Many Years Ago

  Two Months After Suzi's Death

  Location: New Zealand

  Nelson Lakes National Park

  Inside the Private Area

  Karl (15 years old) and Luci (17 years old), despite their young age, ended up traveling alone to the summer house of Luci's family and her father, Yael. During the first days, the two spent their time hiking and walking, enjoying the place and the surrounding nature.

  Even though Karl tried to show that he was enjoying himself while walking beside Luci, especially after lunch and dinner, Luci often noticed that his gaze seemed lost, as if searching for a light within his own inner darkness.

  Karl did not know that his sister Karla had thrown herself headfirst into her own inner darkness, while he was there beside Luci, trying to find some light amid the darkness that both he and Karla had experienced after the premature death of their little sister, Suzi.

  Two Months After Suzi's Death

  Still at Luci's House

  The days passed for the two siblings, Karl and Karla, each in their respective locations. Luci, who was with Karl, decided after dinner to light a small bonfire on the porch of her countryside house.

  With the beautiful view of the lake in the background, the night sky, with only a few trees hiding the horizon, displayed a breathtaking scene.

  Karl, drinking soda from a can, sat in one of the two wooden chairs near the fire. He looked at the landscape before him on the porch, smiling subtly, with a genuinely happy expression.

  In a moment where his emotional barriers were lowered, Karl thanked Luci for everything she had done for him over the past few days in that beautiful and calm place where she had brought him to give a little peace to his heart.

  Karl felt a sense of relaxation and mental relief for being there by her side. Luci, who had her back turned to him, was stirring the fire with a metal rod, adjusting the burning logs.

  Without realizing it, her cheeks lightly flushed at Karl's words. By the tone of his voice, she could feel that in every syllable there was genuine affection and consideration.

  And that took her by surprise, for it was something sudden and, for the first time, something she had ever heard from him. Luci had not expected that from Karl, considering everything he had always shown on the outside during their many training sessions over the past almost three years.

  Because she was not facing him, Luci did not notice that Karl was drinking his soda with a grateful, and even motivated, look.

  Karl found himself gazing at the sky of that beautiful night, admiring the stars shining in the darkness of the universe above that serene place, with only the faint sounds of nocturnal wildlife in the background.

  Even though Karl was 15 and Luci was 17, both showed something still mysterious and emerging in their hearts for one another, even if it was only in the form of small embers at that moment.

  Without either of them realizing what was happening inside their hearts, Luci finished adjusting the bonfire and finally sat beside Karl in the other chair.

  She looked at him with slight embarrassment, after his words had seemed to reach her heart so deeply, in a way she herself could not fully understand.

  Karl, still calmly and thoughtfully drinking his soda, was immersed in that moment of peace that nature offered them, accompanied by the sound of leaves rustling in the night breeze.

  He shifted his gaze from the sky to the beautiful scenery in front of him through the open balcony. He observed the lake, which glowed subtly as its waters reflected the moonlight upon its crystalline surface.

  Taking a deep breath, Karl lowered his eyes to the soda can he was holding firmly with both hands, after remembering Suzi smiling in front of a beautiful park, only to, in the next second, turn into dust before his eyes after calling his name.

  After recalling that, Karl was seen with his hair now falling partially over his face, hiding his eyes from Luci, who watched him attentively from the corner of her vision.

  When he spoke again, his voice, once full of life, now carried a terrifying emptiness for Luci, who had never heard him speak like that in all those three years.

  Luci, who was beside him, paying close attention to him, ended up hearing nothing less than Karl swearing on his own life that, from that moment on, he would seek justice for Suzi, against the Oculi who had taken his little sister from this world in such a painful way, upon a hospital bed.

  Luci felt her heart tighten painfully and nostalgically as she heard that vow, at every word he spoke in such a hollow tone.

  Instinctively, she brought one of her hands to her chest, feeling Karl's essence, once filled with light, reveal for a few seconds the simultaneous burning of black flames behind his heart, still wounded by the premature and recent death of his little sister, Suzi.

  Karl continued speaking to Luci without looking directly into her eyes, still hiding his gaze from hers, unable to connect with him through his eyes.

  Without hesitation or fear, he stated that, from that moment on, he would do everything necessary so that, if it had to be so, he would be the only one to fall into darkness, along the bloodstained path he would walk from that day forward.

  Karl promised to seek justice not only for Suzi, but also for the future victims of the Oculi from that day onward. Because for Karl, at that moment, his only remaining family was his other younger sister, Karla.

  She was all that remained of the family that had always consisted only of him and his two younger sisters: Karla, the middle one, and Suzi, the youngest.

  Some Years Ahead

  Over the Last 4 Years

  From the Perspective of the Young Karl

  With each attempt Karl made, and each time he closed his eyes in the present, even if only for a single second, his mind would inevitably drag him back to that cursed room of Suzi's.

  The one located inside the hospital where Luci's landlord's father, Mr. Yael, had agreed, after the deal made with Karl and Karla moments earlier, just before Suzi was about to be expelled from the hospital.

  That was because she and her two siblings were poor and could not afford the medical expenses required for little Suzi's care.

  After being taken to the hospital chosen by Yael, little Suzi was quickly led to the beginning of her treatment in the most effective way possible, with the best doctors available to the Sagittarius organization.

  Meanwhile, Karl (11 years old) and Karla (10 years old) fulfilled their side of the deal despite being so young, submitting themselves to the genetic experiments of the Sagittarius organization, in exchange for the continuation of Suzi's treatments, provided that Karl and Karla survived the experiments together.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  It was that same luxurious and renowned hospital where Suzi spent so many months in intensive treatment, having the support and care of Karl and Karla, until the day finally came that marked her last within that room.

  Before her final surgery, where little Suzi could at last reach a life, even if a limited one, outside those four walls, despite her fragile condition.

  Karl, even now at fifteen years old, found himself being forcibly dragged by his own frustrated and enraged mind to witness, before his eyes, his little sister Suzi.

  Just a few meters away from him, lying on the bed where she had spent so many consecutive months, she was slowly falling asleep, smiling while silently shedding tears.

  She did all of this for the last time, for although she wished to keep fighting for her life, her weakened body had reached its limit after so many emergency surgeries in such a short span of treatment.

  That moment, when Suzi smiled so tenderly while crying in silence for the last time, was both a peaceful and painless farewell from little Suzi to her siblings, Karl and his sister, Karla.

  In that moment, even while crying and knowing they could do nothing to change Suzi's fate, the two of them, without thinking twice, chose to hold Suzi's small hand.

  Because she had asked them to hold her hand while she slept for a few "minutes," which would become nothing less than eternal minutes from then on for Karl, who was close to turning fifteen years old.

  Little Suzi, blind and lying on the bed in that room, affirmed to her brother and sister the depth of her love for each of them, her last words being grateful and beautiful.

  They carried a tone of drowsiness that was unbearably painful for Karl and Karla, knowing those would be the last words they would ever hear from her in life, their eyes filled with tears and their chests suffocated by pain.

  Faced with their inability to change what was about to happen before them, all of this would be remembered like a tape being "rewound," not once, but countless times.

  Bringing Karl back, in the present, to that same sensation of pain with every new blink of his eyes, even three months after little Suzi's passing, which in his mind felt like three eternities, standing at the edge of the abyss of his own grieving mind.

  Back to the Past

  Two Months & A Few Days

  After Suzi's Death

  Still at Luci's House

  Now on the Balcony

  Luci could be seen sitting beside Karl on the balcony, listening to his words so firm and determined, while feeling a nostalgic, growing tightness in her chest.

  After feeling that pressure, Luci looked at Karl without any reaction, turning her entire face toward him, not just her eyes.

  Thus, before her fearful gaze, she saw her world stop for a moment, noticing all the colors around her becoming dull and grayish.

  Luci could clearly see in Karl a look she never wanted to see again in anyone she genuinely cared about in her life.

  Because that same look was far too similar to the one she had seen the last time she lost someone important to the darkness.

  That person had been her own mother, who had taken her own life years ago before the eyes of her husband, Yael, and of Luci herself, who was still just a poor, helpless child.

  Luci vividly remembered the moment when her mother, after an intense post-traumatic breakdown, took her father's gun and locked herself in their bedroom, the room where they had slept together for so many years.

  Her mother, locking the door not only with the key but also with the bolt on the wall, prevented Yael from entering to save her, while little Luci, with wide, terrified eyes, watched everything through the mirrored door.

  Then came the flash that momentarily blinded her, and when the world returned, she saw her mother fall to the floor, before what Luci, still so young, could barely understand.

  That red liquid being expelled from her mother's head, where the gun had been pointed against the side of her temple.

  Reflected in her wide eyes was the vision of tiny droplets flying toward the floor and the nearby wall inside that room.

  With a single blink of disbelief into her own past, Luci reopened her eyes in the present, after only one second, as everything had returned so vividly to her mind.

  In Karl, Luci saw the same increasingly tragic destiny emerging. She knew that if she continued to help him, she might prevent the darkness from taking yet another person she cared about.

  Over the last almost three years by Karl's side, Luci had developed a deep connection with him. She felt his pain and fear as clearly as the purest crystal water.

  But she also felt that there was still hope for Karl. Even as his essence gradually lost its white flames, replaced by the black flames of his anger and pain.

  Luci believed she could help Karl rise again. As the night breeze blew once more, Luci noticed that Karl bore on his face a look lost in his dark desires for blind justice, without realizing how much he was surrendering to them.

  At the same time, Luci observed that Karl's lips, which had been slightly trembling before, now revealed a painful smile, surrendered to his merciless desires for revenge against the Oculi.

  Karl tried to hide his inner pain, not wanting to show it to Luci, the one he genuinely cared about, thus letting her see his previously happy expression so she would not worry too much.

  After the moment he had thanked her on the balcony, Karl was holding back with all his strength the tears that longed to run down his face, without Luci noticing, since he was not lying to her, but rather concealing his pain behind a happy expression.

  Luci, at seventeen, was older and emotionally more experienced than Karl, who, at fifteen, was still struggling to understand his own feelings and emotions, not only about himself but also about what Suzi's mourning would mean in the long term.

  While both of them stood at that decisive moment in their lives, now united by a greater feeling, still hidden from them both.

  Luci felt that together they could walk a painful, anguishing, and dark path, but one that would help them rediscover the ember of light within Karl, sitting side by side.

  Instinctively, she extended her hand and placed it over Karl's, which was gripping the arm of the chair tightly. Karl, who had been looking forward, turned his gaze to the side along with his head.

  Then, for a brief instant, his eyes turned completely white, indicating that he had momentarily awakened his full abilities as a hybrid of human and Oculi.

  At that moment, he looked at Luci less as a person and more as a full connection of essences. Tears finally streamed down Karl's face, while Luci gently intertwined her fingers with his.

  Karl felt a sensation unknown to him until then, noticing that Luci was smiling, although with slightly trembling lips, and gazing deeply into his eyes.

  She seemed to clearly see the flames of Karl's essence burning behind his organic existence. Her gaze, sad yet filled with hope, conveyed deep faith in Karl in that painful silence.

  Without realizing it, Luci was also crying as she looked at Karl, incredulous before that expression of pain and hope she saw reflected in his face.

  Taking a deep breath, Luci whispered Karl's name, slowing the world for both of them. Her words, coming from the depths of her heart, echoed as a promise that she would stand by his side from that moment on.

  As she intertwined her hands with Karl's, Luci transmitted a sensation of pressure and rising warmth in her chest. Karl, in turn, felt a great tightness and growing warmth in his own chest upon hearing Luci's words.

  Combined with her smile, while she cried and looked deeply into his eyes, less than a meter away.

  Thus, Luci's words echoed within the young Karl, causing the embers burning inside his chest to make him realize that something had changed between him and Miss Luci.

  [Luci - Caring & Attentive Voice] ...I promise you that I will be your last light, if the world becomes dark before your eyes, Karl. [Deep, emotional sigh] -

  Because he saw beauty and something more intimate and intense when he looked into Luci's eyes before him, combined with the smile that conveyed so much care and affection toward him.

  Which made him instinctively whisper Luci's name, while feeling something too new for him to understand, not only burning within him, but making his entire body feel numb.

  A Few Minutes Earlier

  Still Inside That Forest

  Near Luci's House

  In front of one of the tallest trees in that place, a young girl with long hair could be seen, sitting on one of the branches of that great tree, close to Miss Luci's house.

  This mysterious young girl seemed to be formed from negative flames, which emitted neither light nor heat. She had the appearance of a small girl, approximately thirteen years old.

  She sat calmly on one of the branches of the large tree, gently swinging her feet in a manner that was clearly playful and excited, yet restrained for some mysterious reason.

  At the same time, she observed Karl and Luci, who were so absorbed in their conversation that they did not notice they were being watched by this girl. She was less than twenty meters from the house, hidden within the forest.

  This young girl seemed to have no face upon her head, although her form was visibly youthful. Her body, clearly bearing the physical aspects of a thirteen-year-old girl, was nothing more than a specter of negative flames.

  A flame that appeared to burn softly as the breeze passed through the place, causing her long hair, also formed of flames, to dance gently in the wind.

  A faint residual ember was created in the air, coming from her body, which seemed to drift along with the soft breeze, fading and extinguishing itself less than a meter away.

  Her spectral body did not glow brightly enough to illuminate the leaves of the trees around her, even though she was seated on a branch higher than most of the nearby trees.

  The young girl looked toward Karl and Luci, who were still talking on the balcony of the house, while in front of them a small campfire burned, lighting the darkness of the night with its glow.

  However, she did not look at them both in the same way; her attention seemed far more focused on Karl than on Luci. She appeared to perceive the world differently, especially in relation to him.

  She did not observe the world as humans or the Oculi normally did with their eyes. Her vision of reality was strangely unique.

  For she did not see the world as something physical, but as something beyond existence itself, more focused on the essence behind any being that breathed around her in that place.

  She let out what seemed to be a restrained laugh, visibly curious as she noticed a significant change in Karl's essence while he spoke with Luci beside him on the balcony.

  Immediately, she subtly moved one of her hands forward, toward Karl, producing a single echoing snap of her fingers that caused the entire world around her to take on completely negative tones.

  The temporal flow no longer followed its normal course, as it seemed to have been forced by the girl to slow down so abruptly that seconds were transformed into microseconds.

  With the movement of her left arm, which had previously been extended forward and now gently shifted to the side, something extremely intriguing began to happen-something that any human being, or even an Oculi, would consider fascinating to witness.