Silence reigned as Ace gave no response to Emilia's question.
"A-Ace?" Emilia called out, her heart beating from anxiety as the realization dawned on her.
"Hey, Ace," Emilia continued, rising up from the bed as she slowly approached Ace one step at a time.
"Ace," Emilia finally reached the couch.
The sight made her gasp as she took an abrupt step back.
Ace had bags under his eyes. His face was pale, and his eyes were dark and empty as if you could drown in their deep darkness.
"How did you know?" Ace turned his head towards her, his gaze landing upon her. "I thought I had hidden it pretty well."
The tone in which he spoke unsettled Emilia even more. The calm and almost uncaring way he talked about it was unnerving.
"Hahaha…" Ace's chuckles turned into maniacal laugh he could no longer hold back.
"Eh?" Emilia had a drop of cold sweat running down her face, her expression completely dumbfounded. 'Ace is… laughing?'
"Haaah…" Ace exhaled deeply. "I kind of guessed that you were the perceptive type, but I didn't expect that you'd actually manage to read me like you did."
Emilia looked into his eyes with horror. The small smile etched on Ace's lips contrasting wildly with his gaze to the point that the horrifying expression he had couldn't have been considered something a normal human being could make.
"But let me ask you this," Ace started, his tone carrying no amusement, falsehood or doubt. "Do you believe in ghosts?"
"W-what?" Emilia was taken aback by Ace's question, slightly forget the unsettling emotion she felt in his presence.
"I asked if you believed in ghosts," Ace clarified.
"What are you…?" Emilia was still confused.
"I tend to believe that they do exist," Ace started developing his words. "You can't see them, nor can you touch them, but they're always there behind you, watching and haunting you at every waking moment. Kind of annoying don't you think?"
"They just stay right there. Whispering in your ear as if they didn't have anything else to do of their fucking time. They repeat the same thing over and over again until you grow sick of it. Frankly, I find it annoying. Exhausting even."
Ace glanced at Emilia, his cold and empty gaze seeming to peer into her very soul.
"And then there are people like you. People like Chris, Frank, Mira, Deker, people who have a life. But then it hit me. What is life anyway? You asked me if I wanted to die earlier but let me answer you with another question. Would you even call it dying when you've never had any attachment to life itself? When even your life has never been yours from the beginning."
"Huh? What do you…?" Emilia got more and more confused. "No attachments. But…"
"But what?" Ace cut in on her. "I've got family, friends, goals. I'm sorry to tell you this but I have no idea what you're going on about."
"What use is family? They're only strangers who took me in. It might even be more accurate to say that they're my wardens. And whether it'd be you, Frank or Mira, I've never seen you as friends. Just pieces to help me fit in."
Every word that came out of Ace's mouth was like a knife that pierced and destroyed anything Emilia thought she knew about him. But at the same time, it was like puzzle pieces were coming together in her mind, bringing her to a realization that was far darker than what she could have expected.
"From the very first day I opened my eyes in this world, I've only ever done one thing: survive. Survive each day. I followed what that voice told me to do and did whatever it took to survive. But at some point, even that became dull. So then, why am I even here in the first place? I don't get it. What that voice wants, what the system wants… I just don't get it," Ace's words made no sense to Emilia who was in total confusion and realization of Ace's words.
"At some point, I just stopped caring altogether. Who cares about some dead ghost that's on repeat? Who cares about what the system wants from? Who cares about this world full of brainless sheep? Who cares about any of all of that at all talk of revenge and what not?" Ace gaze locked onto Emilia, his final statement feeling like a wall being demolished.
"So answer me Emi. What is this thing you call life anyway?" Ace's expression was blank and dark as he asked that question.
Was it a realization? Or was it the breakdown of a delusion constructed from false understanding?
Whatever the case, Emilia had got an insight into who Ace was. No. What he was and how he saw the world around him.
'I was wrong,' Emilia thought, an unknown impulse starting to well towards its breaking point within her. 'I thought Ace was cold, pragmatic or even distant at times. But I was wrong.'
While Ace, with an expression looking like that of a dead man, seemed to wait for an answer, Emilia's thoughts raced.
'I always thought that he was the way he was because that's how he chose to be. But I was also wrong. To him, everything around him was a distraction. Something to take his mind off whatever gnawed at him. I thought I was fine being used. That if I did, I would get stronger and get one step closer to my revenge, but that… was also just my own delusion.'
At that moment, she saw all of Ace's actions in a new light. However kind he acted sometimes, however polite he seemed, it was all just a continuous succession of whims to fit in. Distractions that held no significance or importance in his eyes.
'What a fool I've been,' Emilia slowly started reaching her breaking point as she slowly advanced step-by-step towards Ace. 'He never cared about others' lives because they held no weight in his eyes. He's logical because he never felt anything to begin with. Somewhere I even trusted the version of him I saw, thinking that's who he is and he'll never change. That with help, my revenge wasn't just a pipe dream. But…'
Emilia stood in front of Ace who felt the anger that was seeping from every pore of her body.
'Even on that day, he only spared me because he wanted me to kill him someday. I was just another distraction for him. An experiment he trained, born from one of his whims.'
"So, what's your…" Ace started before being stung by pain on his cheek, leaving him stunned in surprise with eyes slightly widened.
"You…" Emilia took him by the collar with both hands, her teary eyes filled with a mix of anger and strange determination never letting her tears run down. "You want to die? After everything I've been through, everything I endured to get to where I am… you're telling me to do you the favor of letting you die?"
"I refuse," her fierce eyes locked with Ace's, his expression still stunned as if completely frozen. "Until the day I get my revenge, I won't let you die… Not until I say otherwise. You'll live for me and die for me. From now on, your life will belong to me and me alone."