He paused then, his expression changing. The air around him grew still, as if even the flames that always surrounded him had quieted to listen. "But there's a part of me," he said slowly, "a part that became empty. Not because I wanted it to, but because it couldn't take the pain anymore."
His fists clenched faintly at his sides. "Every time I lost someone, every time I trusted and got betrayed, every time I hoped for something only to watch it crumble—I felt something inside me break. It wasn't that I stopped feeling. It was that I couldn't handle feeling it anymore. The pain, the helplessness, the disappointment—it kept piling up until I couldn't bear it. So I stopped expecting anything. I stopped hoping for anything. I thought it would make it easier."
