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Chapter 4 - CHAPTER 4: LOST IDENTITY

When my eyelids slowly parted, the chill that clung to the stone walls seeped first into my skin, then deep into my bones. Not warm… cold. Almost alive. As if even the stone was breathing, touching me. The air I drew into my lungs was thick with the scent of moss and rust. It burned my throat.I didn't cough. I just waited.

My body ached. Every part of me.When I awoke, I realized the body I once believed to be mine now felt like a stranger.As if someone else was living inside it.Or maybe… what was left of me was just a shell.

I focused on the walls.They were damp.In the cracked stone, yellowish mold curled like a pale, sleeping snake.Everything looked the same here.Even silence felt uniform.It wasn't familiar.But… I was getting used to it.

Time? There was no time here.No sunlight, no shadow.No icy mornings, no silent nights.Just stone.Just mold.Just me.

Then...

The door creaked open.My eyes burned from the sudden light—I wasn't used to it.Footsteps followed.And then… three children.They had come from different rooms, just like me.Children born of the same test.The same loneliness.

Seeing others for the first time stirred something long forgotten inside me.But I crushed it immediately.Trusting anyone here was equal to death.

"What room were you in?" asked a thin boy with wary eyes.His voice trembled.He wasn't hiding his fear.The others shared in turn—one came from a room with dim light, another where water trickled.I stayed quiet.

"Mine… was different," I finally said.I avoided eye contact.Because eyes... they tell too much.

But one of them... was different.

A girl.Fragile.Thin.Pale, yet her eyes glowed like embers from another world.She kept looking at me.Kept asking questions.Even said my name out loud.I never asked hers, but she whispered it anyway:

"Lirya."

For the first time, a name felt softer than the stones around me.

We walked.Through the cavern.Our footsteps echoed between the rocks as if trying to run from us.The passage widened.And before our eyes rose a massive stone manor.

Old. But majestic.

There was no flag above it.No color.But inside—dozens of children.Not much older than us, but their eyes...Timeless.Empty.Soulless.

"Are we staying here?" Lirya whispered.I couldn't answer.

Because that's when the robed men appeared.

"You are the survivors," one said.His voice was deep and emotionless."You are chosen.You will live here, be trained, and prepared for your destiny."

The others rushed forward.Disappearing into the crowd.I stood still.My foot landed on a large stone.Everyone stared at me.

"Who does she think she is?" they whispered.

I didn't care.

They led us inside.Another room.They reached for my hair.Tried to cut it.Said I needed to look like a boy.I didn't resist.But inside… something flared up.

"You're someone new now," they said.

And then…

"Your new name: Hal."

Everyone fell silent.

But inside—I screamed:

"I am Aren.I will not lose my identity.No matter how much you try to change me—I know who I am."

Days passed.Every morning, the same bland meal in plastic bowls.Colorless. Tasteless.We lined up, two by two.Moved on command.Faces blank.

Lirya came to me each morning.She'd get her food first, then offer it to me, and sit by my side.She always smiled.I thought I had forgotten how to smile.

One morning I asked:

"Why are you so kind?"

She shrugged.

"Because there's nothing left here but cruelty.If one of us isn't kind...we'll all disappear."

Training began.

But this wasn't school.It was the birth of a war.

Combat.Weapons.Throwing knives.Navigating darkness.Identifying poisonous creatures.Assassination simulations...

I stood at the front.Fastest.Silent.Precise.

But always...Alone.

Every night, as I closed my eyes, one question burned in my mind:

"Who am I now?Aren?Hal?Or... something the snake left behind?"

Then one day—food ran short.Deliberate.Like another test.

Children snapped.

Their eyes reddened from hunger.Some fought over crumbs.Some... killed each other.

I just watched.From a corner.Calm.Still.Observing.

Lirya cried beside me.But not for me.For humanity.

"Why do you act this way?" she said."You're strange. And your eyes… too."

I narrowed mine.

"What about them?"

"They're red...Like a snake's.They look so deep—It feels like they pull you in.Like drowning."

I froze.

My eyes were supposed to be blue.Had they changed?Was I truly... transforming?

I stood abruptly.My throat tightened.

"Leave.Mind your own business."

She backed away.Didn't look back.

That night, I didn't sleep.

I didn't stare at the ceiling.I looked inward.And asked myself:

"Am I changing?Am I losing myself?Or…do these eyes belong to me now?"

In this stone manor,With each passing day—I felt further from myself.

But…

A part of me still resisted.Small.But defiant.Not given to snakes.Not turned to darkness:

"I am Aren.You cannot erase me.My eyes may have changed—But my soul is still mine."

TO BE CONTINUED…

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