The Dark Door

Eve bared her pale wrist. Several cuts were slowly healing at a speed visible to the naked eye, recovering in the same bizarre way as Lorenzo's. Her face was filled with fear. Though she didn't know how Lorenzo had done it, she knew this was something ominous.

"Am I... contaminated?"

The girl was frightened. She shouldn't have told Lorenzo. If she really had been contaminated by a Fiend, then with Lorenzo's temperament, he would surely kill her outright. But Eve also knew how dangerous Fiends were, and between the two, she had chosen honesty.

"Not exactly..."

Lorenzo gazed at her, then finally spoke after a long silence.

"Contaminating someone takes a lot of conditions, and those who are contaminated twist and mutate like Sabo did. But you haven't... Your condition is stable... Just like mine."

"Just like yours?" Eve asked tentatively.

Lorenzo said nothing. He stood and walked toward Eve, as flames gradually kindled in his eyes. The power known as Secret Blood awoke within him.

After a long while, the flames died out. Lorenzo sat down again, but this time his eyes were full of confusion.

"There are only a few possible outcomes after contact with Fiends, so your condition should actually be easy to judge. But..."

At the word "but," Eve tensed and sat up straight like a student.

"Eve, there are some things you can never turn away from once you've come into contact with them. Fiends, for example.

"My knowledge includes a certain standard of judgment called being a Medium. Most people don't have the ability to be a Medium, so even if something dark draws near, they're usually unharmed. It's easiest to describe this in terms of two worlds. You can think of it as us and the Fiends living in the same world, in the same city, but the Fiends usually can't see us. To them, we're just a vague blur. But likewise, I can't see them either."

Lorenzo's voice seemed to take on a strange power. Unnoticed, something seemed to fill the room. It was everywhere, yet impossible to make out.

"But if you learn too much about the dark, you'll strengthen your connection to it. You'll become clearer and clearer to those monsters, and you'll be able to see them too."

At this, Lorenzo smiled.

"I'm a human-shaped Medium myself. With just a little help from some herbs, I can open my Spirit Sight and see things that the living can't."

"Eve, if you want to understand your own condition, then you'll inevitably learn about those things. You'll sink deeper into the darkness, and the Fiends lurking in the fog will become clearer to you. You'll gradually become a Medium, pursued by darkness day and night."

Lorenzo looked at her solemnly.

"So the choice is yours. If you want to understand all this, you'll inevitably deepen your connection to the darkness. Perhaps your connection will break someday, many years from now, but no one can guarantee what will happen before then. I need you to decide. The dark door is right in front of you. Whether you step through is up to you."

Listening to Lorenzo, Eve fell silent. She understood what he meant. This was forbidden knowledge. Once she learned it, she was destined to fall into the abyss.

"I have a few questions. Will I turn into one of those things?"

Eve asked.

"If you don't come into contact with Fiends, the possibility is very low. Your condition is stable, after all."

"Did this abnormality start tonight?"

"No. Tonight's cause should have been a batch of impure Secret Blood. It set off all the chaos. The abnormality in your body must have come from a long time ago."

A long time ago? Did that mean she had come into contact with these things called Fiends long ago?

Eve unconsciously clenched her hand, her knuckles turning white under the pressure.

The girl stared fixedly at Lorenzo. At some point, the detective had returned to his former self. The cold-blooded killer was gone; he was sprawled in the comfortable sofa like a worthless member of society.

The decision was right in front of her. This was probably what people meant by a crossroads in life. The girl thought about many things, then finally answered with resolve.

"Tell me!"

The girl's gaze was resolute, more serious than it had ever been before.

Lorenzo froze. It had been a long time since he'd seen that look. The last time had been when he was still a priest in Florence. The children had looked like that when they said what they wanted to be when they grew up, full of determination, stubbornness, and innocence.

"I... Could I hear your reason? If I could choose my own origins, I wouldn't want anything to do with these monsters."

As he spoke, Lorenzo couldn't help remembering Sabo, who had died by his hand not long ago. No one could choose their origins.

Eve's expression dimmed slightly, but after thinking it over, she told him. She seemed calm—or rather, terrifyingly calm.

"When I was very young, I kept having nightmares. I didn't really know what they were about. I just kept dreaming of the same scene over and over.

"A woman was sleeping in bed. I couldn't see her face, but I always felt close to her. Then suddenly, something crawled out of her belly, just like the Fiend I encountered. It crawled out of that woman's stomach... I could never make out what it was. Every time I was about to see it clearly, I'd wake up in terror."

"I stopped having those dreams a long time ago. But the day before my mother died, I dreamed of it again. Then she died the next day. I was young at the time, and I don't know if it was curiosity or something else, but my mother was lying in a coffin surrounded by blooming flowers. While no one was watching, I lifted her clothes."

Eve clutched her head and curled up on the sofa, muttering to herself.

"It was like I was possessed. I lifted the corner of her clothes, and there was a hideous scar on my mother's belly, as if some monster had once crawled out of it."

"I'd almost forgotten all of it, but like you said, it must be the connection. As the connection grows stronger, everything I'd forgotten has come back too. I think if I go deeper, I might find out something."

Those nightmares had haunted Eve for as long as she could remember. She thought she'd forgotten them, but sometimes they would suddenly return, growing clearer as she got older. It was as though the Grim Reaper had crawled from that scar and taken her mother's soul.

Eve had always thought it might just be her imagination, but after tonight, a Fiend's shadow had fallen over all of it.

Lorenzo looked at Eve for a long moment. Everyone was the same. Eve thought she had a choice, but in truth, the strange darkness was like a swamp. It wouldn't easily let go of anyone who set foot in it. She thought she could refuse, but, like fate, there would always be some reason pushing her forward.

"I hope you won't regret it."

As he spoke, Lorenzo began to recall the things he had sealed away in the depths of his memory.