I stood against the garden wall of the house… the night staring at me with its coldness, blood still dripping from the claws of my left hand, drawing black lines on the ground.
I lifted my head to the cloud-choked sky. I had thought Roen's death would spark some relief inside me… but it left only a void, deeper than any wound.
A faint voice crawled out of the dark, whispering in my depths: "Do you think killing one man will bring back what you lost? Do you think vengeance purifies you?"
I placed my hand on my chest… I found no beating heart. There was a slow-glowing black ember instead, a hellish heart.
I smiled bitterly and whispered, — "Happiness? A lie… sold by the world to the weak. The truth always stains your hands with blood."
But the silence did not last long. Heavy steps tore through the garden. Men by the dozens, clubs and knives flashing under the moon, surrounded me as if the night itself had brought an army of hell.
Through the shadows stepped a massive man, eyes sparking like fire. The gang's leader. He smiled coldly and said, — "I heard you killed my faithful dog… Roen."
Half my face was drowned in shadow; I gave a cracked smile: — "People think evil is the exception… but it is the only truth. Justice? An illusion. Mercy? A lie. What rules this world… is blood."
He shouted an order and his men surged like locusts. But my body did not move from fear… it moved from the truth that had awakened inside me.
Black claws erupted from my hand, and the blood-dance began.
I split the first man's chest in two and shouted, — "Power alone… is the true law!"
I drove a blade through another's throat; blood exploded like a fountain: — "Justice… a mask worn by cowards!"
Shadows wrapped around a third and crushed him until bone shattered. I whispered in his ear as he breathed his last: — "Even if you wash your hands… the scent of blood will cling to your soul."
One by one they fell, and the ground turned into a red mirror reflecting my face—half human, half demon.
I lifted my gaze to the leader. He was backing away, screaming, — "I am not like the others! I am a leader! Everyone obeys me!"
I laughed, shadows coiling around my face like a demonic mask: — "Leadership? Another paper mask. The world does not bow to names… it bows to the darkness we plant in people's hearts."
I stepped toward him, each footfall like a nail driven into his coffin. I whispered, — "You think yourselves gods with money and blood… but you are only meat awaiting slaughter."
He trembled and cried out, — "You are not human!"
I laughed, blood dripping from my claws like rains of hell: — "Perhaps… perhaps you were the ones who abandoned your humanity first. I am only the end you deserve."
In that moment I extended my hand slowly… dark blades unfurled from my skin like black blossoms and pierced his chest. He did not die instantly; he kept screaming as he heard my final words:
— "Death is not your punishment… but the truth I leave you. That your whole life… was a lie."
Then I tore him in two, and the darkness swallowed him as night swallows the last threads of day.