NOVEL NEXT Chapter 34: Carene
The silence stretched long after Sera and Myia's departure. Zakar sat slumped against the wall, his breath shallow, body aching from the battle. His thoughts churned with doubt, guilt. But in that silence, another sound slowly emerged the faint rustle of sheets, the delicate groan of someone stirring.
Zakar's head snapped toward the bed. The woman. Her body once limp, breath shallow shifted weakly. Her hand twitched against the fabric before dragging upward toward her face, as though testing whether she was still alive.
Her eyes opened.
They were hazel, clouded at first by confusion, then widening sharply as they fixed on Zakar's looming silhouette in the dim light. Panic immediately rippled through her features. She tried to push herself upright, her movements frantic though feeble, and her lips parted with a trembling cry.
"Stay back!" Her voice was hoarse but carried raw fear. She curled into herself, dragging the thin blanket up to her chest like it might shield her from him. "Please,don't touch me!"
Zakar froze, raising his hands in a placating gesture. He could feel the instinctive fear radiating from her—the way prey looks at a predator. It stung deeper than any wound he bore.
"You're safe," he said quietly, his voice steady despite the turmoil inside. "I won't harm you."
Her breathing quickened, chest rising and falling in panicked bursts. Her hazel eyes darted across the room, searching for an escape, only to realize there was none. She was weak, cornered, and at his mercy.
Zakar lowered himself slowly onto one knee, careful not to move too quickly. "Listen. I carried you here after the attack. You were unconscious. If I meant you harm…" His words lingered heavily in the air, calm but weighted with truth. "…you wouldn't still be breathing."
The tremor in her shoulders stilled slightly. She studied him with wide, cautious eyes, her grip on the sheet relaxing just a fraction.
He offered the faintest of nods. "My name is Zakar. And you are?"
There was hesitation, silence so long he thought she might refuse. But at last, her lips parted. "Carene…" she whispered, the name fragile as glass.
"My name is Carene."
Zakar let the name settle on his tongue, repeating it softly as though to anchor her fear. "Carene. Good. You're safe now, Carene."
"What… what happened to me?" she asked, her voice breaking as she tried to sit upright. She winced, clutching her side. "The others, they were with me."
Zakar's chest tightened. He had been dreading this moment.
He met her eyes, his own steady but shadowed with regret. "When I found you… you were the only one still alive."
Carene froze. Her lips parted, no sound emerging at first. Then, after a pause, she forced the words out, brittle and trembling. "The others? My team? You must have seen them. Three men they were with me."
Her gaze was desperate, as though begging him to contradict what her heart already feared.
Zakar lowered his head, the weight of truth pressing against him. "I'm sorry. They didn't make it."
The words cracked her composure. Her hazel eyes glistened, her throat tightening as she shook her head violently. "No… no, you're lying. They they can't be dead. I know they wanted to rape me but I never wished them death." Her voice broke, choked by tears. She buried her face into her trembling hands, shoulders shaking with quiet sobs.
Zakar's jaw clenched. He had seen death countless times, but the grief of those left behind never became easier to witness. And this time, it was worse because he wasn't just an observer. He was a liar standing at the edge of confession.
He could still see flashes of it. Their deaths, the blood, the savage claws his body had unleashed when the system demanded survival. He hadn't killed them directly, not in his own mind, but he might as well have.
And here sat Carene, broken by loss, clinging to the memory of men who would never return. If only he had a heart like hers. It would be such a beauty.
He forced himself to speak. "Someone… or something… struck them down. By the time I reached the scene, it was already too late."
Carene's sobs slowed. She pulled her hands from her face, eyes red and swollen, and stared at him as though trying to decide whether to believe him. "You… you saw it? The one who killed them?"
Zakar hesitated. His throat tightened with the truth he could never voice. He couldn't tell her the monster was him. That beneath his skin lurked the same darkness that had devoured her comrades.
So he did what he always did— he lied.
"I don't know what it was," he murmured, his gaze shifting to the floor. "But it wasn't human."
The words seemed to confirm her fears. She drew the blanket tighter around herself, shivering though the room was warm.
"We should've never come here," she whispered bitterly. "We weren't ready for this mission. This place might be as well hell."
Zakar shook his head firmly. "Don't blame yourself. Their deaths weren't your fault." His voice grew steadier, edged with conviction.
"Sometimes the world is cruel. Sometimes it takes even when we fight with everything we have. Besides they are gone. No one would disturb you now."
Carene's eyes flickered toward him, damp with grief but touched faintly by his words.
"Why would you even care? You don't know me."
Zakar met her gaze directly, the weight of his own pain heavy in his voice. "Because I know what it feels like to be preyed upon."
Silence lingered between them, softer now, filled not with fear but with quiet understanding. Carene's shoulders sagged as her sobs ebbed into weary breaths. For the first time since she'd awoken, she looked at him without recoiling.
Zakar leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes briefly. He was exhausted.
Not because the system demanded it. Not because fate had thrust her into his path. But because for once, he needed to prove to her, to Myia, to himself that he was not the monster that his system wants him to be.
When the faint murmur of voices echoed in the hall, signaling Sera and Myia's return from dinner, Zakar drew in a deep breath. The mask of calm settled back over his features.
Carene still watched him warily, but she no longer looked ready to run. And that, for Zakar, was enough for now.
Because soon, the others would walk through that door. And once again, he would have to lie.