The streets stretched out before Joyce, dark and hollow, their silence pressing in like a weight. Each step sent a sharp pulse of pain through her side, a deep, insistent ache gnawing at the edges of her focus. Blood seeped through torn fabric, warm and steady, but Joyce barely registered it. There wasn’t time. Not for pain. Not for hesitation. The scent of burning thickened the air, curling into her lungs like a whisper of ruin. She could see it now—the glow ahead, flickering orange against the deep black of the sky. The facility.
What if she had gotten to him first? What if she had done to him what she had done to Joyce? Or worse—what if she had killed him? Just like she killed— Joyce clenched her jaw, a sound—half growl, half ragged breath—ripping from her throat. She wouldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t. That was how that monster worked, how she erased people, how she cut through lives like they meant nothing. That’s how she ended her friend. That’s why Joyce had to get to Notori first. She had to find him. Make sure he was alive. Make sure he was breathing. Make sure he was still kicking.
Flames devoured the walls, their hungry tendrils licking skyward, turning steel and stone into a collapsing inferno. Smoke rolled thick and endless, blotting out the stars. Too late. The thought pressed against her ribs, cold and suffocating. And then—movement. A shadow against the fire. A figure, weightless, untethered. Notori. The flickering light caught him in sharp flashes—here, then gone—like a ghost slipping between worlds.
Relief should have come. It didn’t. Because he wasn’t looking back. He wasn’t searching for her. He was leaving. Her breath hitched, sharp and shallow. Shit. The word barely left her lips before she turned on her heel. She had to move. Now. Because she knew what came next. Notori’s job was done. But hers—hers was just beginning.
The scent of smoke clung to her as she pushed forward, her steps uneven, every breath a battle against the dizziness clawing at her vision. The pain in her side flared, sharp and searing, but she forced herself to ignore it. The streets stretched ahead, winding and empty, but the silence wasn’t safe—it was a warning. She could feel it. The weight of something inevitable pressing in.
Death. The mafia’s executioner. Their shadow. A killer who left no traces, no survivors. She would come. And if Joyce was still here when she did, there would be no way out. The thought sent a jolt of urgency through her, forcing her battered body to move faster, but the world wavered at the edges, tilting beneath her feet. Blood loss. The warmth trickled down her skin, soaking into her clothes, a steady reminder of how much she had already given. Too much.
Her breath came in short, shallow bursts. She pressed harder against her earpiece, desperation curling in her gut. Notori. Answer me. Silence. Again. Her fingers curled into a fist, nails biting into her palm. He was alive—she saw him. But he hadn’t answered. Hadn’t even looked for her. And in the back of her mind, the worst possibilities took root like poison, spreading through her thoughts, tightening their grip around her ribs.
The weight of the past coiled around her, thick and suffocating, pressing against her ribs like an iron grip. Joyce forced it down, burying the rising tide of memories beneath the raw urgency pulsing through her veins. She couldn’t afford to slow. Not now. Not when the fire behind her still roared, eating away at the last remnants of the facility, at the evidence, at the dead. Not when Notori didn’t look back. Didn’t saw her.
She pushed forward, legs burning, lungs raw. The forest loomed ahead, dark and vast, stretching out like an open maw, ready to swallow her whole. But it wasn’t a threat—it was her only chance. Her only salvation. The promise of its shadowed embrace was the only thing keeping her upright. Just a little more. Just a few more steps. She was close—so close—
And then—
The air shattered. A gunshot cracked through the night, swift and final. Pain exploded through her, white-hot and merciless. The bullet struck deep, a brutal punch of force knocking her off balance, stealing the breath from her lungs before she could even gasp.
She staggered. The world tilted, her vision warping, blurring, twisting around the raw agony blooming in her side. But the pain—that wasn’t what made her freeze. It was the other feeling, the one creeping in slow and insidious, threading through her veins like poisoned silk. Wrong. Wrong. The sickness spread, curling around her bones, sinking deep into her flesh. A tremor rolled through her, her body seizing, her breath catching on something sharp and cold.
Notori had warned her about this.
She gritted her teeth, tried to move, but the sensation only grew. It wasn’t just pain. It wasn’t just the bullet. It was taking something. Twisting. Corrupting. Unraveling. It slithered through her muscles, dug deep into her marrow, and—
She felt it. The shift. The peeling, the separation, like something inside her was being ripped away. Her will. Her self. The realization hit harder than the bullet, a cold spike of dread cutting through the haze of pain.
Her breath hitched. Her fingers twitched. A scream clawed its way up her throat, desperate and raw—
But no sound came.
Her knees buckled. Strength bled from her limbs, draining out like sand slipping through desperate fingers. Her body sagged, the world shrinking, fading, dissolving into the endless pull of darkness. She hit the ground hard, but she barely felt it. The cold seeped in, numbing, erasing. Her skin—once flushed, once burning—drained to a sickly, ashen gray.
And the last thing she felt before the abyss swallowed her whole—
Was nothing at all.
***
Lili moved like a shadow through the forest, her steps silent, precise, her breath steady despite the wild, ravenous excitement clawing at her insides. The scent of blood was thick now, seeping into the damp air, mingling with the earthy rot of leaves and the distant, dying smoke from the destroyed facility. The green glow ahead flickered like a heartbeat, frantic and uneven, pulsing stronger with every step she took, but it was the crimson streaks on the ground that held her gaze. The blood trail had changed—what had been a few scattered drops had grown into something more, something desperate. The one she hunted was bleeding out, their life spilling carelessly across the forest floor, marking the path for her like a gift wrapped in agony.
A slow, sharp smile stretched across her face, her lips parting just enough to exhale, to taste the damp air laced with the scent of suffering. She was so close now, so incredibly close. And soon—so very soon—this chase would end, and she would have them at her mercy. The thought sent a pulse of dark pleasure through her veins, a deep, rolling satisfaction that settled in her chest like warmth against the cold night. They thought they could escape. The idea was laughable. They thought they could strike her boss’s facility, humiliate her, make her look weak in front of everyone, and walk away unscathed? No. That wasn’t how this worked. That wasn’t how she worked.
Lili wasn’t one to forgive.
Vengeance wasn’t just a desire; it was a need, a fire in her gut, something she carried in her very bones. The humiliation the attacker had forced her to endure burned inside her, coiled tight, waiting to be unleashed. She had felt the judgment, the doubt from Fosin. Had seen the way he watched her after the attack, as if her power—her gift—was lesser, as if she had been bested, as if she was nothing. The weight of it had nearly choked her, pressing against her ribs like iron shackles, but she had swallowed it down, buried it deep beneath a snarl and a sharpened blade.
Now, she would dig her fingers into that wound and tear it open.
Her breath quickened, her limbs tingling with the raw, heady rush of the hunt. She wanted to hear the attacker gasp for air, wanted to see the pain flicker in his or her eyes when they realized they had run straight into her waiting arms. She wanted to see their blood on her hands, wanted to take everything from them the way they had tried to take from her. Make them pay. Make them regret. The thought spiraled, tightening, twisting, wrapping around her mind until there was nothing else.
She pushed forward, faster, feeling the forest blur around her. The thick canopy above swallowed the moonlight, leaving only the eerie green glow ahead to guide her. The trees closed in, their trunks looming, their skeletal branches clawing at the sky. The ground was uneven, roots twisted like grasping fingers, but she barely registered them. Her focus was on the blood, the glow, the presence just beyond her reach.
But then—
Something changed.
Lili didn’t notice at first, too consumed by the chase, too caught up in the thrill, the anticipation of the inevitable. But the wrongness crept in slowly, needling at the edges of her awareness like a whisper against her skin. The glow—too erratic, pulsing too wildly, flickering in a way that wasn’t natural. The blood—too much, pooling too fast, spreading too wide.
Something was wrong.
Her steps slowed, hesitation flickering like a dying ember. Her heartbeat hammered against her ribs, the thrill of the hunt now tangled with something colder, something darker. Was this a trap? No—if it was, it was a terrible one. A trap required control. This was… falling apart.
The realization settled in her stomach like a stone, a heavy, sinking weight.
And then—
She saw it.
Her body locked up mid-step, breath catching in her throat. The moment her eyes landed on it, the thrill, the hunger, the satisfaction that had carried her this far—vanished. The smile was gone, ripped from her face as if it had never been there at all.
A slow, creeping chill slithered through her veins, pressing against her spine, curling beneath her skin. Lili had seen something like this before. Once. She had dismissed it then, brushed it aside, convinced herself it wasn’t important. That it couldn’t be important.
But now—
Now, standing here, staring at the truth unraveling before her—
Her world was crumbling all over again…
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