She puts flowers in my hair. "And your deepest regret?"

  My deepest... I don't regret anything. I've always done what I had to do. The choices I made—will make—they don't define me.

  She rubs my shoulders. "That's a beautiful lie."

  It's not a lie.

  Her fingers dance through my chest hair. "There were times you didn't have to do anything. Like with Q'an."

  I gulp. "That was different."

  She shakes her head. "You didn't have to lock her away."

  I did... Didn't I?

  After we toured the KWCR prison, Tatiana wanted to explore the tunnels and learn its secrets. That year... We saw... We did... Humans weren't what we thought they were. They spoke in undecipherable ways about things we couldn't imagine.

  We found a chamber with statues and a shrine. Neither of us dared to enter the tunnel at its base. The energy felt too chaotic.

  Tatiana looked happy. Nebula's control over her was finally over. She was free.

  I smiled. "Where will you go?"

  Tatiana looked back at the lioness statue. "I don't... I think I'll go to the KTP."

  I pursed my lips. "You could join me."

  Tatiana shifted. "What?"

  I nodded. "Yeah, you could help me bring down Nebula."

  She swayed. "I’m through helping you, Zachariah."

  My chest tightened. "I meant that your skills as an investigator could—"

  She scoffed. "You’re using me. The same way she did."

  I grunted. "I won't experiment on you."

  She stepped back and stared. "I’m done being a puppet."

  I reached for her. "Tatiana, please..."

  She backed down the stairs. "You’ll never see me again. From now on, I’m staying far away from you. The both of you."

  The woman with red hair laughs. "You imprisoned her for that? How petty!"

  I didn't imprison her because she refused to join me. It was to protect the world from her. Tatiana was a rogue agent. She had information on SAAF that I couldn't pry out of her. If she wanted to, she could tip the scales. The war would be over...and one of us would be left to claim victory... I think it'd be her.

  The woman's nails run up my arms. "You were afraid."

  Afraid?

  "Afraid of losing her."

  No I wasn't!

  "You were afraid of being betrayed...abandoned...so you claimed her. Stripped her of freedom. Forced your impressions onto her."

  But I was...

  "Trying to protect yourself from being hurt."

  I wasn't afraid she'd hurt me...

  "You were afraid she was rejecting you—not the offer."

  Is that why I...

  "Over a hundred years imprisoned? Gave her plenty of time to think."

  But she escaped!

  "Or, someone let her out."

  Nebula...

  "Why would Nebula release her?"

  Because she's scared.

  "Of what? You?"

  Of losing control... Tatiana was her prized investigator... Nebula trusted her with things that she wouldn't tell anyone else... When Tatiana stepped out of line, Nebula pushed her in again.

  "And you punished her for it?"

  It wasn't punishment. I didn't hurt her. I kept her in a safe place.

  "Betrayal hurts, Zachariah."

  I didn't betray her!

  "She trusted you and you sealed her in a tomb."

  But she got out.

  "And when she did... She took something you loved... An eye for an eye."

  Heart for a heart.

  "Do you see the connection between Nebula and yourself? How you use people to get what you want. The lengths you'll go to maintain control."

  We aren't the same!

  "Melody said you were friends. Why would Nebula want to be friends with someone who doesn't see the world like she does?"

  I don't see the world like her.

  "Nebula abducts children to fill her regime; you did too. Nebula kills those who get in her way; you betrayed them. She holds the key to their cells and you threw it away."

  Maybe we are similar...

  She drops my head and scampers through the field. "That's not your deepest regret!" She falls backwards next to me. "Your deepest regret might be what you did to those Axeheads."

  In the mines?

  She rolls over. Fingertips walking along my ribs. "Do you regret sparing them?"

  No... I wanted them to deliver my message to Nebula... But I tortured them within an inch of their life.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Her nails press into my gut. "You liked making them suffer."

  I did. They deserved it! After nearly killing me... I...

  She snickers. "An eye for an eye... A heart for a heart..."

  ...

  "My hand..." The Axehead stared at his missing fingers.

  My jaw clicked into place. "Why do you taste like that?"

  The Axeheads backed off. Light poured from my chest. Threads snapped. Butterflies formed. Vines spread from my skin and in my head eyes appeared.

  An Axehead hissed. "This isn't his power! We were wrong! He looks like him, but he's someone else!"

  I rose. "Teeth caved inward." Butterflies consumed the rest of me. "Identity dissolved." Vines divide. "So much agony." Arms protrude from my shoulders. "So much agony." Legs grow again. "Do I resemble a man you knew?"

  They flinch.

  "Do I look weak enough to consume?"

  The Axeheads held each other.

  I whispered in their ears. "You tore me apart." They turn. I'm in the shadows. "Don't be mad if I—" My arm drove into a gut. "—act a little sore!" I pull out a kidney and take a bite.

  The other one kicked. I held his foot steady. "Wait your turn!" I threw him overhead, then whacked him on the ground. "I'm not done eating."

  The one I attacked groaned. "What kind of monster are you?"

  I knocked him down. "The kind you can't kill."

  He scooted. I grabbed his leg. He kicked me in the face. I broke it. He screamed. I straddled. He punched. I bit down. The brother came. I took his eyes. The brother screamed. I enjoyed his cries.

  Whenever they died, I resurrected them and if they could no longer fight I took their organs.

  Had it been days? Weeks? Months? Years?

  Long enough for Chuboki to recover. "Let's get out of here."

  After that I...

  She rests her head on my chest and locks our fingers. "You were afraid."

  But of myself.

  She doesn't have a heartbeat. Yet, she's so warm. "How many times did you bring them back to life?"

  I shift. "I lost count after the second time."

  She grunts. "Still not your deepest regret."

  Melody wades through darkness. "Hello?" Her voice bounces back at her. She lifts her hands. "A flashlight?" The darkness tilts. She gasps. A narrow tunnel swallows her.

  She crawls. Nails scraping against rocks. Air thin. Dust choking her. Knees dragging behind. And a wall... Melody digs until she pops out of the floor of a dim house.

  She scrambles from the hole and breathes. Sweat drips from her brow. Dirt clings to her arms. She looks around. "Where am I?"

  A window glows with moonlight. Outside it, rows of flowers and trees. She sniffs. "Smells like..." Her flashlight flickers over a plate with orange peels. "Someone's been here." She eyes a small knife laying beside it.

  The wooden floors creak beneath her feet. She moves through a small kitchen. The ice box sends a chill around her ankles and the light switches don't work. Sink is tidy. Dishes put away.

  The floor creaks. She turns. "Hello?" A shadow along the wall. She reaches for the knife. "Who's there?"

  She backs toward a door. Glass cracks. Her light flickers over a picture frame. She removes her foot. "Zachariah?" He's smiling with a boy and a woman.

  Melody kneels and picks up the frame. The boy has dark curls and dark skin. Her eyes widen. "Nathaniel?" The woman has orange eyes and curly brown hair. "Who are you?" The three of them stand outside the house.

  She glances out the glass panels on the door. "You were standing over here..." She sets the picture on the counter, then opens the door and steps into a swamp. "What?"

  Crickets sing. She sinks to her waist. Frogs chirp. Melody groans. The house and field are gone. Her feet are sucked in by the mud. She looks around. A large green toad sits on a pile of stones nearby.

  She fights the mud and jokes. "Don't suppose you can help me."

  The toad leaps onto a log floating next to her. Melody pulls a foot free, then falls back. The toad croaks. Melody splashes in the water. The toad watches her swim towards it. Melody clings to the log and spits water. "Thanks for helping!"

  The toad bows, then hops onto a lily pad. Melody kicks her feet behind and follows the toad through the swamp. They reach land. Melody sprawls out on the ground and huffs. "What is this place?" The toad hops on her chest.

  Melody shudders. They stare at one another. She raises a brow. "Can you help me find a way out?"

  The toad croaks. She stands. The toad hops away, pausing to look back at her. Fog rolls in. Melody chases the amphibian. "Wait up!" It hops on her head.

  Melody steadies herself. "You're pretty heavy for a frog." It croaks in response. "Do I go straight?" It croaks.

  After walking for a while, the duo comes to a leafless tree. A large crow rests on a branch and caws at them. Melody chuckles. "You're a big bird!"

  The crow flashes its wings. "A bird?" It flies to a lower branch. "I'm not a bird, silly mortal."

  Melody gasps. "You can talk?"

  The crow laughs. "Of course I can talk!" It ruffles it's feathers. "Now I have a question for you... Why do you carry that toad on your head?"

  The toad croaks.

  The crow caws. "What do you mean this is your carriage?"

  The toad croaks again.

  The crow tilts its head. "Oh, I see!"

  Melody looks around. "I'm not sure where I am."

  The crow jumps off the branch and falls to the ground. A young man stands in front of her. His black hair sways around his neck as he paces. "You're not dead." Black feathers stick our of his pale skin. "What are you doing here?"

  Melody shakes her head. "I'm not sure. I was... Then I saw... Now I'm... Where am I?"

  The man scoffs. "This is the other life!" He pokes her. "You're not supposed to be here."

  Melody raises a brow. "Other life?"

  He lifts her hand. "You look like a human..." He sniffs, then swats his nose. "But you smell much worse!"

  She snorts. "You're one to talk!" She nods at his feathers. "You're a disease carrying pigeon!"

  He squaks. "Pigeon?"

  The toad croaks.

  The man glares at the toad. "Mind yourself!"

  Melody hugs her arms. "Can you tell me how to leave this place?" She shivers. "It makes me feel weird!"

  He shrugs. "I don't do that."

  She sighs. "Know anyone who—"

  He puffs his chest. "I am a collector! I retrieve things that are hard to find and not easy to come by."

  The toad croaks.

  He stomps. "Thieves steal! I find."

  The toad croaks again.

  He growls. "Stop saying that!"

  The toad croaks louder.

  He points at the toad. "I'll feed you to wolves!"

  Melody rolls her eyes.

  The man snarls. "You have poor taste...for a mortal." He turns back into a crow and flies to a branch. "I'm not helping you."

  Melody glares at the toad. "Thanks a lot!"

  The toad croaks.

  What is my deepest regret?

  Snakes coil around my arms. White scales. Red hair drops beside me. "Maybe your deepest regret is her."

  Who?

  She clutches my face. "Melody."

  Why would I regret her?

  She grins. "You regret what she became."

  Melody became someone I never thought she'd be. By turning herself over to Nebula, she spared me.

  The woman snickers. "Think you'd have done the same?"

  Turn myself in? I... I don't know...

  She gasps. "That's it!"

  What?

  "Your deepest regret is being a bad person."

  Bad... The healing... The interviews... The war... The famine... The eating... The betraying... The loss... Bad...

  She laughs. "Everything that's happened... SAAF gaining the upper hand... Wyre losing its power... It's because of you!"

  I did that...

  Snakes hiss. The woman straddles me and grabs my neck. Her hair spills like blood. Drowning me in red. "You took the minds of others and harbored their secrets. You disguised yourself as someone who had none. Can you even be trusted? Are you really a righteous man?"

  ...

  She squeezes. "You regret not knowing if the person you're becoming is just, but I know your rightfully self-indulgent. You use people and cast them out. You pretend to love, then stash a dagger in their back!"

  I'm not good.

  "You're not good!"

  I'm bad.

  "You're bad!"

  Aren't I a victim too?

  She shakes.

  Wasn't I also betrayed?

  She releases my neck.

  How do I get back the memories which were taken from me?

  She stands.

  Can I call myself bad when I don't know who I am?

  She stares.

  What more do I have to lose when the person I used to be is a mystery?

  Her voice unfolds. "Who do we hold responsible for the suffering you inflict?" A hundred other voices surface. "Who will take responsibility for your actions?" Petals drop. "Does your past excuse the present?" Snakes bite my wrists. "You took from us!" Tails rattling. "You ignored us!" Island cracking. "Now, we will be heard!"

  I'm pulled under...

  ...

  Like a reel filtering through my thoughts. Faces appear through the eyes of those I wiped. Children hugging their parents for the last time. Siblings sharing a drink moments before annihilation. Parents pleading, bargaining, and vowing to exact their revenge. Soldiers weeping into their palms.

  And the face they look up at... One which is cast in light and dark... They call to it... Free us... Free us from our sins...

  With a thread... I drank their insecurities. With a thread... I savored their despair. With a thread... I closed old wounds. With a thread... I opened new ones.

  Melody saunters through the fog. Cascades of light are swallowed by shadows. She holds herself and shivers. "I'm cold!"

  The toad shrieks.

  She stands in front of a rose. The fog clears enough for her to see a wall of roses. Melody swallows. "Where are we?"

  The roses part and breathe her in. She fights the urge to walk, but the wall closes around her. She clicks on the flashlight. Walls... Many walls... Thorns press into her back. She jerks forward.

  The toad grips her head tight and releases a tiny croak.

  Melody treads through the roses. She turns a corner. Voices emerge. Her light falls onto a creature... Hair matted. Limbs too long. Skin see through. It feast on a dead animal. Melody steps on a twig.

  The beast turns its head. Red eyes beam back at her. She holds the toad and runs. Flashlight flickering, then she collides with a statue.