He disgusted me to the core. I watched what was happening as if from the side, paralyzed. With pain, but not without a certain thrill, for which I despised myself. I didn’t understand what he actually wanted from me. And I was curious, though all I truly wanted was to disappear from here. To transform into something else entirely. To start over, as if none of this had ever happened.

He didn’t want much. And he soon vanished on his own. Gone. For a moment, I wondered if it was I who had annihilated him—my memory of those events was too hazy. But there was no evidence of that. No one seemed surprised, no one raised an alarm; everything carried on as usual.

I returned to myself. I looked at the world again through the eyes of a boy. The world was hostile. And I was completely alone.