Kai knelt next to Hana’s lifeless body, his fingers trembling as they hovered over her cold skin. The reality of what had happened was sinking in fast, suffocating him. He had never intended for this—hadn’t even thought it was possible for things to go this far. The Ledger had taken something from him that he couldn’t ever get back. The weight of the book pressed against his chest like a leaden curse.

Minseo stood a few feet away, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. She hadn’t moved since Hana fell, still in shock from what they had just witnessed.

“Kai…” she whispered, her voice barely audible, as if she was afraid speaking too loudly would make everything even more real. “This... this isn’t right. What have we done?”

Kai swallowed hard, his throat dry. His mind raced, trying to find an answer, trying to make sense of everything, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t even look at Minseo without feeling an overwhelming guilt wash over him.

“I didn’t want this,” he said finally, his voice cracking. “I never wanted this to happen. I just… I thought if we wrote her name—”

“That she’d disappear?” Minseo’s voice trembled with disbelief, her gaze sharp, cutting through the haze of shock. “That she’d just... vanish, like some kind of nightmare we could forget about? Kai, she’s dead. She’s really... dead.”

The word hung in the air between them like a heavy stone, pulling them both down into the depths of their actions. Kai’s breath hitched in his throat, his chest tightening with the realization of what they had done. He had written Hana’s real name in the Ledger, thinking it would stop her—thinking it would be the only way to stop her—but now she was gone.

“I thought it was the only way,” he whispered, his voice barely audible. “She wasn’t going to stop, Minseo. You saw what she was becoming. She would’ve killed... she would’ve—”

“Killed us?” Minseo interrupted, her voice laced with anger and grief. “And now what, Kai? You... we’ve killed her. How are we any different from her now?”

Kai felt the sting of her words, but he didn’t know how to respond. She wasn’t wrong. They had crossed a line, a line that couldn’t be undone. There was no going back from this.

“We didn’t kill her,” Kai said weakly, almost as if trying to convince himself. “The Ledger... it...”

“The Ledger is just a tool, Kai. We’re the ones who used it,” Minseo shot back, her voice thick with emotion. “You used it. I thought... I thought you were better than this.”

Kai’s head snapped up at that. Minseo’s words cut deeper than anything else had, and for the first time, he felt truly alone. He had thought that Minseo understood, that she had been with him in this, but now she looked at him as if he were someone else—someone she no longer recognized.

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“I didn’t want to hurt her,” he said, his voice desperate. “But she wasn’t going to stop. You saw what she did, what she was willing to do. If we didn’t stop her, she would’ve—”

“And now what?” Minseo interrupted again, tears brimming in her eyes. “We’re standing over her body, Kai. She’s not some monster in a book. She was a person. She was angry, yes, but now she’s gone, and we’re the ones responsible.”

Kai stood up slowly, his body trembling with the weight of it all. He could feel the Ledger’s presence in his pocket, almost pulsing with a sinister energy. It had given him power, but it had also taken something from him that he didn’t know if he could ever reclaim—his humanity.

“I didn’t want to kill her,” he repeated, his voice weak. “I just... I thought this would stop her.”

Minseo wiped her tears away roughly with the back of her hand, her face hardening as she looked at him. “What are we going to do now, Kai? We can’t just... we can’t just leave her here.”

Kai’s eyes flickered down to Hana’s body again. She looked so small, so fragile now. All the rage and determination that had fueled her was gone, leaving only the shell of who she had been. For the first time, Kai realized just how much they had all lost.

“We have to... we have to move her,” he said quietly, though even as the words left his mouth, he knew how wrong it felt. “We’ll take her somewhere. Somewhere no one will find her. We’ll figure this out.”

Minseo shook her head, disbelief written across her face. “Move her? And then what? Pretend this didn’t happen? Kai, this isn’t something we can just hide. She’s dead. People will ask questions. They’ll wonder where she went. What are you going to say when the police come looking for her?”

Kai’s hands tightened into fists at his sides, his frustration bubbling over. “I don’t know, okay? I don’t know! But if they find out about the Ledger, if they find out what it can do, it won’t stop with Hana. They’ll come for us. For it. And then what? Then we’re all screwed.”

Minseo’s face crumpled, her composure finally breaking. “I didn’t sign up for this,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “I didn’t sign up to be part of... of a murder.”

“It wasn’t murder!” Kai shouted, his voice louder than he intended. He took a step back, breathing hard, trying to calm himself. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. But it’s too late now. We have to deal with it.”

For a moment, there was silence between them, the weight of everything pressing down on both of them like a suffocating blanket. Minseo stared at Kai, her eyes searching his face for any sign of the person she had trusted, the person she had believed in. But now, all she saw was a stranger—someone who had been consumed by the very power he had once feared.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Kai,” she said finally, her voice barely a whisper. “I don’t know if I can be part of this anymore.”

Kai felt something crack inside him at her words, but he didn’t know how to respond. He wanted to tell her that they could fix this, that somehow they would find a way out, but deep down he knew there was no easy answer. They were in too deep now.

“You don’t have a choice,” he said quietly, his voice hard. “Neither of us do. We have to figure this out together.”

Minseo’s eyes filled with tears again, but she didn’t respond. Instead, she turned away, unable to look at Hana’s body any longer. Kai stood there, his hands shaking, his heart pounding in his chest. He had thought the Ledger would give him control, but now he realized how wrong he had been.

Control had always been an illusion. And now, all he had left was the darkness that came with it.