Axel's eyes fluttered open, his vision blurry and slow to adjust. The familiar sound of water cascading around him was oddly soothing, yet his mind was anything but calm. The rhythmic drops of the shower, falling in slow motion, felt like hypnotic pulses, drawing him deeper into his own thoughts.
"I killed a man... It felt like I was on the verge of ecstasy, like I had reached the peak of sothing beyond pleasure," he muttered to himself, barely recognizing the voice in his head. "The sa when I killed that woman. No guilt. No regret. Just this...
primal satisfaction. What's wrong with ?"
The mory of their bodies, broken and lifeless, flooded his mind, and the whisper—the voice—began its usual cycle, faint at first, like a distant hum, but building, always building, until it was louder than anything else in the world.
**[DEVOUR]**
It was almost impossible to hear anything else when the voice got this loud, banging in his ears like the crash of cymbals. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to shut it out, but it was futile. It never stopped. Ever since he returned from that damned portal, ever since he acquired this cursed ability, the voice had beco a constant companion. A parasite, feeding off his sanity.
Axel stood there, the water pouring over his muscular fra, trying to focus on the present. The tiny droplets of water, falling in slow motion, were captivating, almost srizing. Every droplet hit his skin like a small weight, pulling him further into the mont. Maybe if he concentrated hard enough, he could drown the voice. Maybe.
*Would there be a cure for this?*
The question echoed in his mind, but he already knew the answer. There was no cure. There was no escape. This was the cost of power. The voice, the urges, the uncontrollable thirst for blood—he couldn't be rid of it. And worst of all, he was terrified that he would lose control one day.
Completely.
He thought about his family. Annie. He couldn't let them get hurt. Not by him. He'd rather disappear than let that happen.
Sighing, Axel turned off the shower, feeling the sudden absence of water like a void. He grabbed the towel from the rack, drying himself with a chanical motion, his mind distant, lost in the labyrinth of his dark thoughts.
Rowin had been generous to offer him a place to stay in his suite, especially after the chaos of the last mission. The house was massive, far more advanced than his old apartnt. The doors didn't need keys; instead, they worked with digital security, and the design was sleek, modern, with an almost futuristic touch. Yet, for all its beauty and luxury, Axel felt uneasy here. There was sothing... off.
Draping the towel over his shoulder, Axel moved towards his discarded clothes. His old ones lay in a heap, torn and soaked in blood and who knows what else. He grimaced. Wearing those again would be a disgusting affair, and he could already imagine Annie's voice nagging him about hygiene.
He paused, noticing sothing new—a neatly folded set of clothes on the dresser. A pristine white turtleneck, paired with long black jumper trousers, and a fresh pair of red wedge sneakers. They looked expensive, like sothing you'd wear to impress people in high society.
"Did Rowin get these while I was in the shower? That was fast..." Axel thought, lifting the clothes. They were his exact size, even down to the underwear. Rowin had an uncanny knack for knowing people's asurents.
Dressing quickly, Axel couldn't help but feel a strange sense of transformation as the soft fabric clung to his body. The clothes were far more comfortable than anything he'd worn in a long ti, but there was sothing deeper, almost like he was wearing a new identity—a new skin.
He walked to the mirror and stopped in confusion. The fra was there, but there was no reflection. It was like looking through a transparent window. Axel blinked, then muttered to himself, "What sort of mirror is this?"
Almost in response to his voice, the glass shimred and four icons appeared on the screen-like surface: **Transparent Mirror**, **Reflection**, **Security Display**, and **Room Settings**. He hesitated for a mont, intrigued by the technology, then selected **Reflection**. The mirror flickered and suddenly, there he was.
His reflection stared back at him, sharper, more defined. He looked... different. Taller? Stronger? His hair had grown longer too, falling in ssy waves down his neck.
He needed a haircut soon before soone mistook him for a girl.
"Display Security," Axel commanded, and the mirror once again shifted, this ti showing a sprawling grid of cara feeds, each displaying a different part of the house. Axel marveled at the level of surveillance Rowin had set up. It was like living inside a high-tech spy movie.
His admiration was cut short, however, as sothing in one of the cara feeds caught his attention—a flicker of movent, a shadow, sothing... wrong. He stared hard at the screen, his heart beginning to race, his body stiffening with an impending sense of dread.
"What the hell...?" He muttered, storming out of the room without thinking twice. His mind raced, but his face remained stoic. He couldn't afford panic right now, not until he knew what he had seen. His feet carried him swiftly down the corridor, and within monts, he was standing before a large oak door, its surface cold beneath his fingertips.
The chill from the room seeped into his bones as he slowly pushed the door open. The tallic stench of blood hit him instantly, thick and overwhelming, filling his nostrils with a sickening intensity. His eyes scanned the room—and his stomach lurched.
Bodies. Five of them. Won, torn apart, their limbs scattered in grotesque displays of violence. Blood coated the floor, turning the once pristine white tiles into a macabre painting of death. Axel's pulse quickened as the sight sunk in, bile rising in his throat.
He couldn't tear his eyes away from the carnage.
"Rowin..." Axel's voice was barely more than a whisper. "Why...?"
"You found out."
Axel whirled around, his breath catching in his chest. Rowin stood there, casually leaning against the doorfra, a twisted grin plastered on his face. His eyes, once familiar, now glead with sothing dark, sothing unhinged.
"You... killed them? Why? Why would you do this?" Axel's voice cracked, unable to hide the emotional weight behind the words.
Rowin chuckled, his grin widening as he stepped into the room, his boots splashing in the blood as though it were nothing more than water. "You ask ** that? After all the lives you've taken? We're the sa, Axel. You and . There's no difference."
Axel's hands curled into fists. "No. I'm not like you."
"Really?" Rowin's eyes glead with dark amusent. "You think you're innocent? You think you're not a killer? I've tasted it, Axel. I've ascended beyond humanity, just like she said. You have too.
We both have."
Axel's heart pounded in his chest as Rowin's voice grew louder, more frenzied. He could hear the voice—the sinister whisper—rising in the back of his mind.
**[Devour...]**
"No..." Axel muttered under his breath, his eyes wide. The voice was growing louder.
**[Devour!!]**
Axel's vision blurred as the voice grew more insistent, overpowering his senses.
**[DEVOUR!!!]**
***Author's note***
Trying to recover... Can't post 3 today because of my health, thanks for reading and baring with . Please support.
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