Chapter 21: Learning the Monster

  Cassian clenched his jaw, his grip tightening on the file. The words sprawled across the pages were damning—detached descriptions of death, of people disposed of like they were nothing more than insects beneath Cassian Starfall’s boot.

  "This is clear now... Cassian Starfall enjoyed killing… and he was a psychopath…"

  His mind raced Try to decipher the information he found.

  Did the people in this house know?—had they been aware of the kind of monster their young master truly was?

  And if they did…

  "I need to act like him?"

  He had spent years surviving by blending in, by becoming what people expected him to be. But this? This wasn’t just playing a role.

  This was stepping into the skin of someone utterly inhuman, not that it would be hard.

  Cassian swallowed, flipping through more pages. There were names. Villages. People who had simply ceased to exist at Cassian Starfall’s whim. And what was worse—these weren’t just personal indulgences. They were ordered. Documents. These records weren’t just a killer’s amusement. Well Preserve for someone.

  Which meant—

  "Fuck. Where have I gotten myself into?"

  Cassian exhaled sharply, snapping the file shut. His mind was working too fast, thoughts overlapping, pieces of the puzzle locking into place faster than he could process them.

  This wasn’t just about a cruel young heir.

  This was systematic. Planned.

  The real Cassian Starfall wasn’t just a psychopath.

  He was useful to someone

  Someone who wanted these atrocities documented.

  Cassian rubbed a hand over his face. He needed to tread carefully. If anyone in this house knew who the real Cassian was, then any deviation in his behavior could make them suspicious.

  And if whoever had been listening outside the door had any inkling that he wasn’t who he claimed to be…

  He couldn’t let that happen.

  "First things first. Act normal, the 'normal' expected of a monster like him."

  Cassian glanced at Sky, still fast asleep, his small chest rising and falling with soft, even breaths. A faint tremor ran through his limbs, a subtle vulnerability that pricked at something cold within Cassian.

  He didn’t have the luxury of panic. He had someone to protect.

  With one final exhale, he forced himself to set the files back in order. He would come back to them later. But for now—

  He had a role to play.

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  And he couldn’t afford to get it wrong.

  Cassian sat motionless, staring at the dimly lit room, the weight of the files still heavy in his hands. His mind raced through possibilities, calculations, survival tactics.

  "How does he live?"

  It wasn’t just about mimicking cruelty or indifference. No—Cassian Starfall had been more than just unhinged. He had been meticulous. Controlled. Respected.

  That meant he had a method. A system. And if the people in this house were used to him—if they had known about his monstrous tendencies—then any deviation could expose him.

  His fingers drummed lightly against the wooden desk, a quiet, rhythmic sound in the silence.

  "How did he behave? How did he talk? "

  Cassian shut his eyes, recalling the diary, the letters, the details written in the files. Cold. Precise. There had been no excessive flourish, no unnecessary emotion. Just facts. Actions. Deaths accounted for like numbers on a ledger.

  "Was he a machine, working on orders?"

  Cassian inhaled through his nose, steadying himself. 'Then I’ll be a machine too'.

  He rose from the chair, his movements controlled, his expression a carefully crafted neutrality that bordered on emptiness; walking towards the mirror, he understood his usual guarded gaze was insufficient, and that he needed to strip everything away, leaving a blank canvas.

  A slow breath.

  A blank expression.

  He rolled his shoulders back, relaxed but deliberate. His stance had to be firm, calculated, as if every move was meant to intimidate without trying.

  He let his lips curl—just slightly. Not into a smirk, not into amusement. Just enough to suggest that he knew something others didn’t. That he enjoyed knowing more than them.

  "I am Cassian Starfall."

  The thought settled, heavy in his chest.

  He turned away from the mirror.

  'If I’m going to survive this, I can’t just act like him.'

  "I have to become him."

  With that, he walked toward the desk once more and opened another file. If he was going to play the part of a monster, he needed to know every move the real Cassian had made.

  And most importantly—

  He needed to know who had been pulling the strings behind him.

  Cassian’s gaze flickered toward the child, curled up in the thick blankets, his small form rising and falling with each slow breath.

  'Did the real Cassian truly care for his brother? Or was it all just another performance? I would say performance'

  His fingers curled into a loose fist as he thought back to the diary. It had been neat, precise—clinical. Even his personal thoughts were written like reports, observations about people, their weaknesses, their tendencies.

  Cassian sighed.

  He needed to break this down logically.

  If the real Cassian had been a monster, then why had Sky—who was still too young---never felt that? Children were good at picking up unspoken things. Even if Cassian Starfall had pretended to love Sky, there would have been something that felt wrong.

  Yet, Sky had said, “My brother loved me.”

  "Did he really? Hmm... or did this kid lie?"

  Cassian pushed himself up from the chair, the wood creaking softly beneath him. He moved to the desk, his movements deliberate, almost predatory, and stared down at the documents. His fingers traced the edges of a particularly thick report, a flicker of something akin to fascination in his eyes.

  He began flipping through them again, this time with a different focus. The murders, the strategies, the hidden reports—they were all important, but now he was looking for something else.

  'How many people had truly known what Cassian Starfall was beneath his mask?'