The instant Ezrael jolted awake, Misra rushed over to him, clutching him tightly in her arms while calling out of the room. “Mom, Momma! Ez is awake!”

Ezrael was still very drained, so he simply surrendered to the embrace of his sister, knowing that he didn’t have the mental or physical energy necessary to try and oppose her. He did actually quite enjoy her being there. While he’d been out, he’d had awful dreams. Most of them didn’t even seem like they were related to him. It was like he was watching the abysmally bleak downfall of complete strangers. It had been completely exhausting, but now that he was awake, he was feeling a little bit better.

“Ez… We were so worried about you… You collapsed and you just wouldn’t wake up… You’ve been out for two weeks…” Misra said, sniffling.

Ezrael’s eyes went wide as he tried to process what she was saying. He had been unconscious for two weeks? It felt like he’d only passed out a few hours ago.

“Did you figure out what was wrong with me…?” Ezrael managed to rasp.

Misra pulled back a bit and gave him a slightly concerned look. “Well… after you fainted in such a spectacular fashion, momma was… determined to finally figure out what was causing all of this. She travelled for two days just to reach Gaias and practically dragged back the best medical professional she could find.”

Ezrael leaned forward in anticipation. “And…?”

Misra averted Ezrael’s gaze. “It’s your cursed eye… Like we’ve always thought… It seems to mimic the abilities of the observer’s eye in terms of precognition, but in a more corrupted manner…”

Ezrael clutched his eye tightly, his heart beating uncomfortably fast. “W-Well… can’t they just remove it…?” Ezrael asked, his voice growing increasingly panicked.

Misra shook her head solemnly. “The doctor said that if we were to do that, it’s possible that you could die… or worse…”

Ezrael’s eyes widen, his heart pounding in his chest so loud it was practically the only thing he could hear at this point. He collapsed back to the bed, panting and gasping like a fish out of water.

Just as he was about to pass out, he was propped up and through blurred vision, he saw someone grab something gold before pouring it down Ezrael’s throat. In a few moments, his vision was back to normal, but he still felt as though he might pass out at any second.

Amelia draped the sheets back over Ezrael and kissed his forehead, whispering, “Try to get some rest now, my sweet angel. You’ve been through a lot…”

Ezrael didn’t dare protest and allowed sleep to take him.

---

Two years had passed since that day and ever since then, Ezrael had become increasingly distant from his family. For the two weeks that he was stuck in bed, he spent almost the entire time filling journals with all of the awful things that he had seen while he was out. They covered the walls of his room, a constant reminder to him of all of the awful things that might happen, even if they didn’t pertain to him. Even after he was physically able to leave his bed, he spent most of his time at his desk writing.

Additionally, over the two years, Viktor had grown more and more attached to Ezrael, despite how far away from the rest of the family he was becoming. Even so, Ezrael didn’t pay Viktor much mind and simply didn’t care enough to try and get rid of him, knowing that any effort put in to that would be completely wasted as the boy would pester him no matter what he did. Ezrael knew why he was like this though, Dameria had become increasingly concerned with his progress with essence, noting that he was still not even at the most basic of skill levels. Dameria had all but given up on him.

Today, it had all come to a head. Ezrael was able to see their training sessions perfectly from where he usually sat at his desk, so he would often be unconsciously watching Viktor training. Usually, Dameria would just get frustrated with Viktor and leave him outside to try and figure things out on his own. To his own credit, he did try and figure them out on his own and even seemed to do a little better without Dameria there, but he was still far behind where he should have been.

Today was different though, instead of simply leaving, Dameria shouted at the young boy before stomping her foot and creating a stone cage around the boy. It wasn’t much bigger than he was, greatly restricting his movement. Ezrael watched this all transpire, unsure of what he should do or say. It weighed on him all day, but even as night was coming, he did nothing and simply left Viktor there in his cage.

The next morning, Ezrael woke up to the sound of screaming. Shaking off sleep, he peaked out of the room and found his parents standing in the middle of the hall screaming at each other.

“How could you lock him inside of a cage?! What ever would make you think that something like that would be helpful, let alone okay?!” Amelia shouted.

“If he were as good as he should be, he would have been able to break out of the cage in a matter of seconds! And how is it my fault that he ran away?!” Dameria shouted back.

“Because you’re the one that locked him in a fucking cage, Dameria! You don’t put children inside of a cage thinking it will make them stronger! And now he’s out there somewhere alone! You know what’s in the woods! He could be dead and you know what?! That will be on your conscience!” Amelia growled back.

Dameria’s arms fell to her side as she just stared at Amelia. She tried to move towards Amelia, but she was stopped by Amelia holding up her hand and staring at her, filled with rage and disapproval. Dameria straightened herself out and stormed off down the stairs.

Amelia collapsed to the ground, sobbing as she slumped back against the wall of the hallway. Ezrael was about to make his way over to comfort her when he suddenly collapsed to the ground, visions of his brother in the woods being attacked by animals and creatures of Ser flashed through his head. He tightly clutched his cursed eyes and tried to keep himself from passing out. The visions leaving him shaking. Amelia didn’t even seem to notice.

Ezrael cursed and stumbled in to his room, shakily clawing across his desk, searching for something. Eventually, he found it. He quickly unsheathed the knife and pulled over his mirror, staring in to it as he plunged the knife in to his cursed eye, carving through the skin around it. Before he could even finish, he cried out in pain and then in terror as his mind was flooded with horrific visions. After a few moments of convulsing, Ezrael’s body went limp and fell to the ground, lifeless.