I've always run. Running is the one thing I know how to do. So tonight, I run again. I don't care about anyone here. Being alone is something I'm used to.
He kept telling himself that. Kept building the reason, stacking it brick by brick.
Linea said it herself — stay alive. If I stay here, I die. So I leave.
Night had settled over the mine.
Food was being distributed — a line of men, shuffling forward one by one, bowls out. Jhed stood at the very back. Behind him, fifty meters away, was the passage out.
He watched the guards. Counted the gaps.
No one's looking this way. Fifty meters. That's all.
His heart was hammering.
I'm scared. I know I'm scared. But if I stay, this is my life — digging until I drop, like that man today. I just have to cross fifty meters.
The line moved. Shorter. Shorter.
His mind swung back and forth like something broken.
Go. Don't go. Go. They'll catch you. Go anyway.
His head started to hurt — a deep, pressing ache behind his eyes. He couldn't think straight anymore.
And then the voice came.
Not from outside.
From inside.
You never accomplished anything in your last life. You won't accomplish anything in this one either. You should just die. Cowards die fast — and when you're gone, no one will notice. No one will care.
Coward. Coward. Coward.
Jhed's legs gave out.
He sat down on the ground, hard, and pressed both hands against his skull.
"No," he said quietly, to the inside of his own head. "You're wrong."
But the voice got louder.
Coward. You should just die. It wouldn't matter.
"Hey." The man ahead of him turned around. "Are you alright?"
Jhed didn't answer.
"Something's wrong with him. Guards — someone look at this."
A guard appeared.
"You. Are you okay—"
Coward. Coward. Coward—
"Shut up."
Jhed screamed it.
"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up—"
He started hitting his own head. Over and over, both fists, trying to beat the voice out of himself.
The cloth slipped from his face.
Silence fell over the entire mine.
"That's... a child," someone said.
"How is that possible," the guard said.
"Hey, kid." The guard crouched down. "Who are you? Who do you belong to?"
Jhed had gone still. Quiet now. Emptied out.
His face was visible. His secret was gone.
"We need to hide him — he's almost here," the guard muttered to the other.
"Why is it so loud down here?"
The voice came from behind them.
Mite.
The guard stepped sideways instinctively, trying to block the view.
"Nothing, sir. Everything's fine."
"You're hiding something." Mite's eyes moved slowly across the crowd. "Step aside. Let me see."
"There's nothing—"
Mite pushed him out of the way.
He looked down at Jhed.
Then he laughed — a short, genuine sound of surprise.
"A child. A child got past me." He shook his head, almost impressed. "How does something like that happen."
He turned to the guard who'd been hiding Jhed.
"You were covering for him."
"No — no, sir, I wasn't—"
"I'm in a good mood today." Mite said it simply, like a fact. "So I'll let it go." He looked back at Jhed. "Bring him. He's coming with me."
Jhed was still fighting something inside himself as Mite led him away.
The voice had gone quiet.
But it hadn't left.