As he was about to go down the stairs, Liam's body suddenly stiffened. Halfway down, that nightmare abruptly resurfaced in his mind.
"What is actually happening to me, damn it," he whispered softly, confused as he searched for a way to erase the lingering influence of the nightmare.
He let out a quiet laugh, trying to calm himself, then continued down the stairs and left the apartment. Five minutes later, his steps brought him to the entrance of the roundabout park.
As he turned the corner, he accidentally bumped into a man wearing a brown shirt beneath a neat black suit. Liam took a step back and froze, his mind going blank for a moment.
"Are you alright?" the man asked, waving his hand right in front of Liam's face.
Liam jolted, then waved his hands quickly. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry," he said hastily before walking past him.
The man only laughed, straightened his suit, and then walked away from the park, merging into the surrounding crowd.
Meanwhile, Liam continued along the footpath. Far ahead, the path split into two directions, blocked partially by bushes and creeping plants. He chose the right path, thinking it would lead him faster to the shady tree where they usually met.
After that, from a distance, Liam saw two people sitting on a long bench beneath the shady tree. One of them was none other than Forn, accompanied by a man with a clean face, brown eyes, wearing a shirt beneath a black suit and a round hat on his head.
Liam kept walking, intending to greet them. But Forn quickly noticed his presence. She stopped her conversation with the man beside her and stood up to welcome him.
"You're late."
Liam let out a small laugh. "Sorry, sorry I'm late," he replied, casting a sharp glance at the man who was observing him.
Forn turned and pointed toward the man. "This is Mr. Albert, the person I mentioned earlier. Coincidentally, he isn't busy today."
"And he's an influential figure in this city," Forn added in a low voice.
"Ahh, an influential person, huh?"
Liam thought as he scratched his cheek.
Albert smiled faintly and stood up. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Albert Hammond," he said politely, bowing slightly as he placed his round hat against his chest.
Liam nodded. After that, Albert gestured for the two of them to sit beside him. Liam sat on the left, while Forn took the right.
"So… are you curious about the black spot on the victim's neck?" Albert asked, placing his round hat on his lap.
Forn suddenly pinched Albert's thigh, making his body jerk slightly.
"What was that?" he whispered softly, staring intensely at Forn.
"It's nothing," Forn replied with a small smile.
Albert frowned, then turned back, waiting for an answer to his earlier question. Meanwhile, Liam was confused by their exchange.
He let out a breath, not to answer, but to ask again. "So, was there any other mark, like something unusual on the wrist?" Liam reflexively glanced at his own wrist afterward.
Albert's eyes widened. An incident from two years ago suddenly flashed through his mind. He turned his head, his expression abruptly changing, his pupils dilating. Liam felt fear creep in as Albert suddenly turned back and stared at him.
"Sir, why are you looking at me like that?" Liam asked in shock, holding his breath.
Ignoring Liam's words, Albert continued staring, trying to suppress the anger rising within him. Behind them, Forn, who had just snapped out of her daze, didn't understand what was happening between the two, so she quickly stood up to ease the tension.
"Hey, what's going on?" she asked anxiously, feeling something was off, her gaze drifting to the street as she faintly caught fragments of their conversation.
Albert's pupils, which had been dilated, returned to normal. He exhaled, and the anger he had been holding back slowly faded.
"It's nothing. I just remembered it again," he said, covering his face with both hands.
Forn didn't understand what he meant. She shook her head and sat back down. Meanwhile, Liam's eyes widened as he realized his question had triggered a painful memory for Albert.
"Should I apologize to him right now?"
Liam thought, filled with guilt.
He stood up, looked at Albert, then immediately bowed his head. "I'm sorry if my words upset you," he said anxiously, closing his eyes.
Albert lowered his hands from his face.
"It's fine," he said as he stood up, continuing, "I've been investigating unnatural deaths for six years." Albert sat back down and gestured for Liam to sit beside him.
Liam quickly sat down. After that, Albert asked both of them to listen carefully to what he was about to say. The information he would share was extremely important, possibly dangerous, and terrifying for those who feared blood or the inner workings of the human body.
Both of them swallowed hard and nodded at the same time. The atmosphere suddenly grew tense. Albert put his hat back on before recounting the horrifying incident from two years ago.
"It happened on a Saturday morning. Around nine o'clock, I saw my older sister looking sad for no clear reason. She cut her right wrist with a kitchen knife, and blood splattered everywhere, turning the living room into a scene of tension."
"Saturday? This can't just be a coincidence, can it?"
Liam thought in disbelief.
Albert took a deep breath before continuing.
"And strangely, the wound closed again. The cycle repeated, closing and reopening. Seeing that, I couldn't do anything, not because I was afraid, but because there was some kind of strange barrier protecting my sister. And at the climax, she herself guided the knife into her heart, committing suicide, and that invisible barrier finally disappeared."
"It was a horrifying sight… That's all I can tell you," he said as he stood up.
"No way… that's exactly what happened to Zavi."
Panic was written all over Liam's face.
He looked up at the brown leaves on the branches above. Since the first moment he saw Liam, Albert had been thinking about one thing—the sense of comfort he had been waiting for all this time.
Was it just coincidence? That question kept spinning in his mind.
Albert turned around, placing his round hat against his chest. "I'm sorry for staring at you earlier. Every time I hear the word 'wrist,' I remember that incident," he said, lowering his head in guilt.
Liam responded by standing and placing his left hand on Albert's shoulder. "Don't worry," he said softly, even though fear still lingered inside him.
Hearing that, Albert felt relieved. He put his hat back on and discreetly handed Liam a piece of paper without Forn noticing. It contained his home address along with a warning.
Liam's eyes widened. He knew there was another meaning behind that slip of paper. He let out a small laugh and slipped it into his trouser pocket.
Albert turned and glanced at Liam once more. He bid farewell to both of them, walked away, and returned to his home.
Meanwhile, Forn suspected nothing. "Are you satisfied with your curiosity now?"
"No," Liam answered shortly, staring blankly ahead.
Hearing that, Forn was startled and asked again to make sure. "What do you mean? I don't understand the way you're thinking now, Zavi."
Liam let out a quiet laugh. The information was already more than enough. He understood that Albert's sister's death was the same kind of death Zavi had experienced a few days ago. And after thinking it through, Liam realized that the matching timeframes seemed to indicate that someone had orchestrated all of this.
"Don't worry. I'll head home first," Liam said tiredly. At that moment, he still felt aches throughout his body.
He had come here to seek information, forcing his body to move. And now, he had reached his limit. His body stiffened, freezing in place.
Seeing this, Forn was forced to take Liam to her house so he could recover, unaware that he had stayed at Leo's apartment the night before.
They slowly walked out of the park, Forn supporting Liam's fragile body as they headed toward her house, which wasn't far from the park. Just as they took two steps beyond the gate, a man with long black hair approached them. He wore a worn-out top, part of his face covered by strands of hair, and handed each of them a copy of a newspaper.
The newspaper featured major headlines: the explosion at Eaurealis Castle, the usual political turmoil, discrimination between continents and cities, and reports of strange deaths discovered that morning or in the days before.
Liam read it with widened eyes. His chest tightened. He knew that yesterday's explosion had killed dozens of people, but the reports of strange deaths made him even more uneasy.
"Ugh, what is actually happening to this world?" he murmured softly as he scanned another line of the paper.
Forn turned to Liam, who was silently reading the newspaper. On the other hand, she was still holding her own paper in her right hand without reading it, focusing instead on supporting Liam with her shoulder.
Many people passed by, often bumping into them, and she was even scolded for standing still in the middle of the sidewalk, making the path narrower.
Annoyed, Forn finally decided to keep moving, guiding Liam so they could quickly reach her house.
And she didn't forget to give thirty pence to the newspaper vendor.
Not long after, the two of them arrived at a house directly facing a river with a fairly strong current. Inside the large house, Forn lived with her parents and her younger sibling who was still in school.
Click.
The door opened, and a gust of wind immediately greeted them. The house was empty now, with only Forn and Liam stepping inside. Forn's parents had left for work at six in the morning, while her sibling had gone to school an hour later.
Click… Liam took his watch out of his trouser pocket and opened it. He slowly walked toward the sofa in the living room on the left, watching the hands move.
"It's already 8:20!" Liam exclaimed in shock as he realized it. He sat down abruptly, glanced to the right, and saw Forn still standing by the doorway.
Liam knew that Forn was thinking about something, quietly observing, and choosing not to interfere in other people's affairs, as it could cause trouble for her in the future.
Not long after that thought crossed his mind, Forn stepped forward, turned to the right, and continued on.
She didn't sit on the sofa with Liam to talk. Instead, she hurried up the stairs as if something was troubling her mind.
Liam stood frozen, watching her behavior.
He saw Forn suddenly go up the stairs, come back down, then go up again—about five times.
After that, he waited two or three minutes, but Forn didn't come back down. Curious, Liam's jaw tightened. He stood up and quickly placed the newspaper he was holding on the table.
He climbed the stairs carefully. From a distance, Liam looked down the long corridor ahead of him. The house was very large. Forn's parents had lucrative jobs in the capital, Naitian.
They worked in a steam factory, producing useful goods for daily life in the Kingdom of Norn. Their monthly salary was around five hundred pence, enough to support two children and buy a two-story house in an elite neighborhood with a spacious area.
Despite the house's size, its owners were extremely stingy with lighting in the corners of the second-floor corridors. Liam walked through the minimally lit hallway, making him think twice about ever coming here again.
Even so, he managed to walk without bumping into the surrounding walls, feeling his way along until he found another corridor on his right. Then he moved to check the end of that hallway.
A few seconds later, he saw a white-gold designed door at the end of the corridor standing wide open, with a lantern lying on the floor.
Because the light was dazzling in the darkness, Liam planned to pick up the lantern and use it to search for Forn inside the large house.
Liam stood rigid, staring at the faint glow without blinking. He wondered why the lantern was there, and why the door was open.
"Could it be… is that woman inside that room?"
He said to himself while pointing at the open door, then decided to step forward to take the lantern.
When he reached it, Liam glanced inside the room and saw no one. He frowned, confused.
His gaze shifted back to the lantern at his feet. He bent down, intending to pick it up. But as his hand reached for the handle, the flame suddenly became unstable, swaying left and right as if someone were blowing on it.
Finally, the lantern's flame went out, and darkness swallowed the room once more.
"Huh!?" Liam gasped in shock. There was no strong wind to extinguish it, yet the flame had gone out on its own.
Then he felt a cold wind creeping through the gaps in his shoes, crawling up his legs. His body stiffened, unable to move. He wanted to turn around, to run, but his body refused to obey.
Suddenly, the lantern lit up again. Its dim glow pushed back part of the darkness, and at the same time, Liam was able to move once more.
"Mr. Zavi… can you hear me?"
The voice was cold and echoed through the silent corridor.
No sound followed.
Liam was still trembling as he stared at the lantern intently. Unsure of what had just happened, he slowly lifted it, trying to see if there was anything strange about it.
"Blood?" Liam said in shock, then continued, "No, that can't be…" Suddenly, fear gripped him. He turned around and ran toward the lower floor.
He rushed down the stairs, and when his gaze fell below, Liam was stunned by a horrifying sight: a pool of blood that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the floor leading to the stairs.
He moved closer immediately. Liam grabbed the newspaper from the table and tore off several pieces, rolling them in his hands until they resembled a pencil.
He used it to touch the pool of blood and smell it, trying to determine whether it was human blood or that of a severely injured animal.
Back when he was on Earth, Liam had possessed a strange ability to distinguish between human and animal blood with his unusually sharp sense of smell.
When he smelled animal blood, he sensed a pleasant aroma entering his nose. When he smelled human blood, an unbearable stench immediately assaulted him, making his nose cease to function.
"This blood is very strange," he said after smelling it again, continuing, "No… this isn't human blood or animal blood. Then whose blood is this?" Liam was confused by what he was witnessing.
He shouted, calling Forn's name in a panicked, fearful tone. But after shouting for half a minute, Liam received no answer.
In his panic, he suddenly remembered something. Quickly, Liam pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and read it. It was Albert's home address.
He slipped the paper back into his pocket. After that, he threw the rolled-up newspaper into the pool of blood. He stood up and left the house without searching for Forn, who had suddenly vanished.
The door opened, and Liam stepped outside, not forgetting to close it again, hoping Forn would return. He let out a deep breath before walking away from the house.
However, unexpectedly, the rolled-up newspaper he had thrown into the pool of blood transformed into a strange creature resembling a human, but with two wings beneath its shoulders.
The pool of blood suddenly moved after the creature's appearance, floating and splashing onto every object around it, slowly turning into black flames that gradually consumed the entire house, without Liam's knowledge.