I'm falling…

  Both literally and figuratively. My mind—my sanity—is sinking into a dark ocean while my body drops from the top of a skyscraper.

  Is this how it ends for me?

  How the hell did things get to this point?

  I can still hear her st words echoing in my mind…

  “Live your life to the fullest.”

  She says that phrase to me again. It was always her motto, the main lesson she drilled into me… one of many.

  But this time, it’s different. Even though there’s a gentle smile on her face, there are also tears staining that beautiful face of hers.

  And the worst part? Seeing that sad glow in her eyes. That look of someone about to lose everything.

  Still, she tries to comfort me. She believes her sacrifice is going to save me.

  But I’m about to lose everything too—because she is all I’ve got.

  Right there in front of me, while two goons have me restrained, their leader points a high-powered pistol right at her head.

  Her name is Erina. That’s what I’ve always called her. She’s not my mom, not my big sister, not even a retive…

  But she pulled me out of the trash and gave me a home—her home. It wasn’t a mansion or even a decent apartment, but it was what she had to offer.

  Even with little, Erina shared her life with me. She taught me everything I know—how to survive in this cruel, predatory world…

  How not to be just another weak prey, but a hunter who fights for survival every damn day.

  We were always so careful…

  So how the hell did it all fall apart?

  Inside my head, a movie pys on fast forward—the story of my life: Every choice, every decision that led me right here, to this exact moment.

  The moment I watch some unknown man pull the trigger and blow out the brains of the only person I’ve ever loved.

  “NO! NO!!! NO!!!” All I can do is scream—beg for him to stop…

  But it’s already too te. Her brains are spttered in a grotesque, bloody spsh right in front of me.

  Her lifeless body crumples like a doll tossed to the floor.

  I colpse with her. My heart shatters into thousands of pieces. An indescribable pain tears through me, wrecking my entire world.

  “NOOO!!!!” I scream with everything I have. My tears are red—like pure blood.

  But he still doesn’t care. All that man sees in front of him are two disposable pieces of trash.

  “Boy, are you still not gonna tell me where it is?” His voice is cold. He doesn’t care about anything but his mission.

  “You shouldn’t have killed her…” I lunge forward, desperate, trying to save someone who’s already gone.

  Out of pity, the goons let go of me, and I fall to the floor—in her blood, in Erina’s blood.

  “No, no, no…” I can’t stop crying. The pain is too intense—too much to bear.

  “She was innocent… she had nothing to do with this…” I keep repeating it, over and over.

  The man in the suit reaches out and grabs my hair with brutal force. He’s strong—stronger than anyone I’ve ever known.

  “Fuck! You’re gonna tell me what you did with it, or I’ll show you what real pain is.”

  “I told you already… the thing… it just went into me… but she… she had nothing to do with…” It’s hard to speak, hard to think.

  Pain and rage flood my body like fire in my veins. He sees it before the others do—my veins lighting up, dark lines pulsing all across my skin.

  Everything turns red in front of my eyes. Sounds grow louder, deeper. The temperature shoots up—my skin burns.

  That thing inside me is waking up… It’s rising—and changing me in ways I could have never imagined.

  But right now, all I can see, all I can hear, all I can feel—is rage. Pure, unrelenting rage.

  “She…” I raise my hands, covered in her blood.

  I know what I have to do: Kill them. All of them.

  All I see is blood. All I want is blood.

  “ERINA WAS INNOCENT!!!”

  My voice erupts like an abyssal roar—part robotic, part something dark and supernatural.

  Rage explodes from inside me, adrenaline pumping through my veins—no, turning into something more… An energy that makes me feel so powerful—and so angry.

  That man can see it. He sees how something has changed inside me, how something dark and wicked was just born right in front of him.

  “Boy…” He yanks my hair hard, forcing me to look up—right into his eyes.

  But a surge of energy shoots through my veins, and my arms move on instinct.

  *Whoosh*

  My arm slices through the air like a bde, smming into his arm with so much force that my hair rips free—breaking his grip and setting me loose.

  “Wha—” He and his goons freeze, shocked—especially by how fast I move.

  Even I don’t understand how fast that was. My vision blurs, and in the blink of an eye, I’m right in front of him.

  “You!” He tries to aim the pistol at me, but my hands move way too fast.

  I grab his wrist with my right hand. He throws a punch with his free hand—but I catch that too, wrapping my left hand around his fist.

  His punches used to feel like getting hit by a sledgehammer. Now? It’s nothing. I feel like an adult holding the tiny fist of a child.

  And yet, he’s still a two-meter-tall giant, and I’m just a scrawny teen a bit over 1.8 meters. His arms are thicker than my thighs, and his strength—used to be—dozens of times greater than mine.

  But now, he’s staring at me wide-eyed, just as shocked as I am by my own strength.

  “How—” He barely gets the word out before I yank both his arms forward and sm my forehead straight into his.

  *BAM*

  The crack of our skulls colliding echoes like meat hitting stone. I brace for pain—but I barely feel anything. He, on the other hand…

  “AHHH!!!” He screams as he’s unched backward, a stream of blood connecting our heads—his blood.

  “SHIT!”

  “FUCK!?”

  The two bodyguards flinch, caught off guard by the scene unfolding so fast. They react instantly, raising heavy guns and aiming straight at me.

  Rain’s falling. Drops hit my face, mixing with blood, turning red and blurring my vision.

  Yet I see everything with perfect crity. I spot the pistol flying through the air right next to me as he falls.

  Time slows down. It’s like I’ve got a time-hack running. I move freely, effortlessly, catching the gun mid-air with a fluid leap.

  *Shoosh*

  I hit the ground and roll, nding just two meters in front of the two bodyguards.

  I can still see them reacting, struggling to lift those bulky weapons.

  But for the new me, it’s too easy to do it… I steady myself on one knee, aim the pistol right at them…

  *BANG* *BANG*

  Two perfect shots—one to each forehead.

  This gun is no joke. The reinforced 9mm bullets pierce through their chrome-pted skin and skulls. Instant death.

  As they both drop—almost in sync—I spring to my feet and spin around.

  The man in the suit is trying to get up after smming into the floor. He’s surprisingly quick for such a big guy.

  But before he can even rise, he sees his own pistol pointed straight at his face.

  The look on his bloodied face—a mix of fear and total confusion. He lifts one open hand. “N—”

  I don’t think. I don’t feel pity. Only rage. And I pull the trigger—no hesitation.

  *BANG*

  The pistol kicks in my grip, a soft vibration as the round explodes inside the chamber. I watch the bullet slice through falling raindrops as it flies straight into his forehead.

  His skin is clearly reinforced with high-tech impnts—but even that buckles under the sheer power of the bullet.

  It tears through his defenses, punching a hole clean through his head.

  *Thud*

  His lifeless body colpses, spshing into a rain-filled puddle. I see it all in slow motion—hear the final beats of his heart, his st breath.

  It’s like watching a movie. I don’t even feel like myself—more like a spectator trapped inside, watching everything fall apart on the outside.

  “AH!?” I gasp out loud, my whole body trembling like I’d been holding my breath that entire time—even though it all sted barely thirty seconds.

  But then my senses come rushing back, and my attention is instantly pulled to the side—to her body lying on the dirty rooftop.

  “ERINA!!!” I scream and run toward her. I drop to my knees, hands trembling above her lifeless body.

  There’s so much blood spilling from her head—mixed with fluid from her brain. The bullet tore through her skull, causing damage that can't be undone.

  I should’ve known she was already gone.

  But I can’t accept it. I can’t process the fact that the most important person in my life is lying dead in front of me.

  “Erina! Erina!!” I gently lift her body, her name slipping past my lips in desperate screams.

  I keep calling out, begging her to wake up somehow—trying to stop it all from ending like this.

  But no matter what I do, I know deep down—nothing can bring Erina back. She’s gone. And it’s tearing my heart into a million pieces that will never be whole again.

  I pull her lifeless body tight against my chest and scream into the sky. The rain's falling harder now—icy drops striking my face and mixing with the blood pouring from my eyes.

  The sky is pitch bck—no moon, no stars. Just the cold darkness swallowing me whole.

  “ERINA!!!” I scream with everything I have. My voice echoes across the rooftop.

  I’m alone.

  *Thump…*

  “UH?!” I hear a soft, calm heartbeat. But I know it’s not mine—mine’s still racing.

  I gnce down, confused, surprised—some fragile hope flickers inside me. ‘Maybe she…’

  But there’s nothing. No sign of life inside Erina’s body. Just the silence of death.

  *Thump… Ka-thump*

  There it is again. “Who’s there?”

  I turn my head to the side, but all I see is a faint glow—a tiny fsh at the tip of a barrel. Someone’s more than a hundred meters away, on top of another building.

  *BANG*

  I feel the bullet rip through my chest before I hear the shot—big caliber—probably a sniper. The impact hits like a truck, throwing me backward.

  The round shreds through muscle and bone, tears straight through my heart with deadly precision, and exits through my back in a bloody spray.

  I lose my strength. My bance. My life.

  As my body falls backward like a limp doll, my st sight is that dark, starless sky…

  But I spot a tiny glowing dot inside all that bck. “Is that… a star?”

  I try to convince myself that the glowing dot is her. Erina.

  I tighten my grip around her lifeless body as I fall off the edge of the rooftop.

  It’s a free fall, dozens of meters down through the rain. I use everything I have left just to keep holding her close as we plummet together.

  I spent my whole life by her side. And even though it was short and full of struggle… It was a good life.

  Losing her means losing everything— So maybe dying with her… isn’t such a bad way to go.

  But then—why am I so angry?

  I can still hear her st words echoing in my head:

  “Live your life to the fullest!”

  How did it all end up like this?

  Lamen