Days passed in a strange silence.
But little by little, Kim began to feel that everything around him was too perfect.
The flowers in his house never wilted.
People in the streets were always smiling — no pain, no tears.
Even wounds healed before they could cause pain.
But…
The clock never moved. Its hands were frozen at the exact moment he returned.
Whenever Kim left a street and came back hours later, everything looked better — too flawless.
No chaos, no mistakes, no shadows… until one moment, he looked down and realized — his shadow was gone.
Doubt began to eat away at his heart.
And one day, he saw the impossible —
Elena, walking beside him as if she had never died.
He approached her slowly, face pale, voice trembling:
> "Elena… how?!
If this is a dream, how are you here too? Everyone I loved died… everything burned!"
She smiled gently and said softly:
> "Kim, why do you look so upset? Why not smile?"
He grabbed her by the throat, his eyes blazing with madness:
> "Because you're not alive!
You don't even know my real face — not the one you've seen!
How do you know the name of someone you just met?"
His fingers tightened…
White blood flowed from her neck.
His eyes widened, and a twisted laugh escaped his lips:
> "White blood? …Hahaha… of course. Everything's too perfect."
He raised his head, speaking with a calm insanity:
> "There's no such thing as eternal happiness…
Sadness is how fate hugs us when it tries to apologize."
> "Grief is the price we pay to live in truth."
Then he clenched his fist — and tore her head from her body.
His gaze shifted toward his "wife" — Marie, who stared at him in horror.
> "You're not really her… are you?"
The smile on her face didn't change.
But the world around them began to tremble.
Walls cracked, light shattered like breaking glass.
And from the fractures came the voice that had lured him into the illusion:
> "You were happy, Kim… why are you trying to escape the paradise I built for you?"
Kim laughed, his tears evaporating before touching the ground.
His voice was broken, filled with scorn:
> "Paradise?
There's no eternal joy…
Sorrow exists to drag us back to what we truly are — to the void that gave us birth."
He stepped forward slowly, each stride melting the world around him.
When his hand touched her face, it crumbled into burning dust.
> "I wanted to believe… even for a moment… that I still deserved warmth."
He raised his head toward the cracked sky and screamed:
> "But it seems even dreams only see me as a delayed nightmare!"
The light went out.
Kim fell to his knees, smiling bitterly as tears of blood streamed from his eyes.
> "I'm guilty… guilty…"
His hands turned pitch black, and he slammed them against the ground, making the void itself tremble.
> "Did I lose my humanity when I lost my heart?
I cry… even though I feel nothing…
I cry because I can't even feel pain anymore!"
Then the entity rose again from the shadows, its voice shaking the horizon:
> "You didn't want a perfect world?
I merely granted your wish, Kim.
But if you refuse… then I'll take your body — and everything you are!"
Kim laughed — a true demonic laugh that tore through the dimensions.
> "Are you serious?
Do you even know who I am?"
He lifted his head, shadows igniting from his body:
> "I am Kim…"
> "I am the shadow that will devour your eternal night."
Then the light in Kim's eyes went dead, and he said coldly:
> "You'll regret playing with me.
If you think you can escape… then run — now."