stared right back.
Without looking away.
Without hesitation.
"Dark."
Her voice softened.
"You don't have to solve everything by yourself."
The words hit harder than anything that had happened during the storm.
Harder than the voices.
Harder than the nightmare.
Harder than the prophecy.
Because nobody had ever said them to me before.
Nobody had ever offered help without expecting something in return.
My hands trembled slightly beneath the table.
Alya noticed.
But said nothing.
She simply smiled.
A small smile.
Warm.
Human.
And in that moment, I realized something dangerous.
If I kept receiving this kind of kindness—
I would eventually become incapable of losing them.