The classroom was bathed in the warm light of the morning sun streaming through tall windows. Hastily scribbled chemical formulas covered the blackboard, but no one paid them much attention. The teacher had stepped out for a moment, leaving the students on their own.
"Hey, Natan," Alicja said, resting her chin on her hand and glancing his way. "If you had to choose between solving a chemistry equation or talking to a ghost haunting your locker, what would you pick?"
"I'd take the test immediately," Natan shot back without hesitation. "Ghosts don't like me, and I don't like them. Case closed."
Leon snorted with laughter, twisting sideways in his chair."Sure, and yet at night you scream in your sleep that something's chasing you," he said, mimicking a frightened voice. "Alicja, help me, please! He has green eyes and speaks Latin!"
"That was one time," Natan protested. "And he wasn't speaking Latin—he was mumbling like you after two energy drinks."
Nadia chuckled softly, watching how the four of them infected each other with good humor. Leon glanced at her with a grin, winking playfully.
"And you, Nadia?" he asked, dragging out the syllables. "Would you pick the ghost or the test?"
"I'd pick the ghost. At least I can talk to him and not get a failing grade," she replied innocently, making Alicja burst into laughter.
"Of course, the beloved daughter of a medium," Leon said, leaning his elbow on the desk. "Someone here actually wants to chat with spirits the way I talk to my reflection. Passionately and regularly."
"Careful, or you might fall in love with that reflection," Nadia shot back with a mischievous smile.
Alicja clapped her hands in delight."She burned you, Leon. You still alive?"
Leon made a dramatic face, pressing a hand to his chest."She struck me straight in the ego. I don't know if I'll recover."
At that moment the teacher returned, casting them a stern look."Some of you may want to live another day without a quiz, so I suggest you stop the performances."
The four of them immediately pretended to be focused, though under the desks their feet brushed against one another, and smiles lingered on their faces. For the first time in a long while, they felt they could simply be teenagers—without the weight of darkness, spirits, and past lives.
***
As soon as the last bell rang, crowds of students spilled out of the building, and Nadia, Leon, Alicja, and Natan walked together toward the field, where the spring sun made the grass seem greener and the world breathe easier.
"I heard we're having pierogi for dinner tonight," Alicja announced with the expression of someone describing the end of the world. "With cabbage. Leon, do you want to be a hero and trade plates with me?"
"With cabbage?" Leon wrinkled his nose. "I'm not that much of a hero."
"You weren't a hero when you ran away from that cockroach in our bathroom either," Nadia reminded him, giving him a sideways glance.
"That wasn't a cockroach, it was a mutant," Leon retorted. "The General definitely sent it. He wanted to test me."
"Right, the guy who fought demons but lost to a bug," Natan summarized, spreading his arms. "A story worthy of an epic."
"You shouldn't talk," Nadia laughed. "Last time you nearly fainted when Alicja showed you a dusty ritual book."
"That wasn't dust! It was... ancient powder! It could've been cursed!" Natan exclaimed with mock seriousness.
Leon stopped and made a theatrical turn toward Alicja."You know what? With all due respect... but the real medium should be Nadia. You're too psychedelic. Sometimes I think you're the ghost haunting us all."
"And sometimes I hope you're just a dream," Alicja shot back sweetly. "A nightmare, thankfully easy to ignore."
They all burst out laughing.
When they finally sat down on one of the wooden benches by the field, Leon leaned back comfortably, closing his eyes to the sun. Nadia sat close beside him, almost touching his shoulder, and without a word, he slid his hand into hers.
"This is nice. Finally," he said softly, smiling.
"Just don't get too used to it," Alicja muttered. "Peace in this school never lasts long."
"Hey, let them have a moment of romance," Natan yawned. "Once Leon starts having weird visions of the General again or some ghost shows up, I'll have to run down the hallways with salt and TikTok prayers."
Nadia giggled, resting her head on Leon's shoulder. Their fingers intertwined more tightly."For now... we have each other. And we have peace."
And for a moment, that was true—ordinary, light, and full of hope.
Then, from the side path leading from the dormitory, Sebastian and Roksana appeared. He carried her bag, and she laughed at something he had just said. They looked surprisingly in sync—and surprisingly close.
Leon opened one eye and immediately grinned. Natan raised his brows."Well, well, Sebastian," Leon said with mock seriousness. "Did you just score the greatest victory of your life?"
"He's won not only her attention but her trust," Natan added like a sports commentator. "Look at that: carrying her bag. That's practically marriage."
Sebastian rolled his eyes but couldn't hide the blush."Maybe I'm just being a gentleman," he muttered.
"Sure, sure. Or maybe you're on a mission to conquer the heart of the prettiest girl in school?" Leon teased, raising a brow.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sebastian tried to dodge, but Roksana chuckled softly and gave him a sidelong look.
"Don't tease him, boys," she said with a light smile. "He's nervous enough as it is."
Alicja burst into laughter."Someone write this down. Sebastian and Roksana, on the same bench, no tension, with smiles. That doesn't happen every day."
"It won't happen again at all if you don't stop," Sebastian threatened half-jokingly, half-seriously, though he sat down beside them with Roksana, who still seemed thoroughly amused.
Leon nudged Nadia with his elbow."See? Spring. Love in the air. Want to bet that before the semester ends, we'll have one more couple?"
"If it's Alicja and some ghost, it doesn't count," Nadia quipped.
"Hey!" Alicja protested, but burst out laughing along with the rest.
For a while, no one thought about the past, about darkness, or about battles. There was only them—young, laughing, wrapped in the afternoon sun and the lightness of the moment.
***
Night wrapped the school in a calm that was deceptively fragile. Wind stirred the branches of trees outside the windows, and the silence in the dorm rooms was broken only by the ticking of clocks and the breaths of sleeping teenagers.
Leon lay on his side, facing the wall, a hand tucked under his head, but he was not asleep. He blinked rapidly, as if trying to chase away the darkness spreading behind his eyelids. His eyes were closed, yet images lingered—brutal, black, slick. He saw his own hands gripping someone else's throat. He heard a scream. He felt… triumph?
He sprang upright, clutching his head immediately."No… it's not me. It's not me…" he whispered, breathing unevenly.
The pulse in his temples quickened. His heart pounded as if it wanted to burst from his chest. Again, he heard the whisper—deep, guttural, hissing:"You cannot run. You are me. You always were. And now… you are empty. Perfect."
Leon inhaled sharply and shivered. He knew this wasn't possession. The General no longer had a body. But the seed of darkness… remained. So deep that even after months of peace, it could stir again.
He looked at his hands—they trembled slightly. For a brief moment, he felt the familiar tingling at his fingertips. Like when he used to fling people against walls with a mere thought. Like when he looked at Nadia and felt only the urge to possess, not love.
"No… you are not me," he said firmly, louder this time. "I won't let you. Not anymore."
He lay back down, closing his eyes tightly. He thought of Nadia. How she held his face in her hands, kissed him with tenderness, how her voice pulled him out of the darkness.
I am Leon. Not you. Never you again.
Eventually, exhausted, he slipped into a shallow sleep, still with a quiet whisper at the back of his mind—but this time it was his own:You are not me. You are not me.
***
The next morning, Leon appeared at breakfast as always—disheveled, in a loose hoodie, with a half-asleep gaze. He sat between Nadia and Natan, joking about puffy eyes and the alleged "deathmatch with a pillow."
"You look like you slept on your face," Natan remarked, raising an eyebrow.
Leon grinned crookedly, yawning for effect."No. The pillow slept on me. It was aggressive. I defended myself as best I could."
Everyone laughed, and Alicja even nudged him in the arm playfully.
Nadia studied him a little longer. She noticed the faint shadow under his eyes, the slight tremor in his fingers as he reached for his cup. But she said nothing—not here, not with everyone watching.
Leon felt her gaze but did not turn his head. He focused on eating, as if everything were fine. Inside, however, his body still remembered the night. Cold sweat, the whisper in his head, that fleeting… urge for violence that was not his.
But he was stronger now. He was no longer a puppet.
He knew he couldn't burden anyone with this. Not now, when everyone was trying to return to normal. Maybe it was only… an echo. The last note of a fading melody.
He clenched his jaw. If it came back—he would be ready. He would not let the shadow of the past destroy what he was just beginning to build with Nadia.