The forest had fallen quiet again, but within Kael, a storm was raging. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something had snapped inside him after the incident with Eran. The sharp clarity he had felt in that moment, the coldness that had overtaken him, now felt like a distant echo. Something wasn’t right. Something inside him had changed, twisted into something unrecognizable.

As they continued their journey through the woods toward the village, Kael kept his head down, his thoughts a blur. Siris walked beside him, but the distance between them felt like an abyss, one that hadn’t been there before. Her eyes no longer met his. The warmth she had once shown him was now replaced with a cold, palpable tension.

She had avoided him ever since the killing. He had hoped—perhaps foolishly—that things might go back to normal, that she would see reason and understand that the world was no longer the place it had been. But Siris wasn’t the same, and neither was he.

Siris’s voice broke through his dark thoughts. "Kael," she said softly, though there was a hesitation in her tone, "can we talk?"

He turned to her, but the moment their eyes met, he saw something he wasn’t used to—fear, uncertainty. Siris wasn’t the girl he had once known, the one who had shared so many open conversations with him, about their pasts, their hopes, their fears for the future. There was something more, something darker between them now.

“Talk?” Kael repeated, his voice hollow. “What’s there to talk about, Siris?”

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but then closed it, her expression softening with an unspoken regret. "You’re different, Kael. I don’t know what’s happening to you." Her words stung like ice. "You… you killed that man. I don’t know who you are anymore."

He clenched his fists, anger and shame swirling within him. Don’t react, he told himself. Don’t lose control again. "I did what needed to be done," Kael muttered, his voice low, barely audible.

Siris took a step back, her expression pained. "No, Kael. You didn’t. You killed him because something inside you wanted to. And that’s what scares me." She shook her head, as if trying to shake the thoughts that plagued her. "I can’t be around you right now."

The words cut deeper than any blade. Siris, the one person who had believed in him, the one person who had listened to him with empathy during those long talks about everything from their futures to their fears, was now pulling away from him. And he couldn’t blame her. How could she stay after what he had done?

Kael wanted to reach out, to explain, but a part of him—the darker part, the one he didn’t understand—told him to stay quiet. To hide what was festering inside him.

The memories from the night of the killing kept circling in his mind like a nightmare he couldn’t escape. He had been standing in the square, Eran, the traitor, before him. The tension in the air had been unbearable. The villagers had gathered, watching the trial. Eran had confessed to plotting against the village, a betrayal that could lead to its destruction. But the moment of death—that was something else.

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Kael could still see it clearly in his mind: the flash of steel, the cold satisfaction of a blade sinking into flesh. But it wasn’t his hand that wielded the blade, was it? No. It had been the darkness. His alter ego. The part of him that had always been buried deep inside. That was the thing—the evil presence that had taken over.

As he walked deeper into the woods one evening, trying to escape the weight of his thoughts, Kael's mind began to spiral further. Every step felt wrong, every breath shallow, as if he couldn’t quite grasp the reality around him.

He paused. The voice—the other voice—had returned, and this time it was louder, clearer.

"Why are you running from the truth, Kael?" the voice hissed, cold and venomous. "You know it was you. You wanted to kill him. You wanted it to feel good."

Kael flinched, his eyes darting around the darkened woods, but there was no one there. Only shadows and the echoes of his own thoughts. "No," he whispered, pressing his hands to his temples. "It wasn’t me. It was… it was the other side of me. The darkness. The alter ego."

The voice laughed, low and mocking. "You still can’t admit it, can you? You think you’re separate from what you’ve done? Fool. You did it. The one who acts in the light, and the one who moves in the shadows—they are the same."

Kael gritted his teeth. "No! I’m not like that."

But the darkness continued to press against him, an unrelenting force that threatened to consume him.

When he finally returned to camp, Siris was sitting by the fire, her back to him. Kael hesitated for a moment before approaching. He wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to explain that it hadn’t been him, that it had been this thing inside of him, taking control. But when he looked at her, her face was cold, unreadable.

"You’re back," Siris said flatly, her voice distant. But then she looked at him, and there was something different in her eyes. A softness, a flicker of the warmth she had shown him before.

Kael took a cautious step forward. “Siris…” He didn’t know how to begin. His heart felt heavy with the words he couldn’t quite say.

Siris sighed, standing and walking toward him slowly. "I can’t say I’m not scared of what I saw, Kael. But… I know you. You’re not a monster. You… you were just confused. But what happened—" she hesitated, her voice tight, “—it scared me.”

Kael’s chest tightened. “I know,” he said quietly. “I never meant to hurt anyone. I swear, I didn’t mean for things to go that far.”

Siris took a deep breath, her eyes flickering with both regret and hope. “I want to believe you, Kael. I do.” She stepped closer, placing a hand on his arm. “But I need time. Time to understand. Time to figure out what this all means.”

Kael felt a sense of relief flood him, but it was bittersweet. Siris wasn’t angry anymore, but her hesitation was an unbearable weight on his chest. It was clear she didn’t trust him fully, not after what happened.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to show you I’m still the same person. I swear,” Kael murmured.

Siris nodded faintly, her gaze lingering on him. “I hope so.”