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Soon,he thought.

He would do the right thing soon.

Not now, not just yet, but soon.

Because even if he no longer let himself see her, no longer let himself hear her, the thought - the sheer possibility that Pippi might still think of herself as his...

It was the only thing that kept him going these days, and he needed it like he needed air to breathe.

So soon...but not just yet.

Soon.

He just wanted, needed a little bit more time, even if it only meant having the right to remember how things used to be.

Soon.

But life refused to cooperate, and the end came sooner than Acheron expected, and it was so much worse than he could have ever foreseen.



















Twenty-Five

THE ANATOMY OF VIRALposts on social media always started with a fork in the road - those that were meant to inspire positive feelings...and those that weren't. The happy ones: anything from cat videos to stories of Good Samaritans and the proverbial prodigal son - these almost always had an organic reach while the not-so-happy ones generated likes through paid boosts and advertising behind the scenes. The ones that inspire rarely had a quantifiable objective in mind while the other type almost always had a target.

The one thing both types of viral posts had in common was how it caused people to inevitably expose their true colors. Good or bad, posts were shared by people because it made them feel.

Some posts inspired people to become better, and they wanted others to become better, too.

Some posts made people feel envy, and misery always loved company.

And then there was that last kind of post.

Posts that were meant to hurt, to humiliate, and ruin other people's lives.

People shared these posts, too.

Even if they didn't have to, even if they had to lie to themselves and conceal their trails through private messages -