Noel stood in the dark office under the low red emergency lights. Damien’s blood still marked the carpet in uneven patches. Gabriel’s bandaged hand hung at his side, the white gauze already stained. Police sirens wailed somewhere far below the building, rising and falling without ever getting closer. The air smelled of antiseptic and iron. Footsteps echoed through the empty hallways, too many of them, coming from every direction at once. Noel moved through the corridors looking for his mother. He did not know how he knew she was here, only that she had to be. He passed overturned chairs and scattered files. The emergency lights flickered and cast long shadows that moved when he was not looking directly at them. “Mom?” Noel called her name once, the sound disappeared into the quiet space without a response. At the end of the longest hallway a woman stood with her back to him. She wore a pale blue sweater Noel somehow recognized from a single childhood photograph he was no longer s
最後更新 : 2026-08-18
