I woke up. It was him. The man from the cigarette stall. He did this. All of this. How? How is he capable of such cruelty?
He walked toward me, his voice crawling with pride:
"Welcome to my world... 'The White Lab.' How was the experience… Tai?"
My name. He said my name. I never told him. I'm nobody—I have no papers, no face, no past. How does he know? He spoke like he was preaching some twisted truth:
"Wondering how I know? You're transparent. I don't need a crisis to read you. You're just an open book. There's a price on your head—3 million. Didn't Saka tell you?"
I looked at Saka. His head was bowed. Low. Broken. Something snapped inside me. I started screaming—raw, ugly screams:
"Saka… why? Why didn't you tell me? I was right there! In that hospital room, I was with you! Why keep me out? Am I not your student? Am I nothing?"
Saka's voice was dead. Cold:
"You're not my student. You're just some piece of trash I found rotting in the street."
My face went cold. My skin... it crawled. My eyes—they just vanished. He sold me out. He's leaving me.
No—no, not again. Please, Saka, don't leave me. I don't want to be alone again. I can't. I'm scared of the dark. Please... please—just say it's a joke. Please.
The man laughed. A hollow, disgusting sound:
"Look at him. Discarded. Again. Is there even any point in killing you now?"
I said nothing. The tears just came. My voice was dead... but my eyes refused to be silent.
Saka spoke up:
"Yes. Killing him is useless. Leave him. Kill me instead."
What? Kill you? Saka? Does he... does he deserve to die here?
Suddenly, a voice—my voice—whispered in my head:
"You're so pathetic. You did this to yourself. You can kill him. Kill the man."
"Can you... can you just take over?" I begged.
The voice laughed. Sharp. Jagged:
"You idiot. I am you. You're the feeling... I'm the mind."
Then I knew. I'm weak. I'm nothing.
It spoke again:
"Stop being small. If you're ready to lose everything to save him... find the way. Do it."
I moved. I forced my body up.
"It's useless," the man sneered. "You're in chains."
I started scraping my wrists. Harder. Against the iron. My skin began to peel away. My hands were a mess of blood.
The man panicked. He ran to stop me.
My skin tore—I ripped my hands out of the metal. I grabbed the bag with my teeth, found the last adrenaline needle, and slammed it in. Everything went dark. I hit the floor like a corpse.
The man cackled:
"He killed himself. Pathetic brat. Trash stays trash."
Then, from the void, a light. My inner voice was laughing:
"No way… you actually did it. I didn't think you had it in you. You know what this will cost you, right?"
The lab was still ringing with that man's laughter when I stood up. My eyes were masked in blood.
I rose as if I had died… and something else was now moving my body.
He pulled his gun, but in a blur, I whipped out the wires—those wires from that freak's lab. He tried to aim at Saka, but I shredded his gun. His face... it turned to pure terror. In that heavy, suffocating air, I roared:
"I came back from the dead just to kill you! I'll make you regret ever challenging me!"
A reflection. Behind me. A sniper.
He fired. I dodged, but the bullet tore into Saka. Right below the heart.
I looked at Saka and screamed. My gaze locked onto the sniper. He felt it—the cold. He tried to run, but I sliced through his path and he hit the ground.
Dust everywhere. I reached the vendor. I carved him open—from his neck to his feet—and kicked his head away.
I ran to Saka. The dust cleared for a split second. Another shot. I threw my body in the way. I wouldn't let him be hit again. But the bullet ripped through my stomach and buried itself in Saka's ribs.
Saka was bleeding out. His time was up. I screamed and charged at the sniper. It was him. The guy who sold me sandwiches in the park.
I stopped. Staring.
"You… from the park... right?"
He looked at me: "Yeah. It's me. Did I let you down?"
My eyes drowned in the black. I tore him into pieces.
(End of Chapter 23)