Good things kept happening.
For months, the buzz in my ear eventually faded completely.
And I lived a peaceful, fulfilling life ..
surrounded by a loving family,
and a novel that had turned me into a globally recognized author.
That success ..
it felt like a gift.
A gift I made the most of.
And for once…
I was truly, deeply content with both myself—
and the life I had been given.
The smile never left my face.
Not even when I walked the streets at night.
I was truly grateful—
grateful for the life I had been given.
That was what I was thinking…
as I made my way home late at night,
after spending time with friends I'd known for what felt like forever.
Quietly ..so as not to wake my parents, who usually slept early—
I opened the front door and slipped inside.
I expected to find my younger brother awake,
as he often stayed up late playing games.
But tonight,
he wasn't in his usual spot.
"Did he go to bed early?"
I wondered, climbing the stairs to check.
But I stopped abruptly when my foot stepped in something wet.
"Did someone spill something?"
The house was dark,
so I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight.
And what I saw ..
froze my blood.
I dropped to the floor, panicked,
my hand reaching into the dark substance I feared was exactly what I thought it was.
"This is…"
I wasn't wrong.
"Blood."
A lot of it.
At that very moment ..
the buzzing in my ear returned, louder than ever before.
Terrified,
I ran forward,
each step squelching in more of the blood that soaked the floor beneath me.
I didn't want to know the truth.
I was afraid to find out ..
Whose blood was it?
Panicking, I flung open the door to my parents' room ..
and time itself seemed to stop.
My world collapsed in an instant.
Blood.
Everywhere.
The room looked like a scene torn straight from a horror movie.
Their bodies—
my parents—
were lying headless on the floor.
And their heads…
were neatly placed at the doorway,
staring at me with empty, lifeless eyes.
For a moment ..
I couldn't breathe.
I staggered back, gasping for air,
nausea rising until I threw up everything inside me.
My body shook violently.
My mind refused to accept what I was seeing.
Tears spilled out on their own—
but the nausea was stronger.
Still trembling, I stumbled away from the room,
unsure of what to do.
Unthinking.
Unfeeling.
Overwhelmed by grief.
But beneath that grief ..
was something even more powerful:
Dread.
Desperation drove me to my younger brother's room ..
to cling to any shred of hope still left in this house of death.
It felt like a dream.
No ..
a nightmare.
A nightmare that had turned my world upside down.
"Please… please let them be okay…"
With a heart ready to burst,
I opened the door to my brother's room.
And I found him ..
alongside my other brother.
But this time…
the scene was even worse.
Far worse.
Their bodies…
were unrecognizable.
What remained of them didn't even resemble human forms.
And then,
past the carnage—
I saw it.
Him.
A towering figure over two meters tall,
shrouded in a black aura that flowed like dark fire.
His face was blurred for some reason—
obscured beneath long, waterfall-like black hair.
But the most vivid, unmistakable part of him…
were those crimson eyes.
I stared at the being who had turned my home into this nightmare—
and he turned slowly to face me.
Just one look from him
made me feel like I had already died a hundred times.
I couldn't even think of revenge.
I couldn't muster anger toward the one who had slaughtered my entire family.
All I could do…
was freeze in place.
Shaking.
Powerless.
Too terrified to take a single step toward the killer of my blood.
"It's a painful thing, truly…"
he said in a deep, echoing voice.
And I ..
still trembling—asked the only question I could manage:
"What… are you?"
There were so many questions I could have asked.
Why did he do this?
Was this all even real?
But the most urgent question in my heart was ..
What is this thing standing before me?
This being…
it couldn't be human.
It couldn't be real.
It was something else.
Something that made even the idea of this being a nightmare feel far more believable.
When was the last time I felt this helpless?
When was the last time I couldn't cry,
couldn't scream ..
when I choked on grief so thick it stopped me from breathing?
The creature with the red eyes said nothing else.
He simply extended his hand toward me.
And with a voice that felt both distant and familiar ..
he whispered:
"Once more."
The performance failed this time.
As his words echoed—
I was forcibly ejected from my own body,
as if something was pulling time itself backward.
"You're not good enough… Frey Starlight."
The moment he uttered that name ..
Its echo reverberated endlessly in my mind.
Frey Starlight…
Frey Starlight…
Clenching my teeth, I fought the urge to scream
as I tumbled through the current of time—
cursing everything.
How could I forget?
How did I dare to forget?
I am Frey Starlight.
That wasn't a novel.
It never was.
It was a life I had lived ..
every moment,
every breath.
"Send me back!!"
I screamed with everything I had ..
furious at whoever dared to desecrate the memory of my family like this.
Furious at myself for believing that illusion was ever real.
What's happening to me?
I tried to call out to my swords,
tried to unleash everything and tear the illusion apart ...
But nothing answered.
Time rebuilt itself ..
and the image returned.
A familiar table…
a familiar room…
My family sat around it once more,
smiling at me,
offering that warmth I had missed so much.
"Welcome back."
They said it again, in perfect unison.
And I…
I smiled—weakly.
I wondered,
what was I blaming myself for just a moment ago?
It felt like something important had been ripped away from me.
But that didn't matter.
Because something more important had returned.
Standing before the family I loved ..
I smiled, genuinely this time.
"I'm home."
Home, at last .