Free Web NovelThe room was very dark.
The curtains were all drawn, and no lamps were lit.
The twilight glow filtered in from behind her, casting a long shadow on the floor.
Her shadow.
There was a smell in the air.
Lillian stood at the doorway, wrinkling her nose.
What was that smell?
The smell of rust.
Coppery.
And something else.
She couldn't quite place it for a moment.
She just felt... something was wrong.
Very wrong.
"Auntie?"
Her voice became very soft, as if she were afraid of waking something up.
There was no response.
She took a step inside.
Her soles pressed against the floor, letting out a faint creak.
Another step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness.
Then, she saw the living room.
The table was overturned.
Documents were scattered everywhere like paper snow.
A chair was broken in two, the wood fibers at the break sticking up as if it had been snapped by force.
The map on the wall—she remembered that map covered in circles and arrows—was now torn to shreds, hanging in strips like some eerie decoration.
The wall clock had fallen to the floor, its glass shattered, the hands stopped at a time that would never move again.
3:17.
Teacups were broken.
Books were scattered.
A mandolin had been smashed to pieces, its strings tangled like a mess of thread.
Fragments were everywhere.
Shattered glass, shattered porcelain, shredded paper, splintered wood.
It was as if something had exploded here.
A massive rage.
Or a massive despair.
Or both.
Lillian's breathing began to quicken.
She wanted to turn and run.
Now, immediately, right away.
Don't go any further in.
Don't look at things you shouldn't see.
Don't—
But her feet wouldn't obey.
They carried her further inside.
One step.
Another step.
Through the living room.
Through the hallway.
The hallway was even darker.
The walls on both sides felt like they were pressing inward, making it hard for her to breathe.
That smell in the air was getting stronger.
The smell of rust.
The coppery scent.
And—
She finally remembered what that smell was.
Blood.
It was the smell of blood.
At the end of the hallway, there was a door.
The door was ajar.
A faint light filtered through the crack.
Lillian's heart was pounding.
So fast that she could hear it thumping against her chest.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Like someone knocking on a door.
Like someone trying to escape from her body.
She stood before the door.
Her hands were shaking violently.
She didn't want to push this door open.
She didn't want to at all.
But she pushed it anyway.
Blood. freewebnoveℓ.com
There was blood everywhere.
On the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling.
Dark red, already coagulated blood gleamed with a sickening, dull luster in the faint light.
In some places, it had already turned black.
In others, it was still slowly seeping out.
The entire room looked as if it had been soaked in a pool of blood and then pulled out.
Lillian's stomach lurched.
Acid surged up her throat.
She bit her lip hard, suppressing the urge to vomit.
Can't vomit.
Can't make a sound.
Can't—
Then, she saw the thing in the center of the room.
No.
Not a thing.
A person.
It used to be a person.
A man.
Lying on the floor.
Face up.
The face of a usar person, or rather, what used to be the face of a usar person.
Now, that face had been beaten out of shape.
The bridge of the nose had collapsed as if it had been struck heavily by something.
The lips were split, revealing broken teeth scattered one by one across the chin.
Half the face was swollen like a steamed bun, a mess of blue and purple, making it impossible to tell if it was bruising or decay.
The joints of the fingers were bent at impossible angles.
Every single one.
Every single one had been snapped.
Below the knees, both legs were twisted like pretzels.
White bone protruded from the skin, stained with dark red blood and an unknown fluid.
Lillian's mind went blank.
Her mouth was open, but she couldn't make a sound.
Her eyes were wide, but she didn't dare look any further.
She wanted to run.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to do something.
Anything.
But her body felt frozen.
Motionless.
Only tears flowed silently down her face.
She didn't even know how long she stood there.
Maybe a second.
Maybe a century.
Then, her gaze finally moved away from the corpse.
She saw the words on the wall.
Words written in blood.
Crooked, as if traced stroke by stroke with a finger dipped in blood.
In some places, the blood had dried, the color dull.
In others, it was still dripping down, leaving long bloodstains. freeweɓnøvel.com
Four words.
"Blood for Blood."
Those four words were like a curse, carved into her eyes, carved into her brain.
She would never be able to forget them.
Never.
And then—
Her gaze continued to move.
She saw something in the corner of the room.
Wooden crates.
Several wooden crates.
Stacked together, lopsided.
Wires were connected to the crates.
Red wires, yellow wires, [N O V E L I G H T] blue wires.
The wires were tangled together, leading to a ticking device.
A small black box.
There was a row of numbers on the box.
Red.
Glowing.
Pulsing.
00:09
00:08
00:07
Lillian didn't know many words.
But she knew this.
All the children of the Old City knew this.
After so many years of war, who hadn't seen a few bombs?
Maybe in news pictorials.
Maybe in the ruins on a street corner.
A bomb.
That was a bomb.
00:06
00:05
Her brain finally broke free from that blankness.
Fear poured down from the top of her head like ice water, freezing every nerve in her body.
Then, those nerves all caught fire at once.
Run.
Run.
Run!
She turned.
Slammed into the doorframe.
Pain exploded from her shoulder.
She didn't care.
She ran out.
Stumbling.
Through the hallway.
Through the living room.
Kicking something over.
She didn't know what it was.
It didn't matter.
00:04
She rushed toward the front door.
The door was still open.
The twilight light was at the doorway.
The exit.
Safety.
Must survive!
Mom and her little sister still needed her!
00:03
Her foot crossed the threshold.
Steps.
One, two, three—
She jumped down.
While in the air, she heard a sound from behind her—
00:02
She hadn't landed yet.
00:01
00:00
Light.
The world turned into pure white light.
A searing, blinding, all-consuming white light.
As if the sun had risen from behind her.
As if the whole world had been set on fire.
Then came the sound.
A massive, deafening roar.
As if the sky had exploded above her head.
As if the earth had torn open beneath her feet.
The shockwave hit her from behind.
Like a giant hand.
An invisible, searing, angry hand.
It grabbed her back and gave a violent shove—
Her body left the ground.
Flying.
Spinning.
Tumbling.
The world became a chaotic blur of colors—gray, orange, black, white—all spinning rapidly before her eyes.
She couldn't tell up from down, left from right.
She couldn't tell sky from earth.
She only knew she was flying.
Like a fallen leaf swept up by the wind.
Like a stone that had been thrown.
Then, she fell.
Thud.
Her back slammed onto the stone-paved road.
Pain exploded.
Exploding from her spine to her limbs.
Exploding from her flesh to her bones.
Her mouth opened, wanting to scream, but no sound came from her throat.
Only a breath was knocked out of her chest.
Ugh.
A dull groan.
She lay on the ground.
Unable to move.
Face up.
Looking at the sky above.
The sky had turned orange-red.
No.
It wasn't the sky that had changed color.
It was fire.
Fire was everywhere.
Flames rose from all directions, dyeing the entire sky red, dyeing the whole world red.
