them before nightfall.I stood silently, watching them frozen at the threshold.
I lit the fireplace and said calmly:
"Sit here. By the fire."
Silence ruled the room.The air was so thick with fear it could be sliced. I didn't know what to do.I went to the kitchen and prepared a warm mushroom stew.They must not have had real food in ages.
I poured the stew into four wooden bowls and returned.They were sitting by the fire, bodies trembling, eyes hollow and lost.
I approached them slowly, placed the bowls gently, and said:
"Please… eat."
None dared to lift a spoon.The girl with cat ears spoke in a lifeless tone:
"Will we die if we don't eat?Or are we already dead anyway?"
I fell silent, stunned.A heavy weight pressed against my chest.
How could a child speak of death so casually?How had she come to accept it as the only escape from a cruelty beyond bearing?
I looked at them—these broken things—and for the first time in years, I raised my voice:
"This house is mine.No one dies here. No one is harmed.Stay here tonight.Eat. Drink. Fear nothing.No harm will come to you… not from me."
They stared at me with pitiful eyes. Not a word.The cat-eared girl was the first to move.Slowly, hesitantly, she began to eat.The others followed, emotionless—eating for survival, not satisfaction.
I returned to my room and brought four mattresses and pillows, preparing a space for them.As for me, I would sleep on the couch.
While laying out the bedding, I thought:
"Why am I doing this?They're no different from the rest...Everyone forgets.Tomorrow they'll forget me, like everything else was forgotten.Humans—or whatever they are—they're all the same.This world... it's suffocating.Built on betrayal, desire, pain.I'm tired.I just want to vanish.I want to die."
When the room was ready, I returned.They had finished eating in silence.
I said softly:
"The room is ready.Go and rest."
They rose without a word, like a herd of ghosts.I laid back on the couch and closed my eyes, but my heart was in chaos.
Four hours passed.I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and crept toward their room.
I didn't enter, but I heard their voices through the door:
The elf whispered:
"Should we run?He'll kill us or turn us in…"
The half-dragon said:
"Enough.Let fate do what it will.We're tired…Let him kill us in the morning."
Silence.
Then the girl with torn ears said:
"No more running.Let's die tomorrow…But at least say goodbye."
A soft sob followed, then the vampire's voice:
"Thank you…Let's die together.At least we met."
I didn't see them…But I imagined them, huddled together.
I walked outside.A storm of emotions was rising within me.
What was wrong with them?Were they afraid of me?Or were they already dead inside?
Did they have no family?No home? Nothing?
Had the world cast them out—like me?
Had they been betrayed—like I was?
Had they lost everything—just as I did?
For the first time in years, something cracked inside me.I wept—without tears.Time stood still inside me.
I stood in the darkness.I had no answers.Only a storm I needed to silence.
I left to hunt…Monsters, beasts—anything.
Anything that came near would die.
And after the pile of corpses rose…I felt something begin to shift...