Quicksand of Fate

Lorenzo leaned forward, slow and cautious, his hand reaching out toward the boy. His fingers stretched closer, the space between them shrinking. For a fleeting moment, he swore he could feel the ghostly chill of the boy's skin beneath his touch.

But as his fingertips brushed the empty air where the boy stood, the boy vanished—gone, as if he had never been there.

There was no sound, no warning. The boy dissolved like dust, his form breaking into faint, shimmering particles that floated weightlessly through the air before vanishing completely. 

Lorenzo froze, his hand still outstretched, fingers grasping at nothing. He stared at the empty space where the boy had stood, his chest tightening with a nameless, suffocating emotion. Slowly, he curled his hand into a fist, as if trying to catch the last, invisible trace of the boy that lingered in the air.

Madness? A hallucination? Or a memory clawing its way to the surface?

He didn't know.

Slowly, Lorenzo lowered his hand, his gaze drifting to the massive, shattered mirror that dominated the living room—a mirror he had broken himself and ordered left untouched. The fractured glass splintered his reflection into countless jagged pieces, each shard showing a version of himself that felt distant and unfamiliar.

He stared into it, contemplating the fragments of his existence, as if trying to recognize the face staring back at him.

Pale and thin, his black hair fell carelessly across his forehead in chaotic strands. His dark eyes, deep as an abyss, seemed utterly devoid of life's meaning.

He rose to his feet and approached the mirror, his bare steps silent against the cold marble floor. Placing a hand on the fractured glass, he tilted his head slightly, staring at his reflection—a face lost to chaotic, incomprehensible thoughts, even to himself.

He felt something strange—like a memory flickering in his mind, or a vivid sensation of something familiar, an incident perhaps. 

The world was dark. The streets teemed with noisy cars and people moving like clockwork. The cacophony of the crowd buzzed in his mind, pressing against him as though it might explode, yet despite all this noise and vitality, he could not sense the pulse of life that should have been flowing through the city.

All he saw was a gray world. 

A world devoid of life, as though it mirrored his inner self. 

His gaze drifted to his apartment through the mirror—the stark white walls, the clean, orderly furniture, the muted tones that filled every corner. Everything appeared pale and colorless, as if the essence of life had been drained away. 

A gray world. 

Pale. Still. Tasteless. 

It felt as though time had stopped, frozen in a moment that refused to move forward. 

Or perhaps it had all died long ago, and he alone remained—alive and moving through a lifeless world. Even the noise outside meant nothing. It was hollow, distant, like the whispers of the dead in a dead world.

Lorenzo stood there for hours, his thoughts spinning in an endless loop of suppressed sensations and vague, nameless emotions. Finally, he turned away from the mirror and sank onto the couch.

The apartment fell silent once more. In one corner, the two white cats huddled together, their soft growls the only sound disturbing the stillness.

he leaned his head back against the sofa and closed his eyes. For a fleeting moment, he thought the boy might be there when he opened them.

But when he did, the room was empty—cold and lifeless, as always.

-------------------.

The Accardi family rose to power as humanity's protectors after the collapse of the old order five hundred years ago, brought about by the betrayal of the Kaiser family. 

The Kaisers, once supreme rulers for generations, betrayed humanity during the reign of Lionel Kaiser. In an act of madness, they slaughtered those in power and anyone who stood in their way. 

Humanity believed it was the end, certain that no one could stop Kaiser—especially Lionel, said to be the strongest human in history. But then, as if the world itself held its breath, everything stopped. 

And when it sighed, the Kaiser family vanished from existence, leaving humanity reeling, its future uncertain. The world swung like a drunk in chaos, struggling with what seemed an inevitable doom, as the demon races seized the opportunity to invade. They took advantage of the end of the Kaiser rule—or rather, the fall of the Narrator lineage, which had ruled humanity since the dawn of time. 

The demons began their invasion as though they were sharing a stolen feast, growing bolder in the absence of the Narrator family. Yet humanity had already lost vast territories beyond the Seven Walls—and even the Seventh Wall. Thus began an era where demons preyed on humanity, hunting them like rabbits in the wilderness, with no deterrent in sight. 

As chaos reached its peak, seven powerful families emerged, each claiming authority over one corner of the human world. Together, they formed a temporary alliance known today as the World Peace Association, gradually restoring some semblance of order. 

But the price was high. Humanity lost four of its Seven Walls, vast territories, and millions of lives in a war that lasted nearly fifty years. Although the war eventually calmed, five hundred years later, humanity has yet to recover its lost lands. 

The greatest loss, however, wasn't the land, the walls, or even the lives. It was the Kaiser family itself—or, as the demons call them, the Narrator lineage—whose very name still invokes an unforgettable terror among the demons.