CHAPTER 4: LONELINESS

The wind swept through the ruins.

Claribel walked alone until she found him, standing with his back to her.

“You didn’t come for me today.”

“I wanted to see if you could find your own way.”

“And if I couldn’t?”

“Then I would have found you.”

They sat in silence.

“No one came to see me at the hospital today,” she said. “Not my uncles, not my friends. I think they’ve forgotten about me.”

“People don’t always know how to approach pain,” the demon said. “Sometimes they keep their distance—not out of cruelty, but out of fear.”

She nodded slowly.

“Will you forget me?”

“Never. Even if one day you stop coming, I’ll always remember the coffee candies.”

“Sometimes I feel lonely… even when everyone is there,” Claribel confessed.

“Loneliness isn’t always about being without people. Sometimes it’s about not being understood.”

“And you? Are you lonely?”

The demon hesitated.

“Always. But it doesn’t bother me as much anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because now I have you to listen to.”

She smiled and handed him another coffee candy.