I don't remember exactly how I left the building.
I only know that the cold air of the early morning struck my face as if the world were trying to force me awake. My legs moved on their own, purely out of inertia, but my mind remained trapped in that studio, in the darkness that had tried to devour everything.
The city was still alive, despite the hour.
Cars passing.Lights on.People walking, beginning their day… while mine was ending.
That was what frightened me the most.
Seeing that an entire life could exist without knowing anything, without understanding anything.A good life.A simple one.
Because for me, that life no longer existed.
The world was no longer the same.
When I got home, I closed the door carefully so as not to wake my grandparents. I left my keys on the table, my backpack on the floor, and dragged my feet toward my room. I didn't have the energy to speak to my grandmother. I was exhausted. Empty.
I leaned against the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the floor.
My hands were trembling.
It wasn't exactly fear.It was something deeper.As if my body was only now beginning to understand what had happened.
I took a deep breath.Once.Twice.
The ring in my hand was cold, reminding me that none of it had been a dream.
It didn't burn.It didn't glow.But it could be felt.
It felt like her.
Like the very presence I had interviewed.
It was an invisible blanket brushing against my skin, reminding me that I wasn't alone… and that I wasn't completely safe either. I thought about taking it off, but something inside me refused. I felt it bound to my heart, as if it had fused with my soul.
I clumsily took off my shoes and walked to my room. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I stopped.
The dark circles were deeper.My expression… different.
Not broken.But cracked.
"This is just exhaustion," I lied softly to myself. "Everything will be better tomorrow."
I sat on the bed… and that was when the trembling returned, stronger.
I curled in on myself.
I didn't cry.
Before, darkness had felt familiar. Even comforting.Now it felt strange. Distant.As if something were watching me from within it.
I felt the bed sink slightly beside me.
I didn't need to look.
"Iztli…" I whispered. "I don't feel well enough to see you."
He didn't respond immediately.
His presence was silent, heavy, real. Like a shadow that doesn't threaten, but doesn't leave either. Another reminder that none of this had been a dream.
"Thank you," I said, trembling. "But you shouldn't have let it go that far."
I felt him step off the bed and sit in front of me.
"You made a contract," he murmured uncomfortably, his voice weak. "I couldn't do anything. It was too strong for me."
I turned my face toward him.
"Aren't you supposed to be a guardian of the moon and the night?"
He didn't answer right away.
"I am a guardian," he said at last. "I am not the night."
That was answer enough.
I straightened a little, crossing my arms over my chest.
"I felt things that weren't mine," I continued.Desire. Guilt. Fear. Pleasure. Horror.As if someone had opened a door I had closed years ago… along with everything I didn't want to see. Everything I wanted to forget.
Iztli lowered his gaze.
"I felt exposed," I added. "And terrified."
"The night does that," he replied."It doesn't force.It only keeps the truths we struggle the most to accept."
"I didn't ask for anything to be revealed," I murmured.
He remained silent.
He didn't try to touch me.He didn't try to comfort me.
And for some reason, that relaxed me… but it also unsettled me and made me angry.And that hurt even more.
"Will it always be like this?" I asked."Will every interview leave me… like this?"
"No," he answered, as his presence slowly began to fade."Some will be worse."
I let out a short, humorless laugh.
"Great."
I fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling with the lights off. I no longer felt comfortable with the darkness.
Then my phone vibrated.
An unknown number. A YouTube link. I ignored it… but it vibrated again.
Once.Then again.And again.
Reluctantly, I picked it up and opened the link.
Notifications began to flood in.
Too many.
Private messages.Tags.Clipped segments of the program.Screenshots.
"DID ANYONE ELSE FEEL THAT?""It wasn't a special effect, I swear. Can special effects do that?""Ever since I heard the program, I haven't been able to close my eyes and I have to go to work already.""That woman… that thing… talked to me in my dreams. Did that happen to anyone else, or am I going crazy?"
My breathing stopped.
"Iztli…" I said slowly.
No answer.
He was already gone.
I kept scrolling.
"I didn't feel alone.""For the first time in a long time, darkness didn't scare me.""I want to hear her again.""Does anyone else like the host?""My heart was racing while I listened."
I shut the phone abruptly.
"This isn't normal," I whispered.
I had seen the recording. It was different from what I had experienced. A lighter, censored version. Even so… something was still there.
"Mictlantecuhtli said it was controlled," I murmured."They control what's broadcast… but the essence remains."
I rested my elbows on my knees and covered my face with my hands.
"So this…" I whispered,"isn't only going to change me."
Iztli's voice echoed from somewhere in the room.
"No," he said. "This is something bigger."
I felt his hand rest against my back.
He didn't squeeze.He didn't demand.
He was just there.
And I understood, with terrifying clarity:
The interview with Nyx hadn't been the danger.
It had been the door.
The door to a new world.
And now…
the world was beginning to listento the path toward secretsthat should never have been heard.