"Detective! Just one call—let me make one call on my phone, yeah?"Eden pleaded desperately, his voice cracking as he clutched the detective's arm.
The man who once stood tall, sharp in his tailored suit and sharper with his words, now knelt on the cold floor, his pride shattered.
Detective Hariz looked down at him, his expression bemused—not with amusement, but with a mix of confusion and detached curiosity, as if he couldn't quite believe the fall from grace unfolding before him.
The once-arrogant lawyer, reduced to begging.
Eden's eyes land on the phone that was offered to him. He wondered if the detective was plainly kind or stupid. But he knows, at that moment it was a pity he received from the older man. A silent mercy.
His hand reaching out to the phone ,fingers trembling.
He scrolled the call log, there it was.
The number with no name. No ID, just a blank entry that shouldn't exist.
He pressed it.
Please…
Please….answer
The distorted voice cackled in the line, the throat cleared
"Ah….finally. I'm getting bored of waiting , Emika " The line connected . The voice sounded in the knowing tone that Eden would call him again.
Eden did not wait for another moment to blurt up in fastly manner.
"I agree! I Agree!" The voice is urgent.
Resulting the loud cackle to echo the other end . While the detective Hariz sat across confused with his brow furrow . Perhaps it's not a good decision to let Eden have a call to who knows who . The detective stood out to reach and forced the way out from the desperate man's grip.
"Alright, the deal begins…welcome back player ." The voice responded in Eden's desperate answer.
Click.
The call ended.
A heavy silence settled over the room.
"What was the call about?" Hariz asks in a gruff manner, edged with unease. The confusion and curiosity plastered on the older man's face.
Eden said nothing. He sat motionless on the wooden chair across the detective.His hand clutch under the table on the lap.
He is waiting for something to happen. Anything.
Nothing…
He sighed, shoulders sagging.
Yeah. It was stupid.
He was just… desperate.
Maybe it really had been some freak pulling a prank. Some voice on the line enjoying his breakdown.
Maybe—
The phone on the table flickered.The screen began to crackle.Pixels glitched. Lines bled across the display.
Then the overhead lights blinked once… then twice …then another .
Both men instinctively looked up.
An electric hum buzzed through the walls.
A low pulse. A shift in the air.
Hariz glanced at the phone again, frowning.
"Must be a power issue," he muttered, though his voice lacked certainty.
But Eden didn't move.
His breath caught in his throat.
Because deep down… he knew.
This wasn't a power problem. Not when the phone screen flashes a countdown out of the blue.
Three…
Two..
One…
Zero..
This was the starting of the deal.
Time stops even for the molecule. The Detective movement was paused midair , The flickering light above halted in stutter , the ticking clock on the wall was silence
Like the painting on the canvas. Everything was still except for Eden.
The man stood up with a heavy breath. He circled the detective slowly, warily, his footsteps oddly loud in the silence.
He leaned forward and gave Hariz a poke on the cheek.
Still…no reaction from the others
Another prod on the forehead, the hard tap on the shoulder, the pat on the cheeks..
Still nothing.
His movement halts when the light from the phone screen glows blinding white flash filled the small room assaulting the man's eyes.
Then—
A blinding flash.
Eden's eyes shut instinctively, his body tensing.
For a breathless second—there was only white light he see even with the shutted eyes.