The air in the basement was so cold it felt like the breath of death clinging to the skin.
Oska stood frozen, his eyes sliding from the helpless bodies to the figure on the stairs.
Stevanie looked down at him from above—half her face hidden by hair, her smile composed, yet her eyes empty.

"Why didn't you listen to me, Oska?" her voice was soft, but there was a crack at the edge of it. "I told you not to come here…"

The knife in her hand dripped onto the floor—tick… tick… tick… each drop like a second toward ruin.

Oska swallowed, his body rigid, but he forced himself to speak.
"Stevanie… what have you done to them?"

The woman laughed quietly—a laugh that sounded more like a disguised sob.
"I… I don't know," she said, staring at her own hands. "I don't remember doing anything to them. Even if I did, believe me when I say I didn't want to, Oska. I swear I didn't want this."

Her eyes were glassy, and her voice trembled with a very real fear.
"Do you remember when I told you there's something inside my head… like a little insect… it pulls my thoughts elsewhere. They whisper… tell me to do things… and I… I can only follow. If I resist, it feels like my skull will split."

Oska shook his head; his face tightened. "You think I'd believe that?"

"I'm not asking you to believe!" she cried, her hands shaking. "I only want you to know I didn't want this to happen!"

Oska looked at the bound bodies, the blood, the stench. Then his gaze snapped back to Stevanie.
Something inside him exploded.

"Didn't want to?! You tortured them, Stevanie! You're killing them bit by bit, and now you tell me there's an insect in your head?! That's an excuse! That's how you justify your cruelty!"

His voice reverberated in the cramped room. Stevanie fell silent; her face slowly paled.

"I've had enough of you! I will free all these people whether you agree or not. And you will not stop me!"

A tear fell.
Then another.
Then she began to cry, sobbing loudly—not like a grown woman, but like a child who had lost her world.

"You're all the same…" she said between sobs. "You're all the same. I've suffered for so long, Oska. I told doctors, my family, everyone… but they just called me crazy. I don't know who else to turn to. I don't want to hurt anyone, but I can't control it. Everyone says I'm a monster!"

Her crying turned into a desperate scream.
"I thought—if I loved something, I'd have a reason to hold back. I thought—if I made you my husband, love would grow sooner or later and I would heal. I hoped you could be my cure!"

Oska looked at her, his heart a tangle of emotions. But the anger and horror inside him had not subsided.

"I can't, Stevanie. You forget that I am also a human with feelings. You don't have the right to pin me down, to make me the anchor of your sanity. Love must grow from two hearts that actually love each other, not from coercion."

Those words struck her like a blade to the chest.
Her sobs stopped. Only heavy, quick breaths remained, like a wounded animal.

"So it's true—you really intend to leave my life."

"You're right! I came back to you only to take revenge. Three months ago you hurt me, Stevanie. Tormented me, made me a slave. Meeting you was the biggest mistake of my life."

Tears gushed from Stevanie's eyes; the knife fell from her hand and she sank to the floor, wiping her face. She looked like a child. Even Oska and Mrs. Bao felt pity for her.

"If only you knew, when I'm with you, they… the insects… are calmer. I can think clearly, I can restrain myself. I tried to become a better person because of you! If you leave, I don't know what will happen to me."

"I'm sorry, Stevanie. It is best for both of us to part ways. I should never have come back here in the first place."

Stevanie was silent. Then her expression shifted—from despair to something darker. "Fine," she said in a broken voice. "If no one in this world is willing to accept me as a human…"

She bent down and reached for the fallen knife.
"…then let me be a monster completely."

With a howl that echoed through the basement, Stevanie dragged herself forward like a zombie, her feet shuffling as she approached Oska and the others, her eyes wild—an impossible mixture of tears and hatred.

She advanced as if something unseen controlled her, hands trembling while her gaze lost its human light.
Inside her, the "insect" whispered again—louder than ever.

"You don't deserve to be loved… so destroy everything."