After sitting for a long time, lost in a whirl of questions, Dan rose like an arrow aimlessly. His legs unconsciously carried him to the place of his fall, to the restaurant where he had left his body soaked in blood.
As he approached, he saw a crowd of people gathered, and the Third Authority surrounding the place. The sounds of screaming pierced his ears, but one scream broke his heart the louder it rose... his mother's scream, mixed with the voice of his sister, Lyra. The wailing was tearing at his soul more than the stab wounds had done to his five.
Dan stood frozen, clutching his chest as his heart ached more than the pain of the daggers, or the savage smiles as they rained down on him mercilessly. What truly hurt him was seeing his family crumble because of him, his recklessness, his disregard for a world he had never taken seriously.
Then his eyes fell on his father. There was no talking to his sister, no screaming or crying.
He was sitting at a distance, his whole body trembling as he clutched a broken bottle in his hand, until blood flowed from his palm like a waterfall, dripping onto the ground in silence.
Dan took a step forward... then stopped.
He remembered the look his father had given him when he saw him in the strange body.
How would he approach them now? Would he tell them he was Dan? But he was no longer Dan. He was no longer their father. He was no longer a part of this house.
He had become something else.
A ghost.
An entity suspended between life and death.
He whispered to himself as he turned his face away from his shattered family.
Death is my enemy now.