She was running.
"A monster is behind me."
She kept repeating it, her voice growing weaker each time.
She wasn't asking for help. She wasn't screaming.
She was only stating it.
"A monster is behind me."
"She lives that way," Helmut said. He was unusually excited to introduce me to her. His smile didn't reflect that he had murdered someone the day before.
We reached her hut and knocked. She opened the door.
"Hel—"
She hugged Helmut tightly and broke down. "You're alive. They told me you were dead. They said you misbehaved with Sepion."
"You see," Helmut said, "she's my friend."
"You seem like more than just friends," I said.
She looked at him. "Talk to me. Where were you?"
"Let us come inside," Helmut said. "I'll tell you everything."
We went inside, but she didn't spare me a single glance.
"Tell me now," she said. "What happened?"
Then she noticed me.
"And who is he?"
"He's Cael Noland," Helmut said. "And Cael—she's Kio Agawa."
I explained everything. Not gently. Not carefully. Just the truth.
She listened in silence.
When I finished, she asked, "How do you intend to save us?"
"I don't know how," I said. "But I can. And I will."
There was a strange discontent on her face, as if something about me unsettled her.
"Helmut told me you're a good fighter," I said. "I want you on my team."
"I still don't get it," she said. "How would you surpass them?"
"Because I know them," I replied. "Maybe not everything—but far more than you do."
"I don't want to die," she said. "I just want to live the rest of my life peacefully with Helmut."
"Helmut's hands are already stained with blood," I said. "Any peace inside him ended the moment he stole that knife."
"Kio, believe me," Helmut said. "I haven't taken a wrong step. We have a chance to be free. To do everything we've only heard about in stories."
She shook her head. "What if this man betrays us? I don't believe in him."
"Not believing in him doesn't give us a better life," Helmut said quietly. "Believing does. Even if it's just a little."
He looked at her. "I believe in him for that one percent chance."
She stared at me.
"I'll come because Helmut is," she said. "But if anything ever happens to him, I'll kill you without hesitation."
"Helmut will be safe," I said. "I promise."
That was the first lie I told her.
We spent the rest of the day inside the hut. When it was time to line up for bread, Kio whispered to Helmut, "Sepion might recognize you. We'll split the bread and milk in half."
We joined the line.
There was a man standing right in front of me.
It was the right time to begin my plan.
The moon was high. Full. Red.
The wind moved gently through the line.
"Hey," I said softly. "You look twenty-five."
"Huh?"
"You're going to be sacrificed tomorrow."
"So what?"
"Don't you know?" I said. "After you're taken, they torture your family in public. They say they're no use anymore."
"What the hell are you saying, brat?"
I placed a knife in his hand.
"Why don't you just kill Sepion?"
"What are you—"
Kio was standing behind me.
"Hey, Cael," she said. "What happened?"
The man turned and looked at me.
"Are you… a monst—"
He didn't finish.
He gripped the knife and ran toward Sepion.
Then came a scream.
Sepion staggered back, blood spilling across his chest. It was the first time I had ever seen Percepian blood.
It looked the same as ours.
The man had missed the throat.
I looked at Kio.
The moon was red. Full.
And somewhere between one breath and the next, I had become something else.
She stepped back.
"A monster," she whispered.
Sepion was shouting now, trying to control the crowd. The screens blared warnings. Percepians hated loud noise.
Sepion pulled the knife out of his shoulder.
"Why did you try to kill me?" he asked calmly.
"It wasn't me," the man said. He wasn't trembling. "It was a monster. A demon."
He pointed at me.
"Far more of a demon than you," he said. "I saw him. And I'm not afraid of you."
Sepion placed his hand above the man's head.
The man didn't scream.
His body collapsed as Sepion absorbed his life, converting it into energy. The air warped. Heat folded inward. A sphere formed in Sepion's palm.
Nuclear.
I had seen it before.
I grabbed Kio and pulled her into a narrow space, beyond the reach of the moonlight.
The explosion came a second later.
The sound was sharp. Too sharp. Like the world tearing itself open.
Screams. More screams. Chaos everywhere.
Kio collapsed, the noise and heat overwhelming her.
Helmut came running out of his hut.
"Kio!" he shouted. "Kio!"
Smoke rolled through the street. People ran without direction, crashing into each other. Some were on fire. Some were screaming names that wouldn't be answered. Screens flickered and died. The line no longer existed—only bodies, shadows, and noise.
Helmut staggered forward, shielding his face.
A man fell right in front of him.
He didn't get up.
I carried Kio out of the hut. She was half-conscious.
"Is Helmut safe?" she asked weakly.
"Yeah," I said. "He is."
Sepion's voice cut through the smoke.
"Where did this man get the knife from?" he shouted. "I will ask again. If you care for your life—and your family's—tell me."
I set Kio down.
"It was her," I said.
The noise stopped.
Kio looked at me, terrified.
"Helmut… you trust hi—"
"Are you telling the truth?" Sepion shouted.
"Yes," I said. "She was behind me. The man was in front of me. She gave him the knife."
Kio ran.
Through the smoke. Through the noise. Through the darkness. She ran like escape was still possible.
But this was the Blood Moon. And chaos, once born, could not be stopped.
This was the first step toward humanity's survival.
As she ran, she kept speaking. Not screaming. Not calling for help.
"A monster is behind me."
Again and again.
Until she fell.