Chapter 114 Cautious Steps

• The mention of Evan's name felt like a dagger twisting in my chest. Though the wound was fresh, it bled no more tears. I was beyond grief, beyond sorrow—what remained was a void filled with a cold, unrelenting determination. The pain of his loss was a fire that fueled the madness brewing within me, a madness that demanded retribution, justice, and blood.
• The Sheriff looked into my eyes, but he found no trace of the person I once was. Instead, he saw only the raw, untamed resolve of someone who had nothing left to lose. "I’m sorry for your loss," I muttered, the words hollow and devoid of the warmth they once carried. He nodded in response, his head bobbing with a strange weariness, a burden that went far beyond the physical toll of his age or the monstrous transformation he had undergone. It was the weight of guilt, regret, and unspoken fears that haunted him.
• "Let’s get some rest," he suggested, throwing another plank onto the fire, the flames leaping higher into the night. "We don’t know when we’ll have the chance again." His voice carried the weariness of someone who had seen too much, endured too much, and yet knew that the worst was still to come.