I turned to look at him like he'd grown another head. Maybe he had. But I wasn't surprised. Not really. Just… confused.
Ivan laughed quietly to himself and went back to his word game like we weren't minutes away from a possible slaughter. His voice drifted in the tense air again, soft but steady. "Humans are bound to die anyway. So what's the use fighting it?"
I frowned. "It's still something a normal person would fear."
"Because we're taught to," he said without missing a beat. "From the moment we're born, it is drilled it into us, that death is the end, that it's something to run from. But… I think… it's not all that bad."
"You only say that because you've never been close to it," I told him flatly. "If you had, you wouldn't sound so damn unbothered."
He shrugged. "Maybe you're right. I've been lucky so far. But the truth is… I just don't care."
