She humd sleepily, rolling to press her cheek against his chest.
"What happens after death... for humans?"
There was a pause. Then she whispered, "Nothing... or everything. Depends on what they believe at the end. Belief is powerful. It shapes where you go."
That answer sat in the air between them like a soft fog.
They didn’t speak for a while after that. The silence was warm. Heavy in a comforting way.
Lilith’s voice ca out softer now, her fingers curling lazily over his wrist.
"When did you beco so talkative..." she mumbled, half-asleep.
Alexander looked down at her, a slow smile appeared on his lips as he kissed her forehead.
"Maybe I just wanted to know everything about the woman who ruined ."
**
Grandma Bria died.
Burned. Screaming. In severe pain.
Her last monts were filled with terror, not grace. No peace. Only smoke, fire, and agony.
The hospital declared her dead after two days of unbearable suffering. And with her death, sothing in Nyom Brown’s world snapped.
He panicked.
One by one, all his warehouses were caught.
Drugs. Hidden ports. Smuggled organs.
Everything was exposed. His people were arrested.
His shipnts were seized. His bank accounts frozen.
Those who once stood by him, now vanished.
No money—no loyalty.
Nyom sat alone in the dark, his expensive shirt drenched in sweat, the silence of his crumbling empire ringing in his ears. His hands trembled as he clutched his phone.
He had one last weapon left.
He dialed a number. The only number he hated more than anything.
Sebastian Carter.
The call connected.
A mont of silence.
Then ca that familiar deep voice—
"Sebastian."
Nyom’s face twisted in rage, lips curling into a bitter grin.
"I know your truth," he said slowly. "About your precious little secret. Dissociative Identity Disorder... DID, isn’t it?" His voice darkened.
"If you don’t co to the location I send—" His tone turned venomous. "I’ll destroy you. I’ll expose everything. The board, the dia, your empire... Let’s see if anyone wants a madman as CEO!"
There was silence.
Not panic.
Not anger.
Just a pause.
And then—
"...Okay."
The voice was cold. Emotionless. Like tal.
Nyom blinked, confused for a second. He pulled the phone away, stared at the screen like sothing had gone wrong.
No fear. No desperation. Nothing.
Just one word.
Okay.
Suddenly...he wasn’t sure if he’d just dragged Sebastian Carter into a trap or if he’d just invited the devil into his final hiding place.
****
The abandoned building was heavy with silence.
It stood far from the city, where no one ever ca. The windows were broken. Wind slipped in through the cracks. The walls were stained with ti, and the floor creaked under every step. Sowhere in the distance, an old pipe dripped slowly, like a ticking clock.
And then—
Darkness walked in.
He wore black from head to toe. His coat floated gently behind him as he stepped forward, soundless. He didn’t blink. His face didn’t move. He looked like he belonged in the shadows because that’s where he was born.
Across the wide, empty space stood Nyom Brown, holding a gun lazily in his hand. His face had aged, but not his cruelty. He smiled when he saw him.
"Oh, you ca," Nyom said, voice full of poison. "Still obeying like a good little boy?"
Darkness didn’t reply.
His eyes were hollow. His face unreadable.
Nyom circled him like a wolf trying to act brave but he was nervous. His grip on the gun was too tight.
"You think you’re sothing now, huh?" Nyom snarled.
"Wearing fancy clothes, coming in here like you’re in control?"
Still, Darkness said nothing.
He didn’t need to.
Nyom’s voice rose.
"You forget how I trained you? How you scread when I beat you? How you cried like a dog, begging to stop?"
Silence.
Dead silence.
"You were pathetic. You were weak. You were nothing." And then his voice dropped, darker.
"I should’ve kiled you. I should’ve broken you more."
But Darkness didn’t flinch.
He just tilted his head, ever so slightly.
And that’s when the flashback hit him like a storm.
**Flashback**
Sebastian was fifteen.
He was sent away to Nyom’s private mansion, hidden in the countryside, where no one would hear what happened inside.
Nyom said it was to "discipline" him.
But it was sothing worse.
The first night, Sebastian was forced to kneel for six hours without food or water. Every ti he moved, a cane smacked his legs. The cold air burned his skin. His teeth chattered. But he didn’t cry.
That made Nyom angry.
So the second day, he stripped him down and tied him outside. Snow piled around his bare feet. His lips turned blue.
Still...he didn’t scream.
So Nyom made it worse.
He dragged him inside the torture room...a secret space in the basent lined with chains, hooks, and soundproof walls.
He tied Sebastian’s wrists to the ceiling and used a steel rod to hit his back again and again.
Thirty hits.
No rest.
No rcy.
No reason.
"You’re a Carter heir!" Nyom yelled, foaming with madness. "You need to stop being human!"
The rod tore through his skin.
Blood dripped to the floor.
Sebastian passed out.
When he woke up, Nyom smiled.
"You’re still alive? Good. Then let’s move to phase two."
He didn’t sleep that night.
Or the night after.
Every ti he closed his eyes, Nyom would splash water on him or scream into his ears. He’d pull out a blade and cut tiny lines into his arms, whispering—
"If you feel this, you’re not ready."
Sebastian stopped reacting.
Not because the pain faded.
But because sothing else had taken over.
Sothing darker.
Sothing colder.
That was the night Darkness was born.
The personality that didn’t feel. The version of him that never begged. The one who swore—
"I will never be weak again."
**Flashback end**
Back in the warehouse, Nyom was still shouting.
But Darkness wasn’t listening anymore.
He was staring into the eyes of the man who tortured him for fun. The man who wanted to play god.
And slowly—
he smiled.
Not wide.
Just enough to freeze the blood in Nyom’s body.
A shadow passed through his gaze.
"You should’ve killed when you had the chance," Darkness whispered.
His voice was low.
Deadly.
And this ti—
he wasn’t the boy tied in chains.
He was the thing Nyom created.
And now... he was here to return the favor.
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