The devil sits beside me in the darkness, patient as an old friend. We don't need words anymore—we both know this dance by heart.

They say silence is where demons come to play, but they never tell you how seductive the darkness can be. How it wraps around you like a lover's arms, promising to keep all your secrets.

The rush floods my veins, offering to erase it all—the way her blood felt on my hands, Jake's last words echoing in my skull, the poison legacy running through my veins. When you've waltzed with the devil this long, you forget there was ever any other partner to choose.

Some angels can't save what doesn't want saving.

The void swallows me whole, and for the first time since that night everything went wrong, I don't fight it.

I just fall.

76. Becoming Through Breaking

CHAPTER 76

BECOMING THROUGH BREAKING

NORA

"Dad?"

He appears like a photograph in reverse development, his edges bleeding into reality with the same gentle grace he carried in life.

"Hi Leni."

That smile—the one that could chase away nightmares and mend broken hearts—hasn't aged a day. If anything, he looks younger, as if time decided to unwind itself just for this moment.

"Where are we?"

The front room materializes around us, our Sunday sanctuary where classic literature became life lessons. The walls pulse with living memories—not just frozen snapshots, but moments suspended in time. But there's a wrongness here, like a piano key struck half a step off.

"This isn't where I'm supposed to be, is it?"

Dad's smile turns knowing, tinged with the wisdom that only comes from the other side of forever.

"No, sweetheart, it's not."

A mechanical beeping slices through the dream-haze, as steady and insistent as a heartbeat. I clamp my hands over my ears, desperate to hold onto this moment like water cupped in trembling palms.

"What is that noise?"

"That's life calling you back, Leni." His eyes shimmer with something deeper than mere tears.

"But I don't want to leave you." The truth spills from my lips as my chest constricts. "Everything hurts out there."

"Feeling pain means you're still alive. Still fighting." His presence wraps around me like summer sunshine. "And you've always been a fighter, Leni."

"What if I'm not strong enough this time?"

"Look around you." He gestures to where our memories play like intimate home movies. "Every moment here is proof of your strength. Every smile, every tear, every time you got back up when life knocked you down."

"I don't want to lose you. Not again."

"Oh, sweetheart." His laugh is warm honey and childhood summers. "I never left you. I'm in every book you read, every story you write, every moment you choose to be brave."

"Dad—"

"Nora, sometimes we get second chances not just for ourselves, but for all the people who need us in their story."

The beeping grows more insistent, pulling at the edges of this dream-world.