"Kaivan… stay strong," he said softly. "We're here with you. You're not alone."
Kaivan looked at Ethan as tears rolled down his cheeks. "Thank you…" he whispered, barely audible.
After a moment of silence, Kaivan drew a shaky breath. "Since I was born… Dad was declared missing in a plane crash. Mom worked so hard to raise me. When Teh Kira started working, Mom quit her job to take care of the house…" His voice drifted, eyes still on the floor. "I always helped Mom at home… but now…" His words broke apart, swallowed by grief.
He stood up, trembling. "I… I need the restroom for a moment," he muttered, leaving his friends staring after him with sorrow.
Raphael glanced at Isabel. "You and Kaivan found them first, right? Was there anything strange in the house?"
Isabel let out a long breath. "There were shards of glass everywhere… and the tray in Teh Kira's hand had a hole in it," she answered, her voice shaking. "Like she used it to block something incredibly sharp…"
Zinnia turned to Felicia, her eyes sharp. "You're thinking the same thing I am, right?"
Felicia fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "Most likely… it was Vella," she said quietly but firmly. The name plunged the entire room into a suffocating silence.
Inside the restroom, Kaivan sat on the closed toilet seat, hands trembling. He opened the Tome Omnicent, his heart in chaos, eyes swollen from tears that refused to stop. Only one question echoed inside him: Why is this happening?
A voice rose from the book, resonating inside his mind. "I warned you from the beginning. This happened because you stopped following my guidance," the calm yet chilling voice said.
Kaivan clenched his fists so tightly his nails nearly pierced his palms. "What do you mean?! Is this all my fault? Because I didn't obey you?!"
The Tome remained silent for a beat before answering, "Life is built on choices, Kaivan. Every step carries consequences. You chose to defy me… and this is the result."
The words stabbed straight into his heart. Kaivan bowed his head as his shoulders trembled. He struck the wall, skin tearing until blood pooled around his knuckles. "Why do they have to suffer?! Why not me?! Mom… Teh Kira… they didn't know anything!" he screamed, breaking apart in despair.
The cramped bathroom became a silent witness to a boy's breaking heart. His sobs blended with the distant patter of rain outside, each breath unsteady, each tear carving deeper into the hollow darkness inside him. It felt as if the last light in his life had quietly gone out.
Only the dripping faucet and the faint murmur of rain filled the stillness. Sitting on the cold tile floor, Kaivan clutched the Tome with trembling hands. His tears fell onto the open pages resting on his lap. He looked up, eyes burning with grief and anger.
"If you truly know everything, why didn't you warn me sooner? Why were you silent when I still had a chance to change anything?!"
The Tome shuddered. Its pages fluttered as if stirred by wind that shouldn't exist. Letters began to form, dancing faintly across the paper.
"I must conserve energy. I can only communicate through writing. Using a voice drains too much power," the Tome Omnicent wrote.
Kaivan stared at it with hatred and flung it against the wall. It hit with a dull thud.
"You only care about yourself! You couldn't even try to save my family!" he screamed.
The pages parted again, calm yet merciless.
"My priority is protecting my user. I guide you with words alone. But it was you who refused to follow them, Kaivan."
Kaivan fell silent, chest rising and falling sharply. "Because your orders became strange!" he shouted, eyes blazing. "I'm not your pawn to move around! Do you think if I obeyed everything, none of this would have happened?! Huh?!"
The Tome trembled, as if responding to his fury. Words appeared rapidly, sharp and clear, like a stern reprimand.
"If you had made up with Tania from the start, she never would have met Vella. When you cut ties with her, you triggered the beginning of all this chaos. And had you crushed the mafia back then, their funding would have collapsed. Vella would've been too busy salvaging her finances to hunt your family."
The dripping faucet echoed painfully in Kaivan's ears. His reflection wavered on the cold tile floor, red-eyed, breath shaking. The Tome lay on his lap once more, its pages open beneath the falling tears.
In a hoarse whisper, he asked, "Then… what should I do now?"
Silence. Then ink moved again. The letters formed slowly, like a whisper seeping into his mind.
"I have a plan," the Tome wrote. "But my energy is nearly depleted. After this, I may not be able to speak again. Listen carefully… this may be my last guidance."
Kaivan read the words, lips trembling. Fear, regret, and a faint flicker of dying hope swirled inside him.
"Return to that old house," the Tome continued. "There is a crystal there, an energy source I sensed when you last visited. I need it to recover. You cannot face Vella now. Your sister will live… but in a coma. This is the only path left."
Kaivan lowered his gaze. The certainty of those words crushed him, yet he knew, if he stopped now, everything would be lost.
One final sentence appeared, gentle and deep.
"I will always be on your side… always."
Then the page went still. No light, no movement.
Kaivan held the Tome against his chest, biting his lip before wiping his tears away. His body trembled with exhaustion, but slowly, painfully, he pushed himself to his feet. A fragile yet determined resolve lit his steps as he moved toward the door, leaving behind the soft dripping of water, like echoes of sorrow not yet finished.