Chapter 92: The Empty House
The last day of training.
For Ruby, Minji, and James, freedom didn't feel like victory—it felt like loss. Their steps toward the teleporter were slow, heavy, as if invisible chains still clung to their ankles. None of them said it aloud, but they all knew the truth in their hearts: Moon and Kai were gone.
Gone in the chaos.
Gone in the silence.
Ninety-nine percent certainty weighed like a mountain on their souls. And yet… the last one percent, fragile and trembling, refused to die. That one thread of hope was the only thing strong enough to push them forward.
Minji's hands shook as she set the teleporter's coordinates.
Zenith Vista – House No. 001 – Nova Lumina.
The console lit up, humming with raw energy. A sharp buzz echoed through the chamber, the air vibrating with tension before folding inward, collapsing into a sphere of light. The world bent. Their bodies dissolved into particles.
A heartbeat later—they reformed.
They staggered out of the teleporter room. The air was familiar. Too familiar. And yet it felt strange, as though time itself had forgotten this place.
They stepped into the main hall.
Silence.
The house looked perfect. Too perfect.
The wooden floor was spotless, polished like it had been cleaned yesterday. The walls gleamed with their old shine. Not a speck of dust marred the tables or shelves. The curtains were neatly tied back, swaying gently as though the wind still remembered them.
It didn't feel like a place abandoned for two and a half years.
It felt like a memory—frozen, preserved. Waiting.
James's throat tightened. His fists clenched at his sides. He couldn't breathe.
Then—a sound.
From the kitchen.
A faint clatter of utensils.
James's heart exploded in his chest. Without thinking, he sprinted toward it, the world blurring around him. His mind screamed only one thought— Please. Please let it be them.
He burst into the kitchen.
And froze.
It wasn't Moon.
It wasn't Kai.
It was the old chef.
A man in his mid life , apron tied loosely around his waist, hands busy over a pot that steamed with broth. He turned, startled at the sudden intrusion. Then his eyes widened in delight.
"James?!" the man exclaimed, a smile spreading across his weathered face. "By the stars—it's been so long! Where have you all been?"
James's chest caved in. His lips trembled. It took every ounce of strength to speak, and when the words came, they were barely above a whisper.
"…Did Moon-hyung… or Kai-hyung ever come back here? Even once?"
By then, Ruby and Minji had caught up, standing behind him, breathless. Their eyes clung to the chef, desperate for his answer.
The man blinked, confused. Then slowly, he shook his head.
"No. I assumed all five of you went out on a long hunt together."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
A silence heavier than screams, sharper than blades.
Minji's lips parted, her voice trembling.
"So… since the day we left… they never returned?"
The chef's face fell. He looked away, realizing too late the weight of his words. But it was too late. The truth had already carved into their hearts.
Through James's Eyes
I swallowed hard, my Adam's apple dragging painfully in my throat like I was choking on grief. The silence pressed down on me, thick and suffocating. No one dared to speak.
We drifted back into the main hall, but it wasn't the same hall I remembered. The warmth was gone. The air felt colder—hostile. The house looked whole, yet it was emptier than ever. Every piece of furniture stared at me like an accusing ghost, reminding me of a family that would never sit together again.
The faint scent of polished wood and dried herbs clung to the air. Once, it had been comforting. Now it was poison. Each breath burned, each note of that familiar fragrance stabbed into my lungs like knives. It was unbearable, cruel—like the house itself mocked me.
When the chef uncle placed food before us, my stomach turned violently. The sight of the steaming plates made bile rise in my throat. I couldn't eat. None of us could. Our throats were closed tight, as though grief had cemented them shut.
Eventually, Ruby and Minji stood, their faces pale, their voices thin and broken as they whispered their goodbyes. Their footsteps echoed softly down the hall, then faded. The door closed behind them.
And I was alone.
Alone in the silence.
Alone in the house that felt more like a tomb.
I stood there, staring into nothing. My legs wanted to give out, but my body refused to move.
That was when their voices returned to me.
Moon's calm instructions.
Kai's sharp scolding.
Their laughter when I tripped over my own feet, their encouragement when I stood again.
"Again, James. Your stance is weak. Fix it!"
"Don't give up. We'll train until you can't stand anymore—and then we'll keep training."
I heard them so clearly that for one heart-stopping moment I thought if I turned around, they would be standing behind me.
But when I turned, there was nothing.
Just shadows.
Just emptiness.
And now?
Gone.
They were gone.
The world had dimmed, as though someone had stripped it of color. My chest felt hollow, like a cavern echoing with a silence that ate at me.
I had trained. I had bled. I had destroyed my body to awaken my bloodline. But nothing happened. Nothing. Others had grown stronger, scaling heights I couldn't even see. They soared, while I crawled in the dirt.
I was nothing.
A shadow.
A weakling.
A failure.
And the only two who ever believed I could become more were gone.
The days began to blur together. Then the weeks.
I stopped counting.
I stopped caring.
The house became my prison. My reflection turned into a stranger. Ten kilograms gone—my bones jutted through skin, my cheekbones sharp, my eyes sunken and ringed with black. My face looked like it belonged to a corpse that had forgotten to lie down.
I ate only enough not to collapse. Survival. That was it. There was no joy left in eating, no taste, no meaning. Food was ash in my mouth.
Every night, I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling until my eyes burned. Sleep came in fragments—when it came at all. Nightmares clawed at me when I closed my eyes. And when I opened my eyes, the nightmares didn't leave. The ceiling was worse—blank, empty, merciless.
Every day, I walked the halls of this House . My feet carried me out of habit. The boards creaked softly, echoing through the hollow rooms. I touched the railings, the tables, the doorframes, half-expecting to feel their warmth still there. But everything was cold. Lifeless.
Sometimes I swore I heard their voices in the corridors, or the sound of their training outside. I would rush toward it, hope clawing desperately at my chest—only to be met with silence again. Only shadows. Only absence.
This house was not a home anymore.
It was a mausoleum.
And I was its only prisoner.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear the walls apart with my bare hands. But the screams stayed in my throat, rotting there until they became something else—something darker.
Shame.
Humiliation.
Self-hatred.
The grief didn't just sit on my chest anymore. It festered, it clawed, it whispered. It told me I was worthless, useless, garbage. That I didn't deserve to …... That even in death—or whatever hell they had been swallowed into—Moon and Kai were still beyond me.
And I… I was just James.
Just nothing.
So I walked.
I stared.
I withered.
Until the days bled into one endless night, and the only sound left in this cursed house was the slow, breaking beat of my own heart.
On the fourteenth night, the phone rang.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
I ignored it.
The sound stabbed into the silence again, cruel and relentless.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
My hand moved at last, slow, heavy, as though I were lifting the weight of the world. I pressed the phone to my ear.
"…Hello."
The word scraped out of my throat like a dying breath. It carried no strength, no light—just emptiness.
Then came a voice. A stranger's.
"Is this James? Are you related to Moon and Kai?"
Every muscle in my body locked. My heart slammed so hard against my ribs I thought it might tear out of my chest. The sound filled my ears, drowning everything else.
"Yes!" My voice cracked, frantic, trembling. "I—I am! Why? What happened?!"
The voice remained calm. Too calm.
"They were found one kilometer outside Base #12072008. Their condition was… catastrophic. Their bodies were stabilized. Healed, to an extent. But their brains… show signs of unimaginable torture. Severe trauma. As a defense mechanism, both have fallen into a likely coma."
The words gutted me.
My world shattered into pieces. My lungs seized. Tears spilled before I could stop them, hot and burning, blinding me. My chest convulsed with sobs I didn't even know how to contain.
Alive.
They were alive.
The thought lit something inside me—only for it to be crushed instantly.
But broken.
Broken beyond anything I could imagine.
Alive—but gone in another way.
I clutched the phone so tightly my knuckles turned white. My teeth ground together until my jaw screamed in pain.
"Send me the hospital location," I rasped, voice cracking, throat raw like I had swallowed glass.
The message came. My hands shook violently as I read it. I didn't waste a second. I dialed Minji, my words tumbling out in fragments, stammering, choked with tears.
And then I ran.
I don't remember leaving the room. I don't remember my legs carrying me down the hall. I remember only the desperate pounding of my heart as I hurled myself into the teleporter chamber.
The console blurred as I set the coordinates. My vision swam with tears. My chest burned with every breath. My fingers slammed the confirmation.
The machine roared alive.
The world folded.
Buzz.
Light swallowed me whole. My body dissolved into nothingness.
And then—
White.
Blinding, merciless white.
The sterile glare of a hospital corridor seared into my eyes. The air smelled of antiseptic, sharp and bitter. My chest heaved, my breath shallow, as if the world itself was suffocating me.
I staggered, catching myself on the wall. My hands trembled uncontrollably. Every inch of my body screamed.
And then—light again. Beside me, Minji materialized, her face pale as snow, eyes wide with disbelief. A heartbeat later, Ruby appeared too.
We stood frozen in that corridor, three broken souls, unable to speak.
We didn't need to.
To be continued…