Water trembled around his hands as he crawled toward the shallow pool. His breathing came out broken and uneven. He didn't want to look.
He looked anyway.
Green eyes stared back at him.
Sharp. Unfamiliar. Set in a thin face framed by black hair, wet with sweat and tears.
His hands rose into view. Long fingers. Shaking. He pressed them against the water, breaking the reflection.
"No… no…"
His voice cracked. He shook his head hard, as if denial could break bones, break reality itself.
His shoulders folded inward. He hit his own chest once. Twice. Harder.
"Let me go," she sobbed, clawing at skin that was not hers. "Please,please,this isn't mine."
His scream tore out of him.
"Mom!"
The echo came back wrong. Deeper. Twisted. Mocking.
"Please,my brother,please..."
He slammed his fists into the stone again and again until his arms trembled and his throat burned dry.
The cave swallowed every name he cried.
No one answered.
Only his own breathing filled the darkness.
Slowly, his strength drained away. He slid back until cold stone met his spine. He pulled his knees close and lowered his forehead, his body shaking in small aftershocks.
This wasn't a dream.
Dreams didn't hurt like this.
He lifted his hand and stared at it for a long time before letting it fall uselessly into his lap.
Somehow… somehow… she had crossed into another body.
The thought didn't scream anymore. It sat inside him,cold and heavy.
His jaw tightened as his breathing slowly steadied.
"Thomas wouldn't kill my brother."
"Not yet."
"He needs leverage, he needs me alive." "Broken, Obedient."
The idea made her stomach twist,but it also grounded her.
He bowed his head and pressed his palms together. His lips moved without sound.
He hadn't prayed in years.
Please… just keep him safe. Just until I come back.
His shoulders trembled one last time. Then they stilled.
He wiped his face with the back of his hand, smearing away tears that didn't belong to her.
He stared into the darkness.
Afraid.
Still praying.
Holding on to the thin, painful hope that this was not the end,only a place she had to survive long enough to escape.
Pain stabbed through his skull.
Not physical.
Foreign.
Images flooded in without permission.
A woman's voice, warm and close.
"Kal… Kal…"
A memory unfolded,borrowed.
Small hands reaching clumsily for food. A mother guiding them gently. Laughter. Bright green eyes looking up with innocence. Black hair pressed against her chest, breathing in warmth, milk, safety.
Love.
His breath trembled.
Then the light changed.
Ropes bit into thin wrists. A stone street filled with shouting.
Kal's feet dragged across the ground as he tried to pull back. His nails tore. His throat burned from screaming.
"Ma...!"
A platform stood ahead.
Two bodies were forced to kneel.
His mother.
His father.
Steel flashed.
The King leaned forward, entertained. The crowd roared, drunk on death. Beside him, the Queen turned her face away, lips tight, eyes empty.
Kal's mother looked at him.
She smiled.
Her lips moved.
I love you.
The blade fell.
Heads rolled.
Kal's scream drowned under laughter.
She gasped and folded inward, clutching her head as if it might split apart.
"Not my memories."
"Not my pain."
"But the grief was real."
"Too real."
She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms over her head, squeezing tightly as if she could hold what was left of him inside her.
"Poor thing," she whispered hoarsely.
Her voice broke.
For a moment, she wasn't seeing Kal.
She was seeing her brother.
And the cave, heavy with borrowed sorrow, held both of them in its darkness.
Another wave hit.
Heat.
Blinding. Crushing heat.
Kal's body moved through it. Endured it. His skin blistered, healed, burned again. Muscles tightened and snapped with unnatural precision.
His fist struck stone.
The stone didn't crack.
It shattered.
Shadows bent around him.
Kal slipped into them like water into a crack,disappearing, then reappearing behind men in long green coats. Their swords flashed too late.
Steel rang.
Blood sprayed.
Necks twisted at impossible angles.
The soldiers weren't human either.
They moved wrong,too fast, too sharp. The air screamed around them.
And yet, to the civilians watching,nothing seemed strange.
Just men standing.
Then falling.
Then screaming.
Afterward, Kal stood over the bodies, chest rising hard.
He vomited.
Bile burned his throat. His vision blurred.
Another memory crashed in.
Night.
Rain.
Kal running.
Boots thundered behind him,soldiers of the King. Horns blared. Dogs howled.
His arms clutched something wrapped in black cloth, carved with symbols that made his teeth ache.
The Black Temple stood behind him,silent, violated.
He stumbled. Turned. Dove Into this cave.
This very cave.
The memory snapped off like a rope breaking.
He screamed.
Not just with his mouth.
With his whole body.
"No,stop,stop!"
He clawed at his head, staggering. The cave spun. The walls felt too close.
"Who am I?"
"Which life?"
"Which body?"
"Which grief?"
His legs gave out.
He collapsed, shaking violently. His palms scraped against stone. His vision narrowed. His heart felt like it was trying to beat through two different pasts at once.
"I don't know," he gasped. "I don't know what to do..."
Nothing answered.
The memories pulled back.
But they didn't leave.
They waited.
Inside him.
The cave wouldn't breathe.
He did.
Too loud. Too fast. Too wrong.
The walls felt closer now. The air heavier. Every shadow felt like it remembered him.
Or her.
Or Kal.
"I need air," he muttered, unsure whose voice it was.
His body moved before his mind could decide.
He staggered upright, dragging his hand along the stone wall. The exit existed. He had seen it in Kal's memory.
But when he tried to remember the path,nothing.
Blank.
"I was here," he whispered. "He was here. I saw it..."
No direction came. Only pain.
His legs chose for him.
He ran.
Branches tore at his arms as he burst out of the cave into the forest. Cold air hit his lungs. Light stabbed his eyes. The ground rose and dipped under his boots, roots grabbing at him like hands.
He didn't know where he was going.
He only knew he couldn't stay.
Leaves cracked under his feet. Birds flew from the trees in panic.
He slowed, breathing hard. His head throbbed.
Kal knew this forest.
She didn't.
He turned slowly.
Every direction looked the same.
"I don't remember," he whispered. "Why don't I remember?"
The memories were there,like books behind glass. But when he reached for them, they vanished.
Then...
Footsteps.
Soft.
Wrong.
He froze.
Between the trees, a figure moved.
White.
Graceful.
A woman stepped through sunlight like the forest belonged to her.
White hair flowed down her back. Silver eyes reflected the light like metal. Black thigh-high stockings hugged her long legs, disappearing beneath short dark fabric. A cropped top clung to her body, exposing pale skin that almost glowed.
She didn't look lost.
She looked placed.
Perfect.
Too perfect.
His heart pounded.
"Should I ask for help?"
"What if she's an ability user?"
"What if she's a soldier of the King?"
He stepped quietly behind a thick tree.
Observe.
"If she reacts,run."
"If she doesn't,follow."
His breathing slowed. He pressed his back to the bark and peeked.
She was walking away.
Calm. Unhurried.
"Okay," he whispered. "Just watch."
One second.
Two.
Three.
Her footsteps stopped.
Silence.
He leaned out a little more.
She was gone.
His stomach dropped.
A hand touched the tree beside his head.
"Boo."
He flinched violently.
She stood inches from him.
Silver eyes smiling.
Not kindly.
Up close, she felt colder than the cave.
Her gaze lowered slowly, studying him.
Then her expression changed.
Interest.
"Oh," she murmured. "That's rare."
From her view, she could see it.
Black energy leaking from him like smoke through cracked glass.
Uncontrolled.
Unrefined.
Valuable.
She tilted her head.
"You don't know your worth, boy."
He shoved backward.
"Too slow."
Her leg struck.
The world flipped sideways.
He flew into a tree and crashed, gasping.
His back hit the ground hard. He rolled, coughing.
"Ability user."
"Confirmed."
He forced himself up, stumbling.
"You're leaking power like a broken vessel," she said lazily. "Do you know what collectors would pay for someone like you?"
"Run."
He turned and ran.
Branches lashed his face. His lungs burned. His body was stronger than he knew how to control.
But not stronger than her.
A shadow flickered ahead.
She appeared in front of him.
He tried to turn.
Her hand caught his collar and threw him into another tree.
He dropped to one knee, dizzy.
"I can't fight. I can't escape."
She walked toward him slowly.
Like a predator.
"You'd sell beautifully," she said. "Black market buyers would tear cities apart for your energy."
She grabbed his throat and forced him onto his back. Her knee pressed into his chest.
Pinned.
He struggled.
Not skilled.
Just desperate.
Her weight didn't move.
Up close, he saw it.
On her exposed stomach,a tattoo.
Rose petals forming something long and segmented.
A centipede.
Its body curved into the number six.
His mind screamed.
Cult.
Not random.
She reached for the blade strapped to her thigh.
"I know the secret of the gods from the Pentagon Temple!" he shouted.
Silence.
The blade stopped inches from his throat.
Her silver eyes sharpened.
The laziness vanished.
His chest rose hard under her knee.
"I,I was there.Black Temple,Pentagon..."
He didn't know if it was true.
He just needed her to hesitate.
And she did.
Her grip tightened slightly.
"…Say that again," she said softly.
And for the first time since leaving the cave,
he wasn't running.
He was bargaining.
Terrified.
Breathing hard.
Alive.