I woke up... and there he was. The man from the cigarette stall. The architect of my agony. How? How did he manage to break me so easily?
He moved toward me, his voice a cold slither of pride:
"Welcome to my world... 'The White Lab.' How was the experience… Tai?"
My name. He spit it out like it belonged to him. I never told him. I am a ghost, a man without a face or a past—how could he see me?
He spoke with that nauseating, intellectual tone:
"Wondering how I know you? You're transparent. I don't need a crisis to know who you are. You're an open book. Word is out—there's a 3-million-dollar bounty on your head. Didn't Saka tell you?"
I looked at Saka. His head was bowed, heavy with a silence that tasted like betrayal. My chest felt like it was collapsing. I started screaming—not at the vendor, but at the only anchor I had left:
"Saka… why? Why didn't you tell me? I was right there with you! In that hospital room... I was your shadow! Why keep me in the dark? Am I not your apprentice?"
Saka didn't look up. His voice was a flat, dead line:
"You're not my apprentice. You're just something I found... lying in the street like trash."
My blood turned to ice. My skin crawled with the ghost of every insult I'd ever heard. My eyes went empty. He sold me. He threw me away. No—no, not again. Not the street. Please, Saka, don't leave me. I can't go back to the void. I can't be alone. I hate the dark. Please... tell me this is a joke. Tell me I'm worth something.
The vendor's laughter cut through my despair, jagged and sharp:
"Looks like he threw you away again. So... is there any point in even killing you now?"
I said nothing. My throat was locked, but my eyes... my eyes were screaming.
Saka replied, his voice devoid of hope:
"Yes. Killing him is a waste of your time. Leave him be. Kill me instead."
Kill you? Saka dies? Is this how it ends? Does he deserve to rot here too?
Suddenly, a voice—my voice, but older, darker—echoed inside my skull:
"You… you pathetic, small thing. You're the one who crawled into this trap. You have the power to kill him. End him."
"Can you... can you just take the lead?" I whispered to the void inside me.
The voice laughed—a sound like glass breaking:
"You fool. You are me. You're the bleeding heart... I am the mind that stops the pain."
In that moment, I felt my soul splinter. I was weak. I was nothing.
It spoke again, demanding:
"Stop being a victim. If you're willing to sacrifice every piece of yourself to save him... you'll find the exit. Now, hunt."
I dragged my body up.
"It's useless," the man sneered. "Those chains are real."
I didn't care. I started grinding my wrists against the cold iron. I felt my skin peel away like paper. Blood began to slick the floor. The man's face twisted in fear—he ran to stop me.
I didn't stop. I tore my hands through the metal, leaving my flesh behind. I lunged for the bag, bit into the last adrenaline needle with my teeth, and slammed it into my veins. Darkness swallowed me. I hit the ground face-first—a corpse.
The man cackled:
"He killed himself. Pathetic brat. Trash stays trash."
But in the blackness, a light flared. My inner voice was laughing, almost impressed:
"Impossible… you actually did it. I didn't think you had the stomach for this. I hope you're ready for the price."
The man was still laughing when I rose. My eyes were twin pools of blood.
I rose as if I had died… and something else was now pulling my strings.
He drew his gun, but in a blur, I whipped out the wires—those silver threads from that obsessed freak's lab. He tried to aim at Saka, but I shredded his weapon before he could even blink. His confidence evaporated into pure, primal terror. In that heavy, suffocating air, I roared:
"I came back from the dead just to kill you! I'll make you regret ever looking at me!"
A reflection in the glass. Behind me. A sniper.
The shot rang out. I dodged, but the bullet tore into Saka, right below his heart. I looked at Saka and let out a howl that wasn't human. My gaze locked onto the sniper. He felt the chill of the grave. He tried to flee, but I sliced through his path and he slammed into the earth.
Through the rising dust, I reached the vendor. I didn't just kill him—I carved him open, from his neck down to his feet, and kicked his head aside like the waste he was.
I ran to Saka. The dust cleared for a split second. Another shot. I threw my body in the way, a human shield for a man who called me trash. The bullet ripped through my stomach and buried itself in Saka's ribs.
Saka was fading. His time was a leaking wound. I screamed and charged at the sniper. And there he was. The man who sold me sandwiches in the park.
I stopped. For one agonizing second, I just stared.
"You… the park... you're him, aren't you?"
He looked at me, cold: "Yeah. It's me. Did I disappoint you?"
My eyes drowned in the shadows. I didn't kill him. I tore him into pieces.
(End of Chapter 23)