Leonard sat on the couch for a while, watching the television.
The longer he watched, the more restless he beca.
Eventually, he stood up and reached into his pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He tapped one free and rolled it lazily between his fingers.
He rarely smoked; only when sothing weighed heavily on his mind.
For so reason, an inexplicable unease had been gnawing at him all evening. It felt as though an invisible weight were pressing against his chest. He couldn’t explain it, yet the discomfort refused to leave.
"I’m going out for so air," Leonard said to the others.
Thomas and Derek both glanced at the cigarette in his hand and imdiately understood his intentions.
Suzy had already fallen asleep.
The apartnt still had a small balcony that hadn’t been fully sealed off from the outside. Leonard pushed open the balcony door.
An icy gust rushed inside at once. The wind sliced across his face like knives.
Shivering, he zipped his jacket all the way to his chin and positioned himself in a sheltered corner, using the wall to block most of the freezing draft.
A pale moon hung overhead.
Below, the world lay buried beneath endless snow.
Leonard lit the cigarette and took a long drag. The smoke left his lungs only to be instantly torn apart by the wind. He tilted his head back, intending to look at the sky.
Then he froze.
Snow was still falling, but it wasn’t any snow he had ever seen before.
The flakes drifting down looked less like snow and more like ash floating from a distant chimney. Yet they were lighter than ash, thinner, almost weightless, wandering aimlessly through the air as if reluctant to touch the ground.
Leonard narrowed his eyes.
For a mont, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.
He imdiately pulled out a small lamp from his space and switched it on, illuminating the narrow balcony.
Under the light, the strange nature of the snowfall beca even more obvious.
A frown settled on his face.
Instinctively, he stepped backward and crushed out the cigarette while it was still half-smoked.
His gut told him sothing was wrong.
His desire to smoke vanished instantly. Turning around, he headed back inside, intending to tell Suzy and the others about the bizarre snow.
At that exact mont, another powerful gust howled across the balcony.
The wind carried a swirl of gray flakes straight toward him.
Although Leonard reacted quickly and slipped back indoors, one of the strange flakes landed on the back of his hand.
Imdiately, he felt an unnatural chill seep into his skin.
His heart tightened. Lowering his gaze, he watched the flake lt.
But it didn’t lt into water. Instead, it transford into a sticky gray-white substance.
It resembled diluted sludge.
The substance clung to his skin, cold enough to sting, carrying a faint tallic odor mixed with sothing unpleasantly rotten.
"What the hell is this..." Leonard muttered under his breath.
He shook his hand violently, trying to fling it off. The sensation was so revolting that he imdiately headed for the bathroom.
There, he scrubbed his hands repeatedly.
Only after several thorough washes did the uncomfortable feeling finally begin to fade.
Without wasting another second, he hurried back into the living room.
"Back already?" Derek looked up. "Too cold outside?"
Then he noticed Leonard’s expression.
His face had gone pale. Sothing was wrong.
"There’s a problem," Leonard said gravely.
The atmosphere changed instantly. Thomas looked up from his tablet. Suzy’s eyelashes fluttered as she slowly opened her eyes.
Her sleep had always been light. She might not have moved, but she had heard enough of the conversation to wake her.
"What happened?"
Instead of answering imdiately, Leonard walked toward the window and motioned for everyone to join him.
"Co look at this. Sothing’s wrong with the snow."
Suzy was the first to rise. She hurried over and looked outside. The mont she did, she froze.
The light outside was dim, but the difference was unmistakable.
The snow falling now looked nothing like ordinary snow.
Gray particles drifted through the darkness, as though sothing in the heavens had begun rotting, and fragnts of its corpse were raining down upon the earth.
A chill ran through her body.
Instinctively, she stepped backward, and her back collided with Thomas’s chest.
Thomas imdiately steadied her by the shoulders. His gaze moved past her toward a nearby rooftop platform. His expression gradually darkened.
Derek joined them. The mont he saw the strange snowfall, his face changed.
"Why is the snow gray?"
"It’s not gray," Thomas replied quietly. His voice carried a rare heaviness. "Sothing is mixed into it. Look at the snow that’s already accumulated."
Nearby sat a small platform close enough for them to observe clearly.
Everyone followed his line of sight.
The pristine white snow covering the platform had begun disappearing beneath a fresh layer of gray. The surface was no longer pure white. Instead, it had beco mottled and sickly.
It looked contaminated. Diseased.
Several gray flakes landed against the apartnt window.
Leonard imdiately pulled out his phone and snapped a photo. After zooming in, his expression beca even more serious.
"Suzy, take a look at this."
She leaned closer. The enlarged image revealed details impossible to see with the naked eye.
The particles didn’t resemble snowflakes at all. They looked more like tiny granules.
After landing, they failed to rge with the surrounding snow. Instead, they settled on top, creating a thin gray-white crust.
Derek swallowed hard.
"Do you think it’s toxic?"
Thomas shook his head. "I don’t know. But nobody should touch it until we figure out what it is."
Suzy pressed her fingertips against the window.
The glass was ice cold. Outside, a thin layer of gray contamination had already begun accumulating.
She pulled her hand away and rubbed it against her clothing.
Then she turned toward Leonard.
"Uncle, did any of it touch you on the balcony?"
"Unfortunately, yes." His expression imdiately twisted with disgust. "When it lted, it slled weird. Kind of fishy."
"Let see."
Leonard extended his hand. Several faint gray marks remained on the back of it. They looked like smudges of dirt embedded beneath the skin.
Although he had washed repeatedly and scrubbed with wet wipes, the stains hadn’t vanished completely. They had faded, but they were still visible.
"How do you feel?" Suzy asked.
Leonard paused to assess himself.
"Nothing serious." He flexed his fingers. "It doesn’t hurt. Doesn’t itch. Just feels cold."
He frowned. "Kind of like soone rubbed peppermint oil on my skin."
Still uneasy, Suzy grabbed his hand and inspected it carefully.
Fortunately, there were no signs of swelling, blistering, or tissue damage.
Only then did she release a small breath of relief.
"We should disinfect it anyway," she said. "Just in case."
Thomas nodded.
"Derek and I will check all the windows."
"Good."
A few windows around the apartnt had been left slightly open.
Thomas and Derek split up imdiately.
anwhile, Suzy led Leonard back toward the living room. She retrieved a bottle of spirit spring water from her space and carefully dripped several drops onto the stained area.
As the water soaked into his skin, the gray marks gradually began fading. Within monts, the discoloration disappeared entirely. His skin returned to normal.
"The spirit spring works."
Suzy exhaled softly. Yet the worry remained in her eyes.
"What exactly is this stuff?"
"No idea," Leonard admitted. "But it definitely isn’t anything good."
Elsewhere, Thomas and Derek continued inspecting the apartnt.
There weren’t many windows to check. Each man handled his own room.
Thomas found nothing concerning. His windows were sealed tightly.
Derek’s room, however, was a different story. One of his windows had been left slightly open.
Fortunately, only a narrow crack remained.
Unfortunately, the wind outside had been fierce.
Cold air continuously seeped through the opening, carrying a strange sll.
It reminded him of rust and decaying vegetation.
Holding his breath against the odor, Derek hurried forward and slamd the window shut.
His movents were fast.
Neither he nor anyone else noticed the single gray flake drifting through the gap.
It floated silently through the room.
Then landed on his fingertip.
The flake dissolved instantly... And disappeared.
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