He shouldn't have seen her again.And yet, he did.Twice. By chance, he said. But Sylus didn't believe in chance. Not any more than he believed in redemption.
For years, he had lived in a world of numbers and deals, of men in suits and false smiles. Nothing surprised him anymore. Nothing, until that gaze.
The gaze of a girl with dark eyes, too young, too honest.Catarina.
He hadn't asked questions, hadn't tried to find out where she came from.But there was something dangerous in her voice, a reckless lightness, an innocence that wasn't truly innocent anymore.
And that night, walking home alone, he found himself thinking about her laugh.A clear, misplaced laugh that cracked the silence he had imposed on himself for far too long.
He hated himself for it.For this sudden weakness.For this absurd turmoil.
The next day, he signed three contracts, attended two meetings, shook ten hands.Everything seemed normal.
Until, passing a shop window, he thought he saw her.And his heart, cold, disciplined muscle skipped a beat.
It was ridiculous.She was just a girl.But that was the problem. She was a girl.
He saw her again two days later, in that café he usually hid in to escape the world's noise.She walked in, like a mistake of fate.A familiar scent, a smile he would have preferred to forget.
When she sat across from him, he felt the boundaries crack.She talked too much, with that ease only those who ignore danger possess.And he listened too much, with the focus of someone who already knows he's about to fall.
"Maybe both," he had said.
In that instant, he understood.She was going to be a problem.And he wouldn't do a thing to stop it.
That night, he walked her part of the way.Not home, just far enough to tell himself he still had a choice.
She spoke of her dreams, her desires, of freedom.He stayed silent.
Every word she uttered seemed to awaken an echo in his chest, a memory from before, before the responsibilities, before the lies, before the solitude.
He knew it was wrong.But sometimes, wrong tastes like salvation.
When she told him her name, he felt something twist inside him.Catarina.
A name he repeated in his mind, like a prayer already doomed.
"Sylus," he answered simply.
And in saying that name, he knew he had sealed his fate.Because sins, real sins, never begin with flesh.They begin with a look.
And that look had just cost him his soul.