The moment that suffocating presence come closer around me, everything around me vanished. The walls, the faint crackle of lantern, even the distant rustle of leaves outside my window-gone, everything around me disappeared, as if the world itself had been swallowed into silence. For that instant, I couldn't tell if I had fainted, or if reality itself had been torn away.
Then those red eyes started to move . It scans every inch of my body.It was as if they were assessing something and concluded that it was not time yet. Then that thing closed his eyes. And then, suddenly I was back, as abruptly as it began it ended.
I blinked and the familiar dim light of my chamber returned.The vision snapped shut. I found myself staring at the ceiling of my chamber, lying still on my bed like it was all a dream. The shadow, the red eyes everything disappeared.
My chest rose and fell in shallow breaths, a thin sheen of sweat clinging to my skin. Before I could steady myself and understand what happened, a voice broke the silence.
He removed his hat and gave a formal bow and said,"Apologies for my absence, young lord." The doctor's tone was too light, almost rehearsed, as though he had just walked into a casual gathering rather than a sickbed of a patient. "It seems, during my absence, your condition grew both better and worse at the same time." From his tone it seems like he was enjoying himself, which was infuriating. But at the same time from what had happened just now I didn't have the courage to say anything to him.
I stared at him, expecting the shadow to reappear behind him again, but there was nothing-just his calm face, illuminated by the light coming from outside.
"A miracle, truly," he added with a smile that never touched his eyes. "That you survived such a fever with such a frail and weak body... It seems god has not abandoned you yet." That smile on his face seems like a fake mask to fool others. As I was thinking what to do next I heard something that removed the earth below my foot.
" I never expected you to survive this long.", he whispered this to himself
It seemed I was the only one who heard it. I looked at Selene, waiting for a reaction. But she just sat there, calm and still. If she had heard him, she wouldn't be so quiet. She would have put the doctor in prison at the very least.
Then, his tone shifted completely. He spoke loudly and cheerfully, "No need to worry now, young master. It seems the gods are on your side. You might not even need my help to get better."
"Stop joking around and take a proper look at him!" Selene's sharp voice cut through, pulling me from my haze. She had been sitting beside me all along, her hand still resting lightly over mine. Their were clear anger and worry on her face. Even she was infuriated with his tone.
"Yes, yes, of course," the doctor said, as if amused by her outburst. Though it angered her even further, she kept her silence.
His hands moved with practiced ease, checking my pulse, pressing lightly against my wrist, listening to the rhythm of my heart. With this you can tell he was a expert with many year of experience. But the longer he lingered, the more my unease grew. His touch was steady, but there was something about the way his eyes never quite met mine, something in the quiet curve of his lips as though he knew a secret he wouldn't dare speak aloud.
After a brief inspection, he gathered his tools and left, saying a courteous farewell. I thought I would finally be able to breathe once he was gone, but the air felt no lighter.
The days that followed blurred together. He returned each morning, his voice carrying the same pleasant politeness, his steps echoing faintly in the hall before entering my room. He would examine me, say something to reassure Selene, and leave. Everything about the routine should have been ordinary.
But it wasn't.
I never saw that shadow again. Not once did that crushing feeling return. And yet, the absence itself gnawed at me. It was too clean, too convenient, as though the danger had not left but had simply learned to wait. As a predator waiting patiently for the right time to jump on his prey.
Sometimes, as he leaned over me with his hand on my wrist, I caught the faintest flicker-like the shadow of a bird's wing darting across his features. A trick of the light, perhaps, but enough to set my heart racing.
At night, when the manor grew quiet, I lay awake, replaying those moments. His smile, his silence, the way his gaze lingered just a fraction too long. None of it was proof, yet every instinct whispered the same truth: something about him was wrong. It was driving me mad.
Selene noticed my restlessness. She thought it was the fever still haunting me, and she never left my side for long. Her presence was the only thing that kept me at ease. Julian, Father and Mother visited often too, always encouraging me with warm words. Their comfort should have eased me, but I couldn't bring myself to tell them what I felt. What would I even say? That the doctor who saved my life might be carrying an unseen darkness?
I chose to remain silent.
And yet... every time his footsteps echoed down the corridor, I braced myself. Every time he touched my wrist, I wondered if I was letting a serpent coil itself closer, waiting for the moment it would strike.
The shadow may have vanished, but its echo remained, curled tightly in my chest.
And in that silence between us, I realized something I could not shake: the true danger was not the shadow itself, but the fact that no one else seemed to notice it-not a single soul beside me.