The rest of senior year passed in a blur of studied normalcy. Dario threw himself into his studies, joined the academic decathlon team, and carefully avoided any situation that might trigger strong emotions. He ate lunch alone, turned down invitations to parties, and generally kept to himself.
Jamie transferred to a different school three weeks after their confrontation, citing "family reasons." Tyler and his friends left Dario alone, though whether this was due to lost interest or something else, Dario never found out.
Cassius remained mercifully quiet, surfacing only once when a group of underclassmen thought it would be funny to corner Dario in the bathroom and demand he "do the freaky thing with his eyes again." They left him alone after that, though none of them could quite remember why.
Graduation came and went. Dario walked across the stage, accepted his diploma, and smiled for the obligatory photos with his parents. He'd been accepted to several colleges, all of them far from his hometown.
On his last night in his childhood bedroom, as he packed the final boxes, Dario found himself staring at his reflection in the dresser mirror.
"Are you still there?" he asked quietly.
Always, came the familiar voice.
"The things you did this year... I remember some of them now. Fragments."
You're stronger than you were before. The barriers between us have thinned.
"Is that good or bad?"
That depends entirely on you.
Dario touched the mirror, watching his reflection ripple slightly at the contact.
"What are you, really? I know you say you're a god, but—"
I am what you needed me to be, Cassius replied. When you were young and afraid and alone, you needed someone who could be strong when you couldn't. Someone who could do the things you were too kind to do.
"And now?"
Now you're not that frightened child anymore. You've survived high school, betrayal, violence, humiliation. You've learned that people can be cruel, but also that you can endure their cruelty and come out stronger.
Dario nodded slowly. "So what happens next?"
That's up to you. You can keep trying to suppress me, keep pretending I don't exist. Or you can accept that we're two parts of the same whole, and learn to work together.
"And if I choose the second option?"
Then college should be very interesting indeed.
Despite everything—the trauma, the betrayal, the constant struggle for control—Dario found himself smiling.
"Yeah," he said to his reflection. "I think it will be."