*Chapter 25: The Point of No Return*
The blade hovered inches from Grant's throat. Time stood still.
Ethan's eyes were locked on his prey, but Maya's voice echoed in his head—gentle, pleading, desperate. Her presence in the room fractured something in him. The years of silence, pain, and fire had built walls around his soul. But she stepped right through them.
"Ethan," she whispered again, closer now, barely breathing, "please… I know why you're doing this. But if you cross this line, you can't come back."
His hands trembled. His knuckles white. The rage that lived in his veins roared, but her voice fought it—pulling, reaching.
He didn't look at her. His gaze remained fixed on Grant, whose face was pale, sweating, and frozen in terror.
"I don't want to come back," Ethan said, his voice cracked, hollow. "There's nothing to return to. My father… my mother… Alex… gone. Buried in a world that people like him built. And he breathes? He walks free?"
"You're not a killer, Ethan."
"I *wasn't*. But I became what this world made me."
Maya stood still, her heart breaking. "Then what am I to you?"
That stopped him.
He finally turned to look at her.
The knife lowered.
For a second, just a second, something in him softened.
"You're the only light left," he said. "But I can't stop. If I do… all of this… it was for nothing."
Her lip trembled. "Then let me be beside you. I won't stop you anymore. I… I can't lose you too."
The words were barely a whisper, but they hit harder than any blade.
Ethan blinked, stunned.
"You'd stand by me? Even after what I've done?"
Tears fell from her eyes. "I already have. I know who you are… and I love you. Even in the dark."
He turned slowly toward Grant again, blade steady.
"I'm sorry," Maya whispered.
And in that silence… *Ethan struck.*
Grant gasped. Once. Then collapsed to the floor, lifeless.
Ethan stood over him, shoulders rising and falling with heavy breath. The blade dropped from his hand, clinking softly against the marble floor.
Maya didn't scream. She didn't run.
She walked to him, eyes locked on his, and wrapped her arms around his trembling body.
And just like that… two hearts stood together at the edge of the abyss.
Side by side in the dark.
Forever changed.
_Bleank Ø_