Chapter 4 – Moonlight and Miracles
1. Reika
The first thing I noticed that night was how loud the silence felt.
The city below was asleep — neon lights flickering out one by one, traffic reduced to a distant hum. Up here, on the rooftop, the world was made of shadows and breath. Marino's breath. My breath. Two fragile rhythms barely keeping the darkness at bay.
I stared down at the schoolyard far below. Weeks ago, the thought of falling had seemed like freedom. Now it felt… heavy. Like gravity wasn't trying to pull me down anymore — it was trying to hold me here.
"Do you ever wonder," I said, my voice quiet enough that the wind almost stole it, "if there's a reason we're born?"
Marino glanced at me from where he leaned against the railing. There was that unreadable look again — the one that made him seem far older than he looked.
"I used to," he said. "Now I think the question isn't why we're born, but what we do with the time we're given."
"Time…" I laughed softly. "Mine feels like a punishment."
His eyes darkened — not with pity, but something sharper, like grief he'd worn for centuries.
"Then let me share the burden," he said.
I turned to look at him. "You can't. You don't even know what I—"
"I do." His voice was firm, certain. "More than you think."
The words hit deeper than they should have. A strange warmth bloomed in my chest, tangled with fear. Because some part of me believed him — believed that this boy with storm-colored eyes and hands that always felt too warm did understand the darkness eating me alive.
And that terrified me more than the darkness ever had.
2. Marino
She didn't know how close the world was to collapsing around her.
Every second I spent here, every breath I took as a human, threads were snapping somewhere far beyond this sky. Laws older than stars were unraveling — all because I dared to touch the life of a girl who was never meant to be saved.
Harbinger's voice still echoed in my head:
"One soul cannot outweigh the balance of all things."
"Save her, and the world will bleed."
But I had already made my choice the day I descended.
I looked at Reika — at the way the moonlight traced the outline of her hair, how her fingers trembled slightly as they gripped the railing. To the universe, she was a fixed point of despair, a knot in the fabric of existence. To me, she was everything.
"You look at the sky like it's trying to swallow you," I said softly.
She blinked. "Maybe it is."
"Then I'll stand between you and the stars."
Her eyes widened — not with understanding, but with confusion. Maybe it was better that way. If she ever learned what I really was… she might hate me for it.
3. Reika
We stayed there for hours, speaking in half-sentences and silences. It was strange — I'd spent years trying to disappear, and now someone was waiting for my words like they mattered.
"Why do you care?" I asked at one point. "Why me?"
Marino hesitated. His gaze drifted to the sky. "Because once, you reached for someone who had already fallen. And because of that, he found his way back."
I frowned. "What does that even mean?"
He just smiled — that maddening, gentle smile that felt like sunlight through broken glass. "It means you saved someone once. And now, he wants to return the favor."
There it was again. That knowing. Like he'd walked through my memories before I'd even lived them.
4. Harbinger
Far above the sleeping city, the Watcher's rebellion burned like a wound in the fabric of existence.
I watched from the edges of the void, where light dared not go. The mortal world did not see me — not yet — but the balance had begun to shift. Stars trembled. Threads strained.
Marino. Fool. He was supposed to watch, never intervene. Yet here he was, tangled in the fate of a human girl whose despair was destined to drown countless souls.
If he succeeded in altering her path, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Still… I could not deny a strange curiosity. Perhaps even envy. To fall from eternity, to bleed, to love — to defy the will of the cosmos for a single, fragile soul.
"So be it," I murmured into the void. "If he insists on breaking the laws, let him see what awaits those who defy despair."
The night wind shifted. Down below, the first cracks began to form.
5. Marino
It was past midnight when Reika finally turned away from the railing. The city lights were gone now, leaving only the moon and the faint heartbeat of the world.
"Thank you," she said suddenly.
"For what?"
"For… not leaving."
I swallowed hard. "I couldn't, even if I wanted to."
"Why?"
Because the universe would erase me if I failed. Because her life was the fulcrum of a balance I had already shattered. Because I loved her — loved her more than anything I had ever sworn to protect.
But all I said was: "Because you're worth staying for."
Her breath caught, and in that silence, I felt the world shift — like fate itself had paused to listen.
6. Reika
Later, when we parted ways at the school gate, I walked home under a sky that felt… different. Lighter. Still heavy, still cruel, but not unbearable.
For the first time in a long time, I caught myself imagining tomorrow.
And that terrified me too.
7. Epilogue – Harbinger
Deep beneath the city, where reality thinned, a black fissure tore itself open.
Something ancient stirred within it, awakened by the Watcher's defiance.
Something older than despair.
Something that had devoured gods.
And as it opened its many eyes to the mortal world, it whispered the name of the girl who was never meant to live.
"Reika…"