Chapter 15 —The Sound of Falling
The house was too quiet.
Even the air seemed to hold its breath.
Ari had gone upstairs to rest. The faint hum of the refrigerator was the only sound left, steady and low. I sat on the edge of the couch, staring at the faint reflection of the chandelier in the polished floor. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
> You pushed someone once.
His voice kept looping in my head : calm, steady, unbothered. It wasn't the kind of accusation that couldn't be denied; it sounded like a fact the universe had whispered to him.
I pressed my palms over my ears. "Stop it… stop…"
But of course, it didn't stop.
It never had.
The moment came back again ,Joel's laugh, the notebook, my hand,that single heartbeat of wanting him to stop laughing. The burn of anger so sharp it felt like someone else's thought.
Then the sound of his body hitting the stairs.
I'd built my whole story around an accident, layered it with guilt until even I started to believe it.
But Ace… he tore that illusion apart in one breath.
I looked around the room and at the high ceilings, the marble pillars, the gold frames. Everything about Ari's mansion screamed comfort, but I'd never felt smaller in my life.
Ari didn't even realize she was living in a palace. She treated every corner like it was a cage. Maybe that's what we had in common , both trapped, but by different things.
The curtains swayed softly, touched by wind. For a second I thought I saw movement and a shadow near the doorway my pulse spiked.
It was him.
Ace stood half-hidden by the frame, silent. The light from the hallway painted a dull glow over his gray skin and the edges of his horns. He wasn't watching me like a threat this time ,more like someone studying a broken thing he didn't understand.
"I didn't mean to," I whispered, even though he hadn't said a word.
His crimson eyes didn't blink. "You keep saying that," he murmured. "Maybe someday you'll believe it."
Anger rose, fast and useless. "What do you know about meaning anything? You're not even human!"
"No," he said simply. "That's why I can see you clearly."
He turned away before I could answer. His shadow slipped down the hall and vanished.
I was left staring at the empty doorway, shaking, the silence filling up all the space he left behind.
Maybe he was right, maybe not.
But when I closed my eyes, I didn't see Joel's smile anymore.
I saw my own hand pushing.
And this time, I didn't have the strength to call it an accident..... Was it really an accident i thought to myself and began to doubt my own reality
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