I grabbed Jester by the collar and slammed him against the wall, my voice cracking with rage:
"Tell me why. Why did you stop me back then? You told me to spare him. You saved Adam's life just so you could torture him yourself—and now you want me to kill him?"
Jester's smile vanished.His eyes dimmed into something pitch-black.
"Sammail," he said quietly, "back then, you didn't want to kill him. You wanted to destroy him. Slowly. You wanted him begging. You wanted revenge. So I simply… did it for you."A smirk curled his lips."And besides—you would've broken mentally if you did it at the time. You're still human… the one species you love to pretend you despise."
My voice hollowed.
"Aren't we all human? Devils, humans, the fallen—we all kill out of anger, despair, or pure malice. So how am I any different from any of you?"
Jester burst into laughter, the sound scraping my ears.I shoved him to the floor.
"What the hell are you laughing at?"
He got up slowly, smile widening like a tear in the world.
"You want the difference?"He pointed toward Adam."You still fear him. Even in this state. You won't even look him in the eyes."
He lit a cigarette casually, inhaling until the ember breathed bright.
"I've lived thousands of years, Sammail," he said softly. "And I have never—never—seen a soul more broken than yours."
He stepped closer.
"You haven't changed at all. You just think you have. But the truth? You know nothing. Not about yourself. Not about your sin. Not about who you are."
My hands trembled uncontrollably.
My vision blurred.
My bones felt like they were dissolving inside me.
Losing control again.
Of course.
"It's pathetic," Jester whispered. "You still can't control your shifting."
That damn clown.
—
I blinked—and the world changed.
I was in my old house again.
Not as Corruption.
As the child I once was.
I knew this room too well.
The dark room.
Not because it was physically dark—
but because every time my father finished with me,
my eyes would refuse to see light for a while.
He stood there, exactly as he used to.Leather belt in hand.Rage in his eyes.
"Sammail," he snapped, "you scored 15 out of 30 again.You didn't pray as I told you.And your hair—are you a girl? You look just like your mother."
I smirked hollowly.
"You could just say you miss her," I said. "You're not fooling anyone. Not after what she did to you."
His hand cracked across my face.
"Since when do you talk back?"He slapped me again, stepped closer, breathing heavy."You're nothing like your mother. Just an empty shell that reeks of sadness."
Then he smiled—that disgusting smile—and licked the side of my face.
"But maybe you can help your father… get past his loneliness. We both lost someone dear, didn't we?"
His hand slid lower.
I grinned.
"Not an illusion," I whispered. "Wonderful."
Because if it were Jester's illusion, I would've been able to break it.
But here?I was powerless.
Forced to relive it—exactly as it happened.
He touched me everywhere.
I couldn't move.
Couldn't speak.
Just breathe.
Just feel.
And remember.
When I was nine, I didn't understand what he was doing.Doctors said my mind repressed the memories to protect me.
What a joke.My mind wasn't protecting me now.
He broke my hands when I tried to attack him.I screamed.Bit him.Kicked him.
Nothing mattered.
Hypocrite.Praying every night while doing this to his own child.
My eyes started glowing again.My bones tried to regenerate.He just broke them again and again.
The pain—
the real pain—
Not physical.The kind that grows inside your heart and eats it alive.
After an hour, he got tired.Of course he did.
He lit a cigarette, back facing me.
Like I was nothing.
Nothing but a whore.
How could he?
How dare he?
My eyes glowed black and red.
Horns formed like blades.
My shattered hands twisted back into claws.
I lunged at him.
I laughed as I ripped him apart—
the same way I wished I had done back then.
His screams—
a melody.
A lullaby for monsters like me.
When I crushed his ribs and tore out his heart, he whispered:
"Thank you…"
And then—
Darkness.
I was back in the shapeless room.
Adam's heart was in my hands.
Blood everywhere.
My reflection stared back from the floor—
hideous, monstrous,
exactly what I am.
I threw his heart away and collapsed into the pool of blood,
screaming without tears,
like a child begging for help.
My scream shattered the room like glass.
I swear Heaven and Hell both heard me.
But, of course—no one came.
I awoke at my mother's cliff,
covered in blood,
as hollow as a corpse.
And then I saw her.
My mother.