"...Aina?"
Harith's voice trembled in the empty space.
The wind blowing on his face was not the wind of the shadow world,
but it was not from the human world either.
He now stood on the border of two realities... in the place where shadows began to speak and light began to lie.
The sky was split in two.
One side was black as ink, the other was gray-white, wrinkled like a cracked mirror.
Harith looked down, seeing himself in the imperfect reflection of glass.
In that reflection, he was no longer the same Harith.
His eyes were now two colors... one pitch black, one glowing golden.
"You have become a true mediator."
Rai's voice was heard, but this time it was not outside, it came from inside Harith's head.
"The human world is cracking. You have to choose whether to close the door completely or let this new world be born."
Harith bowed.
His hand was still bleeding with the same blood he had used to open the door earlier.
But when he looked, the blood shone, forming strange writing on his skin
"One must disappear for two to remain."
He clasped his hands.
"If I choose to close, all the shadows will disappear. But if I let this new world be born, humans will lose themselves…"
"There are no pure choices," Rai replied. "Only choices that can bear sin."
---
RETURN TO THE HUMAN WORLD
Suddenly the sky was broken by light.
Harith fell as if sucked into a vortex and when his eyes opened again, he was in his old room.
But the outside world was silent.
The clock on the wall stopped at 3:27 in the morning.
The same time when he first saw "shadows" in the hospital.
He got up slowly, opening the door to his room. The hallway of his house was dark,
but every mirror, window, and wall reflected the shadow of a human watching.
Everyone whispered one name
"Harith Hadami… the heir to the eclipse…"
Harith screamed, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"
The shadows retreated simultaneously, forming a silhouette
of a woman, standing at the end of the hallway.
Her face was vague, but her voice was clear.
"Harith… I didn't disappear. I was just on the other side."
Harith's tears fell.
"Aina…"
He took a step forward, but with each step, Aina's body faded.
"I can only appear when you are about to die. This world rejects me, but your heart still calls me back."
Harith tried to hold Aina's shadow's hand, but it broke through.
"I will find a way. I will bring you back."
Aina smiled sadly.
"If you do that, this world will be destroyed. Two energies… one light, one shadow cannot exist at the same time."
Harith replied in a hoarse voice,
"Let the world be destroyed, as long as you return."
---
ECLIPSE ATTACK
The sky outside began to crack.
Shadows from the entire city emerged from the surface of the earth,
entering houses, mirrors, windows. All headed towards Harith.
They called him like a king.
"Our master… the unifier of the eclipse…"
"The human world no longer deserves to have light."
Rai emerged from the mirror, this time his body half human, half smoke.
"Harith, you have to stop them! This world is going to collapse!"
Harith screamed, "How can I stop something I created myself?!"
Rai looked at Harith, his face sad.
"You can't stop it. But you can control it."
"How?!"
"By accepting who you really are."
---
A MEETING OF TWO SOULS
Harith's shadow began to stand behind him.
His body was pitch black, his eyes empty.
"I am the half you rejected. Without me, you are weak. Without you, I am wild."
"What do you want?"
"I want an honest world. A world where people don't have to hide behind their false light."
Harith stood up, facing his own shadow.
"If you want an honest world, you have to start with me."
He stepped forward and hugged his own shadow.
The entire world shook.
The shadow and the light began to merge, forming an explosion of golden black light.
Rai screamed,
"HARITH! YOU CAN'T COME BACK IF YOU CONTINUE!"
But Harith just smiled.
"If Aina can disappear for the sake of the world, so can I."
Light erupted.
The sky turned pure white.
The shadow disappeared.
All voices disappeared.
---
A NEW DAWN
The next morning. The world woke up not knowing what had happened.
The eclipse was gone.
The sky was clear, but in the middle of the city, on the collapsed wall of an old hospital,
a symbol of a partial eclipse was carved.
And underneath, written in congealed blood
"Heart Of Shadow – Harith Hadami."