And then the tears came. Her heart was slashed and heavy. Those silent tears couldn't express the depth of her pain. Each one of her memories was cutting deeper than the last. She had given herself to a lie, an illusion and it had torn her apart. Not just her, but many.
"You should have let me die," Daniella whispered, voice raw with grief. "He turned my father into one those monsters first… then made me watch as he slaughtered my mother. That's when I realized, he'd turned others too, right before the wedding."
The guilt hung on her shoulders like iron chains, but it wasn't hers alone to carry. The entire village had helped him, knowingly or not.
Kai's voice cut through the stillness. "How much information did you give them?"
