Chapter 22: Brightest star

The nightmare gripped me tighter than any waking fear ever could. It wasn’t the first time I’d dreamt of my father, but it was the first time it felt so real. I stood hidden in the shadows, watching him as he hacked a man apart with an axe. His face was twisted with some kind of pleasure, his eyes wide and glowing in the dim light of the basement. Blood splattered against the walls, coating the floor beneath him.

“Hail brightest star,” he muttered under his breath, his voice cold and detached, like he was performing some twisted ritual.

I felt sick, my stomach churning as I watched. But I couldn’t look away. I was trapped in this memory, forced to relive it over and over. And then, as if sensing my presence, he stopped mid-swing. His gaze locked onto me, and his lips curled into a smile.

“Come here, Lila,” he said, his voice eerily calm, as if he wasn’t standing over a mutilated body. “Come help me.”

I froze, my body refusing to move. But somehow, I walked forward, my legs moving on their own as though they were controlled by something outside of me. His hand reached out to me, and I felt a sickening sense of obedience crawling up my spine.

He handed me the axe, his grip warm, but there was a coldness to it that seeped into my skin. I held it in my palm, the heaviness of it heavy and wrong.

Before I could do anything, before I could even lift the weapon, I heard it.

His voice.

The creature’s voice.

“Humans,” Light whispered in my mind, his voice both soothing and terrifying at once. “You are all so small, so insignificant. A tiny maelstrom of desires that churn and twist, pulling you in directions that will only end in your own destruction. You all think you’re different, but you’re all the same.”

The dream warped then, like something slipping and distorting under water. I was no longer a child, standing frozen with the axe in my hand. I was older, grown. My hands were stained with blood, the red dripping from my fingers, and a terrible sense of powerlessness washed over me. I was bound to this nightmare, bound to this creature.

I heard Light’s voice again, his words echoing in my mind, “I have only two desires: hunger and curiosity. You humans, though… you are a storm of desires, always wanting, always taking. It will be your undoing. Your desires will tear this world apart, and you will destroy everything you touch.”

His words filled me, consumed me, until I could barely breathe. He wasn’t just talking about the destruction of the world; he was talking about the destruction of me. His presence was overwhelming, suffocating. I could feel it deep in my bones, like something alive, something hungry.

He continued, his voice dark and heavy. “I am not manipulating you, Lila. I’m merely observing. You cannot break free from this. You cannot escape. You, everyone on this submarine will either die, mutate, or go mad. It is inevitable. And it is already happening to you.”

I tried to move, to run, to escape, but I couldn’t. My feet were rooted to the floor, my body frozen in place. He was everywhere, inside me, outside of me. I felt his cold fingers curling around my blood-stained palm. He was there, touching me.

I didn’t want to look at him, but I couldn’t stop myself. His eyes glowed in the darkness, and when he kissed the blood on my hand, I felt the world tremble around me. It wasn’t a kiss of affection—it was something darker, something ancient and possessive.

I could taste the bitterness of it on my lips as his cold mouth pressed against my skin. I wanted to scream, but no sound came. The blood on my hand burned, and the kiss was nothing like anything I’d ever experienced. It wasn’t a kiss of love or lust—it was something far worse. Something that left me wanting more, even as my body screamed for me to pull away.

I woke up with a start, my heart racing, my breath shallow and frantic. The room around me was quiet, too quiet, and the hovering presence of the creature’s touch clung to my skin. I sat up in bed, my hands shaking as I wiped the sweat from my forehead. I had to remind myself I was awake. It was just a dream. Just a dream.

But even as I told myself that, I knew it wasn’t true. It wasn’t just a dream.

It was him. Light. The creature. His presence was with me, in my mind, in my body, pulling me deeper into his world. I could feel his grip tightening around me, suffocating, and I didn’t know how to get free. I didn’t even know if I wanted to.

The dream, the kiss, it left me shaken, confused. The hunger for his touch, the desire to understand him, to please him—it felt wrong, but it was also undeniable. He was everywhere, and I was helpless against it.

I stood up, trying to shake off the heaviness of the dream, but it wouldn’t leave. It lingered, like a shadow in the corners of my mind.

I didn’t know what he wanted from me, but I knew he had me. He had been inside me, inside my mind, making me question everything. Every thought I had, every feeling, it was all tainted by him now. His voice. His touch. I couldn’t escape it.

I wanted to scream, to cry, but instead, I sank down onto the edge of my bed, my head in my hands. The heaviness of it all was too much to bear. The darkness. The hunger. The desire.

And there was no escape.