Understanding and having are different things.

  A psychopath is born without emotions, yet it’s possible for them to understand feelings, to mimic them. And just because a being has no feelings doesn’t mean it will become a murderer.

  In Shadow’s case, the exposure to raw emotions at such a newly-born state of existence—well...

  His form, something that had been condensing ever since his birth, that dark structure constantly shifting between a human-like shadow and other ungraspable shapes, now vibrated in a peculiar way. Its frequency resembled Charles’s heartbeat—but inverted. And that intensity was rising, fast, uncontrolbly.

  Shadow’s “mind”—whatever allowed him to think abstractly—was overwhelmed. The memories of feeling those raw emotions... he couldn’t process them. It was too much. Excessive.

  His body, his shadow, acted without his control.

  And yet, he could still think.

  Shadow didn’t feel anger—not really. He barely understood it. Most of Charles’s memories were a blur to him. But that overwhelming hatred, focused on a single person—that, he didn’t forget. And he understood it.

  But no matter how much he understood it, sometimes understanding something doesn’t mean you can act on it.

  His shadow no longer belonged to him. If something that was already just a shadow—a fragment, a remnant of a phenomenon—loses the only thing it had left... What remains?

  In that instant, Shadow didn’t just comprehend.

  He felt.

  His body had already started reacting—but now his mind felt it too.

  Fear.

  As he felt it all, his body pulsed with bizarre frequencies, faster, stronger, building.

  Todooo.Todoo.Todo.Do...

  The heart beside him, which had been beating with a calm, steady rhythm...

  Stopped.