No Face Was Ever Truly Mine
For centuries, they existed alongside humanity—beings with shifting forms, unnatural abilities, and no place to belong. Feared, hunted, and cast into the shadows, they were seen as monsters. Demons. Not because they were, but because it was the only way humans could understand them.
When fear turned to control, they were captured. Experimented on. Locked away in labs deep underground, stripped of their names, their identities, their freedom. To the world above, they were nothing more than forgotten myths. But secrets never stay buried forever.
Sixteen-year-old Ryu Mikael wasn’t thinking about any of that. He had bigger problems—like the homework he forgot to do. Instead of facing another lecture at school, he decided to ditch, heading into the mountains to get some peace and finally finish his work. Away from the noise. Away from everything.
Then he saw him.
A stranger. Standing there, still yet tense, his head tilting slightly—watching. There was something unnatural in the way he moved, like a predator studying prey. Then, in an instant, he lunged.
And Mikael’s life changed forever.
