I didn't move.
Not for a long time.
The corridor was cold. Not cold like winter cold. More like, cold like stone, like grief, like silence wrapping around your throat when your lungs still want to scream.
She died in front of me.
Because of me?
I don't even know.
All I know is that her blood was warm.
And now it's drying on my skin, staining the fine lines on my palms like an artist tracing pain into the creases of my life.
I stared at my hands.
Shaking.
Red.
Alive.
While hers were limp and empty.
"Red thread… Commander… not what he seems…"
Her voice still echoed. Not even a whisper now, more like a ripple. A vibration under my ribs.
And suddenly, I couldn't breathe.
"System…" My voice was raw. It cracked like glass under pressure. "Talk to me."
[SYSTEM 707: …Host.]
"She died."
My throat closed. "In my hands."
[SYSTEM 707: …Yes.]
Silence.
Damn you, system. That's all you had?
"Aren't you going to say something clever? Something sarcastic? 'Congratulations, you witnessed death again' that kinda thing?"
[SYSTEM 707: …No.]
I paused.
[SYSTEM 707: You didn't kill her, Host.]
"I didn't save her either."
[SYSTEM 707: That isn't how this world works.]
[SYSTEM 707: You're not a god.]
"But I could've-!"
My voice broke again.
I curled my bloodied hands into fists and pulled my knees up to my chest, pressing my forehead to them. Everything felt static. Sharp. It feels so unreal.
"She was scared. She looked me in the eyes and begged me to listen and now she's - she's gone."
Silence again.
Then…
[SYSTEM 707: …This is your first death, isn't it?]
I blinked. "I died, remember?"
[SYSTEM 707: Not your death. Someone else's. Someone who looked at you like you were hope.]
[SYSTEM 707: And then died anyway.]
That was-
Too honest.
Too raw. Too real.
I didn't answer.
707 didn't push too.
We– er, I sat there.
Me and the system in my head.
And the dead girl cooling in the hall.
And the echo of a killer's footsteps already long gone.
My back pressed against the stone. My hands are sticky with someone else's ending.
And I whispered into the quiet:
"I don't know if I can do this, System."
And for once, the sass didn't come.
Just a soft, glitched hum.
And a voice in my head - lower than usual. Almost human.
[SYSTEM 707: …I'll carry you until you can.]