The Question I’ve been carrying hung in the choking smoke like a blade poised to fall. I walked through the collapsing corridor, flames licking at the walls, concrete dust coating my throat with every breath. Kane’s soldiers dragged Justin ahead of me, his body a limp, convulsing weight between them. His bare feet left bloody smears on the shattered floor. The neutral sensitizer kept him trembling violently, every nerve raw and screaming. His head lolled, but his eyes — those once-proud golden eyes — tracked me with desperate, broken intensity. I stopped at the edge of the evacuation tunnel entrance, hidden behind a reinforced medical vault. The soldiers halted, sensing the shift in the air. I stepped forward, voice low and cutting through the roar of collapsing beams. “Ask it,” I said. “Ask the question you’ve been carrying since the night you watched them break me.” Justin’s lips moved, cracked and bleeding. The soldiers gripped him tighter, but he forced the words out i
Last Updated : 2026-07-30 Read more