Backstory

The hall, full of people with righteous faces and sharper convictions. The kind that saw the world in black and white, and people like me as traitors or fools. They didn’t know what it meant to be on the edge of something dark, and still chose not to look away.

I stayed at the back, where no one noticed me.

Kai stood at the centre of it all, motionless. His mouth was still raw from when his mother had tried to kill him, shoving cloth down his throat to silence him for good. But he survived. Of course, he did.

When his eyes opened again, something in him had changed. There was no fury. No smugness. Just a strange, glinting stillness. Like he was waiting to see who would betray him next.

Then he asked, his voice ringing through the room:

“Who wants me dead?”

The response came all at once—the whole room answered, in unison, “We do.”

But I didn’t join them.

I stood still, too, like I was trying to make myself invisible. I could feel their eyes on me, sharp and accusing. I whispered under my breath, just loud enough for myself to hear, “I don’t.”

Then, without thinking, without giving myself a chance to hesitate, I said it, loud and clear.

“I do.”

The words rang out too steadily, But they had to be. People were watching me, unsure if I was on his side. And I had to let them believe I wasn’t. Because siding with Kai openly… well, that wasn’t something you survived in a room full of moral advocates.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Diamond stiffen. She didn’t look at me, but I could feel her calculating. Ellie’s expression cracked a little. She’d always been the cautious one, never fully with us, never fully against us either. Just enough loyalty to be suspicious. Just enough distance to stay clean.

But I wasn't clean anymore.

Not after what I had done next.

I killed them. Not Kai. Not Diamond. Not Ellie. The others, the ones who would’ve torn us apart in the name of justice. It wasn’t justice I had just served. It was survival. It was silence.

And I did it without looking back.

I didn’t take the larger staircase where Kai had been pushed toward death. I took the narrow and dark stairs instead, old wood shouting under each step, shadows wrapping around me like a second skin. I didn’t want them to see where I went. I didn’t want anyone to know whose side I was truly on.

But Kai knew.

He always knew.

He was waiting for me when I reached the top. Alone. Quiet. Blood still dried in the corners of his mouth, but his eyes were steady, watching me like he already knew what I’d done. What I’d chosen.

I couldn’t speak. There was too much weight between us now—what we said, what we didn’t say. What I claimed. What I hid.

But then I saw it.

That twinkle in his eyes. Just for a second. Like he saw something in me worth believing in. Or maybe something dangerous enough to keep close.

We stood there, no words, no lies. Just understanding.

Not love.

But something just as sharp.

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