Chapter 75 If I Fall
Kai’s POV
Pain….That was the first thing I felt.
It ripped through me like something alive, like claws dragging against the inside of my ribs, my skull, and my thoughts. I could feel Luna’s hand gripping mine, and grounding me….but it also made the thing inside me angrier. “You shouldn’t have done that.” I heard it speak again. And I felt it.
Not just in my head anymore….but everywhere. Like it had roots now. Like it had spread.
I clenched my teeth. “Get… out…” I forced through gritted teeth.
It laughed. A low, satisfied sound. “You’re still trying.”
My body jerked forward suddenly, with my grip tightening around Luna’s hand so hard I was afraid I might hurt her.
“Don’t let go,” I rasped.
“I won’t,” she said immediately.
Her voice was steady, stubborn, and hers….cut through the noise just enough to keep me anchored. But the thing didn’t like that.
Not at all.
A surge of pressure slammed into me from the inside, like it was trying to push me out of my own body.
“She is weakening you,” it hissed.
“No,” I snapped, my voice cracking. “She’s the only reason you’re not winning.”
That made it pause. Just for a second, and I felt it. That hesitation and that tiny crack.
“Luna…” I whispered, struggling to stay present. “It’s… not as stable as it looks.”
Her grip tightened. “Then we break it.”
Easier said than done and my vision flickered again… And suddenly I wasn’t in the school courtyard anymore.
I was back in that void. It was dark, endless, and suffocating.
But this time….
I wasn’t standing. I was falling and it was above me now. Bigger and clearer.
Not just a shadow anymore….but a shape forming from darkness. Long limbs, with shifting edges, with eyes that weren’t eyes but burning points of awareness. “You can’t win this,” it said.
“I don’t need to win,” I shot back. “I just need to hold you off.”
“For her?” it asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
Then it circled me slowly. “She will break.”
“No,” I said.
“She will die,” it said.
“Shut up!” I shot back.
“And when she does…” it continued.
“Shut…UP.”
The void shook and for a second…just a second…I felt something push back.
It was not it. It was me. And then…
I was back again. Then my knees hit the ground hard. Luna dropped with me, still holding my hand. “Kai!” she shouted. “I’m here,” I said quickly. “Still here.”
But barely.
The thing surged again, furious now. “You are resisting beyond expected thresholds.”
“Yeah,” I breathed out. “Get used to disappointment.”
It didn’t respond immediately and that scared me more than if it had. Because silence meant thinking and adapting.
Then….
My other hand lifted. Not by me, it moved slowly and turned toward Luna.
My heart stopped. “Luna…move,” I said urgently.
But she didn’t. “I’m not leaving you,” she said firmly.
“This isn’t me…!”
“I know.” She said.
Her eyes locked onto mine, she did not look afraid and she was not backing down and that made something inside me tighten. Not the thing. But me.
“You trust me?” she asked.
I didn’t even hesitate. “Always.”
“Then hold on.” She said.
To what? I didn’t get the chance to ask, because she stepped closer, closing the distance completely, and before I could process it… She pulled me into her.
One hand still gripping mine and the other pressing against my chest. Right where it hurt the most.
“Luna…what are you…”
The moment her hand pressed against my chest….
Something snapped, but not physically, it was something deeper. The pressure inside me exploded outward and the thing recoiled violently.
“What are you doing?” it demanded.
Her voice was calm. Dead calm. “I’m reminding him he’s not alone.”
The warmth spread instantly, not power and not energy. It was something else, something real and something human. And it burned. But not me.
It.
The presence inside me twisted violently, like it was being dragged into light it couldn’t stand. “No,” it hissed.
“Yes,” Luna said quietly.
My chest tightened…but not in pain this time. It was in clarity and in control.
Memories flooded in. Not forced and not twisted. Just… mine.
Laughing with Luna and arguing over stupid things.
Walking through the halls like everything was normal…even when it wasn’t.
The fear, the survival, and the choice to keep going anyway. The thing inside me screamed.
“Stop…!”
I gasped as my body jerked again. But this time not from it… But from me pushing back.
“You picked the wrong person,” I said, my voice shaking but firm.
It lashed out violently.
My vision went red and pain surged through every nerve.
“You are weak!” it roared.
“Maybe,” I shot back and my fingers tightened around Luna’s. “But I’m not alone.”
That hit it hard, because suddenly… It understood something it hadn’t before.
Which was a connection, not a weakness. But as resistance, it hated that.
“I will tear you apart,” it hissed.
“Try it.”
I leaned forward slightly, despite the pain, despite the pressure, and despite everything.
“You need me,” I said. “That’s the only reason you’re still here.”
Silence followed.
Then…. A shift, cold and calculated. “Then I will take you completely.”
My stomach dropped and Luna stiffened. “Kai…”
“I know.”
I felt it gathering itself. It was not testing anymore and not probing. It was preparing for a full takeover. “All or nothing,” I whispered.
“Then we stop it now,” Luna said.
“How?”
She didn’t answer immediately. But her grip tightened, and I saw it in her eyes.
That same stubborn fire and that same refusal to back down. “We don’t separate it from you,” she said finally.
My chest tightened. “Then what?”
Her voice didn’t waver. “We force it out.”
The thing inside me laughed. “You will fail.”
“Maybe,” she said.
Then her eyes locked onto mine. “But we’re still going to try.”
I took a shaky breath. “…okay.”
Because honestly? There wasn’t another option and the pressure inside me surged again stronger and final. The thing wasn’t holding back anymore.
Neither were we.
And as the world around us seemed to hold its breath…
I realized something, that this wasn’t just about survival anymore.
It was about who I chose to be and I had made my choice.
Even if it broke me, even if it destroyed me, and even if I didn’t walk away from this….
I wasn’t letting it win. Not over me and not over Luna and not over anything.
“Hey,” I said weakly.
She looked at me.
“If I lose control…”
“You won’t.”
“If I do,” I insisted, “don’t hesitate.”
Her expression hardened. “Kai….”
“I mean it.”
Silence followed and then…
“…fine,” she said quietly. “But you won’t.”
I almost smiled. “Yeah,” I said. “Let’s hope you’re right.”
Because the next few seconds? They were going to decide everything.
And I could already feel it, that the thing inside me is rising, ready, hungry. And done waiting.