( The bitter shift is not surprising given the prelude, but it's certainly a step further than the sort of positive face Ginger had at first presented; which was truer, this or that? Mika's no master of insight, but he thinks he trusts how this raw wound bleeds more than he trusts any honey-tongued platitude. )

... If that's all that's left, be angry.

( Is that healthy? No. But who cares? )

Angry. Sad. Hurt. It's better than being empty. ( Not feeling anything, not being anything but your basest self— in his case, a vampire, a monster, a parasite, a thing. ) Better than lying to yourself. You'll collapse under the weight of it eventually.

( And you'll catch other people in the collapse, your own selfish stupidity, if you're unlucky. )