The night stretched without end, a sky that swallowed stars as if devoured by an eternal darkness. The air itself had grown too heavy to breathe, saturated with the scent of ash and blood not yet dried. I stood there, on ground that cracked beneath my feet as if it groaned under my burden, my hands still aflame—fire in the right, shadow in the left.
I thought the fight had ended, that the beast's fall closed another struggle, but something inside me told me otherwise. Something had not closed. Something had awakened.
It was not merely power. It was not fire or shadow. It was a curse. The Resurrection Curse.
I felt it slither through my veins, like a serpent coiling around a weak heart. Each beat was a sharp sword stroke, each breath a battle to remain myself… but who was I? Was I still Kim? Or was I only a vessel being filled with something greater—and darker?
I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I did I saw. Not full darkness, not light—broken images, like glass scattered on the floor after a mirror shatters. Faces. The face of a woman smiling despite fatigue. A warm hand touching my head with a tenderness I hadn't felt in ages. A distant voice whispering my name… Kim… but the rest of the sentence was erased. As if someone had cut it from memory with a blade.
Other whispers echoed in my head, not mine.
"Power is yours."
"You are the chosen."
"But the price… is yourself."
I screamed inside: Be silent! But the voices only sharpened, as if they knew I was weakest against them.
My body began to tremble. The hands that had carried power a moment ago were now aflame with pain, but this fire was internal. My knees bent slightly, as if I could no longer bear my weight. Then I collapsed to the ground, my hands pressing on my chest where my heart thudded erratically, as if trying to escape my ribcage.
In that instant I remembered the beast's eyes. The moment before it died, when it stared at me in terror. It had not been seeing me… it had seen what awakened within me. It saw the Resurrection Curse.
Did I truly slay it? Or did the curse do it, and I was only the veil?
I lifted my head toward the sky, searching for stars. I wanted proof I still lived in a world that could offer a way out. But the sky was mute, featureless—like a black mirror reflecting my interior.
I laughed bitterly, a short laugh choked in my throat. I told myself in a voice I barely heard:
— "If this is the path… then why didn't they let me die? Why resurrect me at all?"
---
Soft steps came from behind. The sound was not another monster; it was weaker, closer to a human hesitating between approaching and fleeing. I turned and found her.
The girl.
She stood there, eyes wide with mingled fear and curiosity. Her face was lit by a faint moon hidden behind clouds; her hair tangled from running, her clothes torn. Yet amid the ruin she seemed a pure thing.
For a moment I felt the curse pause, its serpents drawing back as if puzzled by her presence—or perhaps… respectful. I do not know. All I knew was that when I looked at her I did not see just a girl, but another broken image within me. A woman's silhouette. Long hair. An incomplete smile. I could not make out features clearly. Everything was fogged, like a dream fading upon waking.
I exhaled sharply and pressed my temple. Why… could I not remember her? Why whenever I tried to hold the image it melted like smoke between my fingers?
I looked up at the girl. My eyes burned from the inside—not only from power but from frustration. I asked, my voice hoarse and strange even to me:
— "Do you know… someone named… Mary?"
Her lips trembled. She stared at me in surprise, then slowly shook her head.
— "No… I don't know. Who is she?"
I lowered my gaze, feeling my chest tighten beyond the wound that bled. I wanted to say: "She was my lover." I wanted to shout: "She was the reason." But words betrayed me, dissolving like the foggy picture in my mind. All that escaped was:
— "No… I don't remember. But you… you resemble her."
I fell silent, and when I said that I felt the curse laugh inside me. Yes… a laugh—bitter, black, mocking. As if to say: even your past I shall not let you reclaim.
---
I tried to stand. The earth gave me no mercy; the wound in my shoulder still bled. Yet I rose. The girl took a step forward, though trembling, as if she dared to reach out. For a fleeting moment I wished she would touch me—to say I was not a monster. But even then I knew it was an illusion.
I am no longer human.
I am a curse walking on two legs.