Chapter Twenty-One – After She’s Gone
He didn't move for a long time.
Just knelt there in the ash and rot, breath stuttering like a dying engine.
Mia's footsteps were gone.
The scent of her—faint shampoo, childhood memories clawing at his brain—already fading.
Matt stared at the floor.
At nothing.
> "You said the pain made you feel real… is that what I was?"
The words echoed like bullets ricocheting in his skull.
He tried to breathe. Couldn't.
Tried to scream. Wouldn't.
The rot in his chest—the guilt, the rage, the grief—it didn't hollow him.
It filled him.
He didn't cry.
He didn't break the way normal men break.
Instead, he went still.
Dangerously still.
---
Leon found him ten minutes later.
He stood in the doorway, frozen at what he saw:
Matt.
Sitting upright now, eyes forward, empty.
Hands resting gently on his knees.
Like he was in prayer.
Like he'd already died and was waiting for the world to catch up.
Leon took a step forward.
"Matt…"
No answer.
Just silence.
He saw the edge of the scalpel in Matt's hand—wiped clean. Not fresh. Just present.
Leon crouched.
"She came and went, didn't she?"
Matt's jaw moved. Barely.
"I think," he said softly, "that was goodbye."
Leon looked him over.
"You gonna stay down?"
Matt didn't blink.
"No," he said.
He stood.
Eyes like broken glass.
"She saw who I am now."
Leon's voice was quiet. "And?"
Matt looked him in the face.
"And now I don't have to hide it anymore."