Everything was going almost too well with Mizellla.
Since we had fled together, I was beginning to understand what freedom really meant. Not just running from chains or running without masters, but living, learning, laughing, falling, and getting up with a smile. Thanks to her.
One evening, as we settled in a clearing, Mizellla confided something I had never known.
— You know, she said, gently stroking the grass, I didn't always grow up in this village. Most of the time, I lived with my mother, in a town several days' travel from here.
I looked at her, intrigued. I had never known there was another life for her.
— My parents are separated, she added. My mother... she never tolerated the way my father behaved. She found him inhuman. Cold. He wasn't always like that. He changed with time... power, responsibilities... and this too hypocritical world.
I listened silently. What could I understand? I had never left the village walls. To me, the world had always boiled down to three types of people: the dominants, the dominated... and Mizellla. Mizellla, who seemed to belong to another world, a world reaching toward the light.
She suddenly looked at me, very serious.
— Kai... do you know why I only saved you, and not your slave friends?
I shook my head. No. I didn't understand, and part of me even felt guilty.
She placed a hand on mine.
— Because you had a pure soul. A good soul. With you, I always felt safe. In peace. The others... I was always afraid they would see me only as a target. The daughter of their tormentor.
Her words were harsh, but I understood them. Sami, for example... he had killed a guard to escape. If it had been Mizellla he had encountered on his way, he might not have spared her. Rage blinds.
Night fell on us. She nestled against me, whispering that she was cold. Her body against mine reminded me what it was to be human. To exist. To have someone.
A week passed. A week of fleeing, discovering nature, stories, Mizellla's awkward laughter. She told me about society's habits, schools, shops, festivals, books... Things I didn't always understand, but I loved listening to her. She laughed, spoke with her hands, eyes shining.
She embodied freedom. She was freedom.
But that day arrived.
A strange droning in the sky. I recognized it too late. Helicopters.
They had found us.
I took Mizellla's hand. We ran through the woods, leaves whipping our faces, the sound of the blades overpowering everything. But suddenly, behind me:
— Ouch! Kai!
I spun around quickly. Mizellla was on the ground, tears in her eyes, hand on her ankle.
— I twisted it... I can't walk anymore, Kai!
I rushed to her, trying to lift her. She pushed me away fiercely.
— Kai, listen to me! You have to run. Leave me, I'll slow them down. They won't hurt me, I'm the chief's daughter. But you... they will kill you. You must not stay here!
— No! I cried, my voice breaking. I can't leave you!
— Kai, please! If you love me, run now! I want you to live!
She looked at me with that intensity I couldn't bear. The blades were drawing nearer. The branches trembled. The ground vibrated.
I clenched my teeth. Tears rose in my eyes. I looked at Mizellla one last time. Her face, strong and fragile at once.
— Goodbye, Mizellla...
I turned and ran.
The gusts tore the air behind me. Gunshots cracked in the trees. A whistle, an impact. An excruciating pain pierced my shoulder. I screamed, stumbled, but kept running, holding my wound.
Behind me, I heard helicopters landing near Mizellla. Others kept chasing me, but I now knew the forest better than they did. I plunged into a ravine, crossed a stream, crawled under roots.
They eventually lost my trail.
I lay there on the ground, heart pounding, shoulder aflame. Alone.
But alive.
I was alone. Hidden in a cave, lying against cold stone, my body drenched with sweat, breath short.
My shoulder wound burned as if fire had been ignited there. Blood still flowed, sticky, warm. I struggled to breathe. I trembled.
I knew I had to act quickly.
Teeth clenched, fingers numb from pain, I slid two fingers into the wound. The metal was deeply lodged, but I felt it: the bullet.
I let out a muffled howl as I pulled it from my flesh, centimeter by centimeter. Once out, I felt as though an immense weight had lifted from my body.
But the pain remained sharp. I was still bleeding.
— Leaves... I need those leaves...
My mother had told me about them. A plant with broad leaves that you could chew to disinfect and speed healing.
I left the cave staggering, pressing my hand to the wound. The warmth of the sun struck my face. My vision blurred.
After a few steps, I saw them near a rock: those oval leaves with clear veins. I threw myself on them, chewed them as best I could, and pressed them onto my wound, trembling.
I tore a piece of cloth from my pants to make a makeshift bandage. Once tied around my shoulder, I collapsed to the ground, throat dry.
And I cried.
Not because of the pain. Not because of hunger.
But because I knew I might never see Mizellla again.
I could not help but imagine her face, her laughter, her clumsiness while fishing, her voice telling me about the world... and that last image of her on the ground, injured, shouting at me to run.
— I hope they took care of you, Mizellla... I whispered as I closed my eyes.
I rose painfully and resumed my journey. Alone.
The day was already fading. I crossed a barren valley, lips chapped, stomach empty. But strangely, I was no longer hungry. Nor thirsty. Everything seemed... distant. As if my body were floating.
Then my legs gave way. My forehead hit the dry dusty ground.
The sun blinded me. I looked at it one last time. And closed my eyes.
Darkness.
I don't know how long I slept, or if I really did sleep.
But I found myself sitting in a completely dark place. The void. No floor beneath my feet, no walls. Just emptiness. And a voice.
— You want to change everything… don't you?
I jumped, searching for where the sound came from.
— Who's there?! I cried. Show yourself!
But there was nothing. Just an echo.
— I know what you want… and I can give it to you.
The voice was soft, almost too soft. Like a poisoned caress. It enveloped me. It read me.
— WHO ARE YOU?! I screamed louder and louder.
And then... I saw it.
In the darkness, two red eyes appeared. Huge, shining, like two embers in the night. Then a smile...
A wide, inhuman smile. Long, white, sharp teeth, like ivory fangs.
I remained frozen, paralyzed with terror.
And I screamed.
When my eyes opened again, I was no longer in that void. I was back in the valley. Lying on the ground. Body covered in dust.
Vultures circled above me. Two were already on the ground, a few meters away, their dark eyes fixed on me, heads tilted, ready to strike. They thought I was dead.
— No... no! I shouted, weakly pushing one away.
They leapt back, surprised, and flew again in slow circles above me, as if waiting. As if they knew.
I looked up at them. They danced silently in the sky, spiraling, simply waiting for me to breathe my last breath.
I struggled to stand.
And I walked.
Days passed. Three weeks, maybe. I no longer remember.
The vultures never stopped following me. Always there, above, like celestial judges.
My wound had worsened. The wound had become infected. It smelled of death. It attracted scavengers, not just birds: foxes, stray dogs, and other creatures lurking in the shadows, following me at a distance.
I had no strength left. I dragged my feet. I saw my body decomposing slowly. My dreams became strange. I talked to myself. I sometimes heard Mizellla's voice.
I knew my end was near. Every night, I wondered if I would wake. And every morning, I opened my eyes surprised to be still alive.
But I was not afraid.
Because something had been born in me. A fire. A memory.
Freedom.
She had shown me what it was. And even if I had to die, it would no longer be as a slave.
I would walk to the end.
I was nothing more than a body abandoned on the ground.
Dust clung to my skin, lips cracked, eyes barely open. My limbs were too weak to move, my heart beating slowly.
I was no longer hungry, no longer thirsty. No hatred, nor even hope.
I lay down, facing the burning sky, ready to die.
The vultures still circled above me. Faithful. Silent.
They knew. They waited.
I thought it was over. That nothing worse could happen.
But I was wrong.
A mechanical rumble tore the silence of the sky. Helicopters, again.
I didn't even have the strength to move.
They found me.
Boots trampled the ground beside me. Voices. Shouts.
Then blows. Fists, feet, rifle butts.
I don't know how many men beat me, nor how many ribs broke. But with every crack, I no longer cried out. My body no longer responded. The pain surprised me no longer: it had always been there, lurking beneath my skin, like a second nature.
They dragged me into a helicopter. The engines howled. I remained silent.
The return to the village was like a funeral. But it was mine.
Chains cut my wrists. My face was bruised.
I spat out a black, viscous liquid that was no longer human.
I glimpsed the other slaves. Their looks... they all said the same thing, without a word:
"He's finished."
I saw my mother among them. She collapsed in tears, powerless, heartbroken.
I lowered my eyes. I didn't even have the strength to cry.
They led me to the execution area.
The ground was clean, spotless, probably washed so that no drop of blood could spoil the scene.
A smooth, cold slab awaited my head.
A hooded executioner watched me impassively, holding a heavy axe in gloved hands.
In front of me, a few meters away, stood Mizellla's father.
Upright, proud, his gaze hard and satisfied.
— You thought you could steal my daughter, huh?… Filthy little shit.
I looked at him, but my eyes blurred. My vision shattered like a broken mirror.
Then… a voice. A shout.
— Kai!!
It was her. Mizellla. She had burst into the crowd, tears in her eyes, shouting my name. She struggled between two guards, begging to spare me.
— Don't do this to him! Stop! Leave him alone!!
But no one listened.
A guard slammed my head against the stone. The cold spread across my forehead.
I closed my eyes.
I wasn't afraid anymore.
At last, I could leave this unjust world. This world where I was born a slave. This world where I had loved, briefly, before being punished for it.
And then...
A silence. A strange breath.
I opened my eyes again.
Everything was frozen.
The guards, Mizellla, her father, even the executioner: motionless. Like statues. Time itself had stopped.
I rose slowly, heart pounding.
Was this... death?
But no. Something was there.
A silhouette, emerging from nowhere, formed in the shadows. It had no clear shape, like a ghost. It seemed to float, surrounded by shifting darkness. Its red eyes glowed like two infernal lanterns.
And that smile...
That immense smile, too wide, composed of white, pointed teeth shining like polished bones.
I recognized it immediately.
It was him.
The thing. The one from my dream, in the plain, when I was between life and death.
I froze, chilled with terror.
— You again? I whispered.
The creature did not answer right away. It looked at me. Or... looked through me.
Then its voice rose. Deep, soft, frightening.
— You have not yet finished your path, Kai.