My parents woke the next morning, made breakfast, and went about their daily routines. Thinking I had gone to sleep too late, they ignored my absence.

   At lunchtime, they were forced to enter my room, and were met with the sight of a girl curled in a fetal position, her face marked by nails and her eyes completely disfigured.

   And yet... I “saw". Even aware of my absolute blindness... I saw... demons.

It was the only way I could interpret them, not terrifying monsters or giant beasts, but demons where my parents’ voices came from.

   They displayed clear reactions and colors that revealed the true intentions of those they were bound to.

   I spent two weeks in the hospital, my face bandaged and unable to say a single word. Over time, I grew accustomed to the figures. I was completely blind, and in shock, unable to speak or express anything to my parents, but that gave me more time to think, and my only conclusion was that the demon had given me a “curse”... to see human souls.

   More weeks passed, and it became clearer and clearer. Those with greater purity reflected a vivid white, like my three-year-old brother. A child could not hide hateful traits.

   But my parents, the ones who had always protected me and claimed to love me with all their hearts… reflected a crimson red and an unmistakable expression of disgust.

   In exchange for the false beauty of the world, I was able to see the painful truth of the human soul.

   Little by little, I began to speak again, and though afraid, I needed to open up to someone. My first words were always related to my condition, or to the demon I had seen that night.

   My parents had always been deeply religious, and like any human, they feared the unknown. Connecting the facts, anyone would think I had been possessed and that I needed “help".

   Over time, they took me to dozens of temples from various religions in this world, begging gods or any being that could help me... but the only thing I saw was their growing internal disappointment.

   “You... really can’t be fixed?” my mother asked, crying on her knees that rainy night. What frightened me most was that the expression of her soul had not changed. She... wasn’t sad, yet she cried.

   “It seems there’s nothing more we can do", my father muttered.

   My mother raised her clenched fist and came toward me in that dark alley where we stood.

   “YOU WORM... ARE YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING? SAY SOMETHING. AFTER EVERYTHING WE DID FOR YOU, DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WE SPENT ON THAT PARTY?”

   It was already dawn, and the rain was pouring heavily. I was still voiceless, no matter how much I longed for help... I would not have it.

Some time passed during the series of beatings, and between the screams, I understood my parents’ intentions. It seemed that Milo, my classmate, was the son of a great businessman whom my father had long been associated with. They had placed me in that school to get close to him. Even my birthday party had been for that purpose.

   My parents had hoped that in the future we would marry, and I would pull them out of the financial crisis our family faced. But after everything, Milo’s father removed him from the school, unwilling to have his family associated with “mentally ill people".

   It was another long night, but this time, I knew there was no place left to return to. It seemed like the end... but it was only the beginning of more suffering.

   In that alley, in the dark, cold, hungry, injured and abandoned... Drake appeared alongside two servants. Both had souls similar to my parents, red and disgusting, but he was different. Even at my age, still a child... his soul... smiled in a terrifying way and carried the deepest black. It was similar, yet somehow completely different from the demon that had cursed me.

   His eyes were completely blue, with black feline irises, fixed entirely on me. I knew that if I didn’t run, nothing good would await me, but even so... I couldn’t.

   “Take her to the castle", the boy ordered the men, who by their voices were three times his age, yet obeyed without hesitation.

   I was treated like a slave for the rest of my time and I had no idea what he saw in me. What would make a child want to turn another’s life into hell when she had already suffered enough?

   As the years passed, I realized he had plans in mind. He never touched me sexually, but he beat me frequently to relieve his daily stress. Sometimes I heard names he cursed under his breath, but Kyros was, without a doubt, the one he mentioned the most.

   I still didn’t understand the immense hatred Drake held for that boy. But I thought that for someone like Drake to hate him, that boy must be far worse and more detestable than I could imagine.

   I had already lost hope. Nothing mattered to me anymore, nothing could shake me... until that day.