Two beings born from the same tree: an angel and a demon. One born of light and the other of darkness.
And for the first time, the demon saw the difference between them.
In that instant, something awakened inside him. His eyes, which had once seen the world only through violence and selfishness, turned completely dark, eclipsing his pupils with the red outline of his irises.
With those eyes, he was able to see far beyond the surface of the skin, and what he discovered inside when he looked at the woman was her heart. There, before his eyes, it shone with a soft and pure light, something he had never seen. Her heart was beautiful, full of kindness and love.
Now the demon wanted to see inside his own body. He searched within, deep into the darkness inside his chest, but when he tried to look within…
He saw only darkness.
The contrast shook him to his core. Hours passed, and no light appeared within him. The more time he spent with the woman, the more he understood that something was deeply broken inside him. Dazed, the demon saw what lay within.
He had two hearts.
One of his hearts beat strongly, full of fury, selfishness, and desire. The other, however, was still, cold, completely dormant. He wondered if perhaps that second heart was the same as the one the woman had, a heart that beat with compassion and light. But why wasn't his moving? What made him different from her? The angel had only one heart, one that shone brightly, while he had two, and neither could shine in the same way.
Envy and frustration consumed him. How was it possible that, having two hearts, he could never make either one shine like the woman's? That sense of helplessness grew into a deep hatred for himself. In a fit of desperation, the demon decided he didn't deserve to endure this torment any longer. So, clenching his fist tightly...
He reached with his own hands, and with his claws, he pierced his chest.
The demon grabbed the heart that still beat, the heart full of rage and darkness, and ripped it out violently. Black blood gushed from the wound as he held his own heart in his hand, but he felt no relief, no release. Instead, a deep sadness overcame him. His other heart, dormant, still remained, unmoving and lifeless.
His envy was drawn to the woman.
The demon realized, too late, that it wasn't about tearing out the heart that beat with hatred. What he needed was to learn how to awaken what had remained dormant inside him all that time. And so, his life faded, extinguishing the light in his eyes.
When the woman awoke, she found the demon lying next to her, dead, with his own heart in his hand. The angel's first reaction was silence, as shock paralyzed her.
She didn't understand what she was seeing... Why had he died?
Why had his heart been torn out? She couldn't comprehend it...
What had driven him to such an act of desperation? No matter how much she thought, she couldn't find an answer...
What do I do now? I'm all alone...
The more questions she asked, the deeper her confusion and pain became. The angel, who had never felt the weight of sadness, began to experience something dark inside her. In her heart, which now beat in agony, a darkness emerged that had never existed within her.
For the first time in existence, an angel began to cry.
Tears rolled down her face, and as she held the demon's cold heart in her hands, she realized she couldn't stop the torrent of unfamiliar emotions.
The water spilling from her eyes wouldn't stop… What is this?
Why am I crying? she wondered. But deep down, she knew: it was sadness, a grief so profound that she had never known before. She felt an emptiness opening inside her. With trembling hands, she held the demon's lifeless heart and murmured between sobs:
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry. It's my fault, everything is my fault."
Every tear that fell from her eyes shone with a soft, pure light, a reflection of her own soul. When those tears touched the demon's bloodstained face, something unexpected happened: his eyes, which had been closed in death, began to open slowly. And the first thing he saw was the figure of the angel, her hands covering her face, crying inconsolably.
The demon, confused and weak, reached out his hand to her, gently touching her arm. "Why are you crying?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper, filled with wonder.
The angel raised her head in disbelief. It couldn't be real. How was it possible that he was alive after what he had done? But there he was, looking at her with those same eyes that had seen darkness. Seeing that he was conscious, a wave of relief and happiness flooded her heart. All her sadness was replaced by a radiant light that illuminated her entire being.
With tears still in her eyes, the angel embraced him tightly, as if time had stopped beside him. "I thought you were dead," she whispered emotionally, her words interwoven with sobs. The demon, still dazed, felt something new within him. It wasn't simply the fact of being brought back to life; it was the realization that, for the first time, someone was crying for him—not out of fear or suffering, but out of love.
The angel continued to hold him, feeling his warmth return little by little. "Don't leave again," she softly pleaded, clinging to him, while the demon, still not fully understanding what had happened, simply held her in silence.
The demon looked at his own heart, still in his hand, and recalled what had occurred. "It's true... I tore out my heart to be like you." His words were an echo of his own confusion and desire. The angel looked at him with doubt and tenderness, tilting her head gently. "Why?" she asked.