I was more than the wisp in the corner. More than the nothing slipping through life. The worlds called me many things. Corruption, sin, temptations. Supposedly my words crawled intopeople’s ears and whispered them into action. As if none of their misdeeds existed without my coercion.
What a load of—
It didn’t matter. In the end, I welcomed evil. Filled Hell with their wicked souls. I needed imbalance to step into the human world and stay.
But time… Time was a trickster.
I couldn’t remember why I yearned for humanity’s downfall. I could barely recall my fall from grace.
Another lie.
So many.
They were starting to taste sweet on my tongue.
I should never have returned to the shadows. It was supposed to end once I had her.
Her tongue darted over her lips, her hand drifting to her stomach with a sigh. She wasn’t in pain yet. That surprised me. I had been starving for a long time. But food disgusted me. I couldn’t taste it anymore. Still, I hungered. I’d been longing for more andmoresince I fell.
Everything clicked into place.
All I had to do was cross over and claim the human world as my own.
But then—
The vision returned.
Kara stood there, red petals fluttering at her feet with every step she took backward. She was always nude in the dream, yet her form remained blurred—like the universe refused to let me see her clearly. She’d beckon me forward with that same damnedlook every time, and a current of need would slam through me. It was an ungodly force of nature that broke me apart and remade me in her image.
But then the vision cut off. Every time. I never saw what came next.
Nothing. That was the truth of it.
If I had been sitting—I stayed seated.
If I’d been standing—I turned away.
I never followed her.
I always chose not to.
From the shadows, I glanced toward her now. Still seated. Her eyes closed. At rest.
A dark swell of emotion blanketed me, thick and unrelenting. Even the ripple of my form—the twitch of shadow and void—ceased. The vision had haunted me since the day I cursed her as a child.
And now—finally—Kara was in my grasp.
But reality struck like a blade to the gut. I had tormented myself over a future that would never exist. I was a monster. A force of Hell. Bound to my own darkness and rule. She would never welcome me between her thighs.
And while I was the Dark One, I would never take what wasn’t freely offered. There was a place in Hell—one I carved out myself—for those who did.
Even something as evil as me had their limits.
Kara didn’t know that. She feared me—feared what I might do. I sensed her revulsion. I saw it in how she looked at my tail—at me. But I had no problem in frightening her into thinking I’d ruin her.
I couldn’t give in to lust even if I wanted to. I hadn’t lied when I told her I felt nothing. At least, not physically. Sex, food, violence, even the sensation of touch—it had all dulled, century after century. Maybe it was boredom. Maybe Hell had devoured more of me than it gave.
Either way, when I cursed Grim’s children and saw Kara in that first vision… I knew it was over. Whatever remnants of sensation I had left—they iced over completely.
