The night air was sharp with the scent of smoke and iron. The car lay broken against the tree, its once smooth frame twisted into ruin. Eren sat slumped in the seat, his chest rising shallowly, the edges of his consciousness drifting in and out. The memory of those eyes—glowing red like burning embers—haunted the darkness behind his eyelids.
He should be dead. He knew it. The crash was no small accident; he had felt the violence of it shake every bone in his body. And yet, somehow, he breathed. The pain in his ribs was duller than it should have been, his bleeding already slowed. Some invisible force lingered inside him, a reminder of the power that had touched him.
The demon.
He whispered the word to himself, half in disbelief, half in awe. "Demon…" The syllable carried both dread and a strange pull, as if saying it tethered him to the memory of that figure who had stood in the smoke.
But when he lifted his head again, the road was empty. No trace of anyone. No glowing eyes. No presence pressing down on his chest. Just silence.
Eren let out a shaky laugh, bitter and raw. Maybe he had hallucinated it all. Maybe his broken mind, dulled by alcohol and grief, had conjured a savior out of nightmare and fantasy. And yet… his body told a different story. He should have been bleeding out, bones shattered. Instead, he sat in the wreckage, weak but alive.
The distant sound of tires on asphalt pulled him from his thoughts. Light flickered across the trees—a car approaching. Panic rose in his throat. He didn't want people to see him like this, broken, humiliated, reeking of alcohol and failure. He pushed at the door with trembling arms, forcing it open with a groan of rusted hinges.
The forest greeted him with cold air. He staggered onto the road, glass crunching under his shoes. Every step was a battle, his body protesting, yet something unnatural hummed beneath his skin, pushing him forward. He didn't understand it, but he knew the demon's touch lingered.
As he stumbled toward the trees to hide from the approaching headlights, he felt it—a shiver that raised every hair on his neck. The weight of unseen eyes. He froze, breath shallow. The presence was gone in an instant, swallowed by shadow, but the sensation left his heart racing.
He wasn't alone. He knew it. The demon hadn't left completely.
Eren pressed a hand to his chest, where the ache of impact still lingered. Somewhere beneath his ribs, where the demon's power had wrapped around him, he swore he felt warmth—unnatural, steady, like a heartbeat that wasn't his own.
The car passed by without slowing, oblivious to the wreckage half-hidden by the trees. Its lights swept over the road and vanished, leaving him once again in darkness. Silence stretched around him, pressing down heavy and thick.
He sank against the trunk of a tree, his body too weak to carry him further. The night swallowed him whole, stars peeking faintly through the canopy. For the first time in years, he felt the weight of something beyond his own sorrow pressing against his existence. It terrified him. It anchored him.
He whispered into the dark, voice ragged: "Why me?"
No answer came. Only the forest's silence, thick and oppressive. But far deeper, in the veil between shadow and flame, the demon watched. Hidden. Silent. Crimson eyes glowed faintly in the black, fixed on the mortal who now carried a fragment of his power.
The demon's jaw tightened. He had meant to walk away, to leave the boy to his fate. Saving him had been a mistake—he had told himself that. And yet, here he was, still lingering, still watching. He did not understand it, and that unsettled him more than anything.
The human was fragile, broken, careless with his own life. And yet… the moment their eyes met, something in the demon shifted. Something he had buried centuries ago stirred awake, whispering of chains he could not see.
He vanished into the darkness once more, but not far. Not yet.
And beneath the broken sky, Eren drifted into uneasy sleep, unaware that his life was no longer his own—that the night he had wished would end had only just begun.