The abandoned building stood deep inside the forest, near Yami's old school.
As soon as she saw the faded school emblem on the wall, memories flooded back.
Her childhood home.
Her father had loved science.
Not casually.
Obsessively.
Their basement had been a private laboratory.
Metal tables. Chemical bottles. Tools. Mechanical watches ticking endlessly.
Her father always said:
"Science brings control. Noise destroys control."
Her mother had been different.
Loud. Emotional. Angry.
Arguments filled the house every night.
"Earn something!"
"Do something!"
"You and your useless machines!"
Yami remembered covering her ears.
Then one night—
Silence.
Her mother was found dead.
Police believed her father killed her.
Soon after, he was found dead too. Ruled a suicide.
The house was sealed.
Yami was sent away.
She grew up believing her father was a murderer.
Now, standing outside that abandoned forest house, she felt something was wrong.
Very wrong.