If You Stay, You Break Too
(Elian's Point of View)
I wasn't supposed to care.
I told myself that when I saw him again. I told myself not to go back to that building, not to stand outside like I was waiting for something I didn't understand.
But I did.
Daniel hadn't come out all day.
I just stood there — holding his pen like it meant something.
Like I had something to give back.
Like I needed an excuse to see him again.
When the door finally opened, it wasn't him.
It was a man. Tall. Black hoodie. No face. Just presence — heavy and wrong.
He looked at me like I was already in his way.
"You Elian?" the man asked.
My stomach twisted. How did he know my name?
"I—I think you have the wrong—"
He stepped closer.
Then Daniel came out of nowhere.
One second I was alone.
The next, Daniel shoved me behind him, wings flashing wide and angry — half-light, half-shadow, like they couldn't decide what they were made of.
"Touch him," Daniel growled, "and I'll end you."
The man smiled. "Too late. You already did."
And then he vanished — just like that. No sound. No trace.
I looked at Daniel. His face was pale. His hands were shaking.
"What the hell was that?" I asked, voice breaking.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he turned to me, eyes full of something I hadn't seen before.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Grief.
"If you stay," he said slowly, "you break too."
I didn't know what he meant.
But I knew one thing:
I wasn't going anywhere.