"With a sincere smile, he said goodbye."
The woman with teary eyes gently closed the book after reading the last line. For a moment she remained looking at the cover, processing the ending of that story. Then she raised her gaze toward the boy who was in front of her.
"What did you think of the story, son?"
The pale boy took a moment to respond.
"Very sad, Mom. It seems very unfair to me that he suffered so much only to not have a happy ending," he said while a tear fell down his cheek. "Besides, no one will remember him. No one knows what his real face was… and now that his body completely disappeared, it is as if he had never existed."
The boy slightly clenched his hands over his legs before continuing.
"For the world, he was the enemy of humanity… and even so he ended up being its savior. He sacrificed himself not only for those he loved, but also for those who always rejected his existence… it is something too sad."
The woman observed him for a few seconds. Then she slowly approached her son, wanting to give him a little affection, the same affection that the character in the story never had.
"It may be unfair, but that is also justice. And it was precisely what he sought throughout his entire life."
The woman lowered her gaze a little while remembering the ending of the story.
"Although it is also true how cruel his destiny was. It is distressing to imagine how someone slowly fades away, feeling that life is escaping from him while no one can help him… and when he finally dies, not even his body finds rest."
The woman's eyes began to fill with tears.
"But son, I did not read you this story so that you would only keep thinking about how sad his ending was," she gently wiped her eyes with her hands. "I told it to you so that you would understand that, even in your worst moments, you must never give up. Sometimes destiny seems determined to always place you on the most difficult path, as if everything were against you. But remember something: you do not decide the situations you have to face. Many times that is out of your hands. What you do decide is who you will be when that moment arrives. That is why, son… do not see this story as a sad ending. See it as a happy ending… even if it hurt."
The pale boy, who just seconds ago was crushed by the destiny of that character, slowly raised his gaze. His mother's words had changed something inside him, as if a small light had appeared in the middle of his thoughts.
"Yes, Mom."
The woman gave him a slight smile before adding with a loving voice.
"Now come out of that darkness. No one is going to come and open the door for you. You will be the one who has to do it."
Ren, completely broken by Miya's words, saw that memory again through his eyes clouded by tears, until in the middle of a curve something different began to be born inside him.
A small trace of courage.
The courage to face what destiny itself had prepared for his life.
For several seconds he said nothing. He only breathed with difficulty while watching the road disappear into the fog.
In the middle of that silence, something inside him struggled to come out.
Violent thoughts began to arise in his head, filled with rage and the desire to hurt her as much as she had hurt the others. However, until that moment he had always stopped because of fear, guilt, and exhaustion.
But now it seemed different.
"I also feel like disfiguring the face of the girl you call friend…" Miya said with a crooked smile while looking at the road. "That woman who was with your father."
"You will not do it," Ren replied.
Those three words fell like a law.
Miya's eyes opened in surprise and slowly turned toward him. For an instant she did not know what to think, because that voice and that way of speaking were not those of the Ren she had known.
The person she loved the most had just shown a will that she did not expect.
But instead of getting angry, a smile began to form on her face. A smile full of emotion.
"All right…" she whispered with almost childish joy. "But then tell me that you love me. Say it, Ren!"
Ren barely lifted his gaze.
His eyes were no longer empty.
"I do not love you, I hate you, Miya."
Ren's voice came out so calm that for a moment it seemed to freeze the air inside the car. There was no rage in his tone, nor fear.
Only firmness.
Miya's smile broke.
"No…" she whispered, slowly shaking her head while her eyes began to fill with tears. "Please… do not say that… Not that…!"
"I hate you," Ren repeated with the same calm.
That second time was enough for Miya's breathing to become irregular and for her hands to begin trembling over the steering wheel.
For years she had built a reality in her mind where Ren was by her side, being hers, where everything she had done had a purpose.
But those words were destroying all of that.
"Shut up…! Do not say that!"
Ren did not respond.
He only looked at her.
That silent gaze finished pushing her to the edge.
But Miya would not allow herself to fall into the void, not like that.
The girl with the tattoo clenched her teeth.
"Then listen carefully to what I am going to say. I will kill Yaina. Also your father. And when you see how I destroy every memory you keep of your mother… I will also kill your conscience. And if even then you dare to answer me… I will dig up the body of your progenitor and leave it for the vultures, as if it were carrion. Let's see if that way you grow wings to answer me."
The interior of the car was wrapped in silence.
Only the wheels of the car in motion and the slow breathing of the pale boy could be heard.
Suddenly, Ren lunged forward, crossing the space between the two seats and grabbing the steering wheel with both hands to take it away from her.
"What are you doing?!" Miya shouted.
The car shook violently.
Miya reacted immediately, trying to regain control while struggling with Ren.
"Let go of the wheel!"
The tires screeched against the asphalt as the vehicle zigzagged dangerously.
All this time, Miya had always been stronger than Ren. She had always dominated every confrontation between them, whether physical or emotional.
But this time something was different.
Ren was not fighting to win.
He was fighting to end everything.
With a strength that even he himself did not know he had, he pushed the wheel to the right, where the road ended in the darkness of a deep cliff.
Miya saw it and screamed.
"No, don't do it, Ren!"
In desperation she tried to recover the wheel, but Ren did not stop, because he had accepted the ending he had decided.
The car crossed the last safety line of the road and, an instant later, was suspended in the air over the void.
Miya looked at Ren with eyes full of panic.
Ren, on the other hand, was in absolute calm, ready to pronounce his final words.
"Until death separates us."
Perhaps the memories they had shared with Yina had also remained in the darkness of the cliff, but that was not the case. Those moments with her had been happy, and although that made him an idiot, he could not help but smile.
Chapter 39: 30 Days