People on the bridge had begun to move about again. Evening had almost fallen, but this time the atmosphere was calmer. The barrier had finally been repaired, and the relief was clearly visible on people’s faces.

  Suddenly, a blue light caught ?lyara’s attention. It rose from the ground all the way into the sky, then vanished a few seconds later.

  The barrier must have been reactivated, she thought.

  She turned her focus back to the man on the bridge. The closer she walked toward him, the more her hands trembled.

  “Calm down,” she whispered to herself. “It’s just a test… It’s not like it will actually work.”

  She clasped her trembling hands behind her back.

  Just then, something happened.

  She felt him.

  Sorrow.

  A heavy, crushing emotion settled onto her chest. It was as if a massive door had opened inside her and a freezing emptiness had poured in.

  This is just empathy, she told herself. People get sad. That’s normal.

  She could control this.

  To know…

  To test it…

  She slowly approached the man.

  He didn’t lift his head.

  “U-um… excuse me,” ?lyara said. Her voice came out quieter than she expected.

  She cleared her throat.

  “Excuse me, are you alright?”

  This time she sounded more confident.

  But the man didn’t even look at her. He seemed completely lost in his thoughts.

  ?lyara cleared her throat again.

  “Excuse me!”

  Her voice echoed across the bridge this time. A few people passing by turned to look at her.

  ?lyara lowered her head in embarrassment, then looked back at the man.

  Nothing had changed.The man still hadn’t raised his head. As if he hadn’t heard her at all.

  This angered her. She couldn’t stand being ignored. Determined, she reached out her hand.

  “Excuse me—”

  The moment her fingers touched the man’s arm, the world shifted.

  Suddenly, she found herself in a cold room.

  Darkness surrounded her. The air smelled damp.

  Across from her, a small child sat with his knees drawn up to his chest. His thin shoulders trembled.

  He was hungry.

  The man’s hands were empty. There was nothing on the table.

  The child lifted his head.

  “Dad…”

  His voice was weak.

  The man couldn’t answer, because he had nothing to give.

  That child was the only thing the man had.

  The only reason he had left to live.

  ?lyara didn’t know how this was possible, yet she felt that it was true.

  Suddenly, the vision shattered.

  ?lyara staggered backward. Her breath caught in her throat. But the feeling hadn’t disappeared.

  On the contrary, it was inside her.

  Hunger.

  Inadequacy.

  Shame.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  And heavier than all of them… that pure love.

  ?lyara had never felt a love like this before. The weight of it settled deep in her chest. When she realized the thought forming in her mind, even she flinched.

  She wanted to feel that emotion a little longer.

  The man slowly rose to his feet and stepped onto the cold iron railing. People on the bridge froze. Everyone held their breath as they watched him.

  ?lyara’s fingers trembled.

  Something felt… missing.

  The man’s eyes stared into the void. The sadness that had been there only moments ago was gone.

  Nothing remained.

  When ?lyara realized the man had straightened on the railing, her heart nearly stopped.

  “Wait—”

  The word died on her lips.

  Without hesitation, the man let himself fall into the void.For a moment, he hung in the air. Then the dark water swallowed him.

  Everything fell silent.

  ?lyara ran to the railing and looked down.

  Then her scream tore through the night.

  “No!”

  Tears streamed down her face.

  “No! Come back!” she shouted.

  “You can’t jump! Your son is waiting for you!”

  Her voice trembled.

  “I’ll give it back to you,” she whispered.

  “I’ll give your emotions back… I’ll give that love back.”

  “Y-yes…” She looked around as if searching for something. “Yes… yes, I’ll give it back,” she murmured.

  She looked down at her hands. They wouldn’t stop trembling.

  These hands had caused this.

  These cursed hands…

  A sharp pain stabbed into her chest.

  She collapsed to her knees.

  All the emotions building inside her spiraled out of control. The man’s pain, the man’s love, the man’s loss—everything was inside her.

  But she didn’t let go of the love.

  She held onto it.

  Because that love… now belonged to her.

  “Ahh!”

  ?lyara cried out in agony.

  People had begun gathering on the bridge. They were trying to understand what had happened. A woman suddenly let out a sob. Someone else started crying. Then another person shouted.

  And suddenly, everyone on the bridge was crying out in pain.

  Women.

  Men.

  Strangers.

  All of them. At the same time.

  Their voices filled the town.

  ?lyara stopped screaming, but the people did not. Some had dropped to their knees, weeping. Others continued shouting.

  Did I cause all of this? she thought.

  This is a curse.

  Now she understood what she had done to that man. She had taken the one thing that kept him alive.

  The real monster… was herself.

  She noticed someone standing at the entrance of the bridge.

  That person wasn’t crying or shouting.

  She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and narrowed her gaze.

  It was him.

  The uniformed man.

  He stood there among the screaming crowd.

  His hand gripped the hilt of his sword.

  His fingers gripped the hilt so tightly that his knuckles strained and his skin turned red.

  First he looked at the screaming people.

  Then he looked at ?lyara.

  When their eyes met, he stepped back.

  Instinctively.

  Then he stopped. They remained like that for a moment, but the cries around them didn’t stop.

  At that moment, ?lyara realized she didn’t want him to see her like this.

  She raised her hand to her face. Her fingers covered her eyes, as if hiding herself from him might somehow hide the reality of what she had done.

  She lowered her head.

  But the feeling inside her chest was still there.

  The small child’s voice.

  Dad…

  As if trying to silence it, ?lyara shook her head from side to side. Then she covered her ears with her hands.

  She lowered her head even further.

  “No,” she whispered weakly.

  She pushed herself to her feet.

  And ran.

  But that feeling inside her… was still there.

  As if it had become part of her now.

  ---

  ?lyara ran through the dark street. Several times her foot caught on the long hem of her dress. In that moment she regretted not changing her clothes. But she couldn’t have stayed in that house either.

  Though none of that mattered anymore.

  She… was a killer.

  Tears continued to stream down her face.

  People on the street pointed at her, whispering among themselves.

  “Isn’t that the girl the morhena protected?”

  For a brief moment, ?lyara laughed at their words. Now she was both crying and laughing.

  The hem of her dress caught on her foot again.

  This time she fell.

  Her black dress had grown even darker. She lifted the fabric slightly. Her knee was bleeding.

  Good, she thought.

  She shouldn’t be alive. This was nothing.

  She pushed herself to her feet, brushed the dust from her clothes, and lifted her head.

  The stable from that morning stood before her. The poor horse was still tied in the same place.

  ?lyara grabbed the edge of her skirt and tore it up to her thigh. Without looking around, she ran straight toward the horse.

  Thankfully, all its equipment was still there.

  She stroked the horse’s head and rested her forehead against its forehead. For a moment, she stayed like that.

  “Hey!”

  A voice shattered the brief calm.

  When she turned her head, she saw the same angry man from that morning.

  ?lyara quickly untied the horse and mounted it. But at first the horse refused to move.

  She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around its neck.

  “Please… let’s get out of here,” she whispered into its ear.

  “There’s a thief!” the man shouted.

  “She’s stealing my horse!”

  He was running toward her.

  The horse didn’t move.

  The man’s hand was almost reaching for the stirrup.

  Then suddenly the horse lunged forward. ?lyara escaped the man’s grasp by a hair’s breadth.

  But now gray-armored soldiers were after her.

  The Ta?kans.

  ?lyara urged the horse into a gallop. After a while, the houses disappeared behind her. She was very close to the exit.

  She was about to reach the barrier.

  She didn’t care about the danger waiting outside.

  And she crossed the barrier.

  The town faded behind her.