She studied him for another mont before nodding. "Co on."
She turned and started walking, and Jude followed, moving through the streets of Leonork as though he had never been gone. But as they walked, Lisa couldn’t shake the feeling that sothing unseen was walking with them, lingering just beyond her perception.
Roy was waiting.
When they arrived, the tension in the air was palpable before they even stepped inside. The mont Lisa opened the door, the weight of Roy’s presence filled the space. He was standing near the window, his posture rigid, his hands curled into fists at his sides.
He did not turn imdiately, but when he did, his eyes locked onto Jude with a sharpness that could have cut through steel.
"You," Roy said, his voice low and controlled, but the fury beneath it was unmistakable.
Jude t his gaze without flinching.
"You ca back," Roy continued, his tone laced with sothing between anger and disbelief.
Jude nodded.
The silence stretched between them, heavy with everything that had been left unspoken. Then, without warning, Roy moved.
He crossed the room in an instant, his fist swinging, and for a brief second, Lisa thought Jude would let it hit him. But at the last possible mont, he stepped to the side, letting the punch pass harmlessly by.
Roy spun, his expression dark.
"You think you can just walk back in here like nothing happened?" he demanded. "Like you didn’t leave us without a word? Like you didn’t, "
His voice caught, but he forced himself to continue.
"We thought you were dead."
Jude did not argue, did not try to justify his absence. Instead, he simply t Roy’s gaze and said the only thing that mattered.
"I ca back."
Roy’s jaw tightened. "That’s not good enough."
"I know," Jude said.
Another silence stretched between them, but this ti, it was different. It was no longer just anger and betrayal. There was sothing else now, sothing unspoken, sothing raw.
"You should have told us," Roy finally said.
"I couldn’t," Jude admitted.
Roy exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. "What the hell happened to you?"
Jude hesitated, then finally said, "Sothing I can’t explain. But I need to be here now."
Roy studied him for a long mont before shaking his head. "You don’t get to decide that after disappearing."
Jude didn’t respond. There was nothing he could say to change the past.
Lisa , who had been silent through most of the exchange, finally stepped forward.
"He’s here now," she said. "That has to count for sothing."
Roy’s expression hardened, but after a mont, he looked away. "You’d better not disappear again."
"I won’t," Jude said, and this ti, the weight behind his words felt like a promise.
Roy let out a slow breath, his anger still simring beneath the surface, but the storm in his eyes had dimd. He looked at Jude once more, searching for sothing, perhaps a trace of the man he had once known.
"You’d better not," he repeated.
Jude nodded.
The room fell into silence again, but it was different this ti. Less tense. More settled.
And then, just as the mont seed to steady, the shadows in the corner of the room flickered.
Jude felt it before he saw it. A shift in the air, a presence that did not belong.
Roy and Lisa did not notice it imdiately, but Jude did. His gaze snapped toward the darkened space near the far wall, and for the briefest mont, he saw sothing move.
Sothing that should not have been there.
His expression sharpened, his stance shifting slightly, and Roy imdiately caught on.
"What?" he asked, his voice low.
Jude did not answer right away. He took a single step forward, his gaze locked onto the shadows.
Then, as if sensing that it had been seen, the presence vanished.
But it had been there.
And Jude knew this was only the beginning.
Roy didn’t move for a mont, his eyes still locked on Jude, as if trying to decide whether to keep throwing punches or demand an explanation he knew he wouldn’t get. Lisa stood between them, arms crossed, her expression unreadable. The tension in the room was thick, pressing against them, but there were more pressing matters now. Jude had noticed sothing, sothing neither Roy nor Lisa had seen. His gaze flickered toward the spot where the presence had been, his body tense but controlled. It was gone now, but that didn’t an it wouldn’t return.
Roy finally exhaled sharply, rubbing his temples as though trying to fight off a growing headache. "You’re not just here because you decided to co back, are you?"
Jude shook his head. "No."
Lisa glanced between them before stepping closer to Jude. "What was it?"
He hesitated for a second before answering. "Sothing watching us."
Roy’s jaw tightened. "Watching you, or watching all of us?"
Jude didn’t answer imdiately, and that was enough to confirm Roy’s suspicions. He had spent years reading people, understanding the smallest shifts in body language, and Jude’s silence told him more than words could.
Lisa turned toward Roy. "We should check the security feeds."
Roy nodded, already moving toward the panel on the far side of the room. His private systems were more advanced than anything standard security could provide. He had learned long ago not to trust anyone else with his safety. Within monts, multiple screens lit up, displaying different angles of the building. Lisa leaned in, scanning the footage with sharp eyes, while Jude stood slightly behind them, his gaze flicking over the screens.
For several minutes, there was nothing. The usual flow of people, the stillness of locked-down areas, the dim lighting of the hallways outside. But then, in the corner of one feed, a flicker of movent. It wasn’t clear, it barely lasted a second, but it was enough.
"There," Jude said, pointing.
Roy rewound the footage, slowing it down. The image sharpened, but what they saw wasn’t normal. The figure wasn’t distinct. It wasn’t a person in the traditional sense. It was a distortion, sothing that looked like it belonged to the shadows rather than reality itself. The shape flickered, twisted, and then disappeared.
Reviews
All reviews (0)