Kael's heart raced, his breath shallow as he stumbled through the unrecognizable, shifting world. Was it real? Was anything real anymore? His body felt disconnected from his mind, as if his very existence was suspended in a vacuum. Each step he took only deepened the confusion, the despair that gnawed at his insides. The Pulse had taken everything from him. Everything he thought he knew, every scrap of his memory—it was slipping through his fingers like sand.
"Kael..."
The voice sliced through the fog of his thoughts. He knew that voice. But how? Why? His vision blurred, and he stumbled forward, desperate for something solid to hold onto.
There she was. The girl. The one who was never supposed to exist. Or was she? Was she just a fragment of his broken mind? A hallucination? Or was she truly there, standing before him like a beacon of hope in a world of endless darkness?
"You're still here…" Kael's voice cracked, the words barely audible as he reached out for her. But something was wrong. Her eyes. They were empty. Hollow. Like a mirror reflecting his own broken soul.
She smiled, but it wasn't the same smile he had once cherished. It was cold, distant. Unfeeling.
"You still don't understand, do you?"
Kael's head throbbed, as if the very air around him was tightening. His body was trembling, his fingers twitching as the world around him flickered. Was she part of this nightmare? Was she a figment of the Pulse, playing tricks on him, toying with him?
"What… what do you mean?" Kael's voice was shaky, his throat dry as his eyes desperately searched hers for some kind of answer. But there was nothing. Only the darkness.
The world warped around him, the edges of reality bending like a cracked glass. The ground beneath his feet trembled, and Kael's knees buckled as the sense of vertigo consumed him. The Pulse was pressing down on him, suffocating him, trapping him in an endless cycle of torment.
Suddenly, the girl's face twisted. The empty expression, the cold smile, slowly melted into something else. Something darker. Her form flickered, and for a split second, Kael saw something else beneath the mask—a shadow, a presence that shouldn't exist. A twisted reflection of everything Kael feared.
"It's all your fault, you know."
The words struck him like a blow to the chest. His breath caught in his throat, a cold sweat breaking out across his skin.
"You created this. You wanted her. You wanted her to exist."
Kael's mind spun, his vision narrowing as his thoughts scrambled. No. He had never wanted this. He had never wanted her to be part of this nightmare.
"You should have let her go, Kael."
The girl's voice grew distant, a faint echo in the wind. Kael's knees hit the ground as the world around him continued to warp and distort, the very fabric of reality unraveling.
The Pulse was taking everything from him—his memories, his thoughts, his very essence. He was nothing. Just a pawn, caught in the game of something far greater than he could ever comprehend.
The girl's image began to fade, dissolving into the thick mist that surrounded him. She was slipping away. But her last words hung in the air like a curse.
"You were never meant to have her."
Kael screamed, the sound ragged and desperate, as the world broke apart.
He tried to reach for her, but she was gone—swallowed by the abyss. And in her place stood nothing but the unrelenting force of the Pulse, pulling him deeper into the void.
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End of Chapter 19.
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