The warehouse swallowed sound.Each step Lee Rang took rang out against rusted steel, the echo rolling into the shadows like something listening back. The air was sharp with the tang of metal and old oil, and somewhere above, water tapped against concrete with the steady rhythm of a clock counting down.
He trailed the figure ahead—tall, masked—its steps unhurried, confident, as if certain Rang would follow.
A narrow slit of light cut through the dust. Shapes began to form in the gloom.Three of them.
High above, on an old loading platform, they stood like statues.The one in the center didn't move, hands folded neatly behind his back. The dim bulb above swayed slightly, painting faint glints across his mask. On either side, two more figures—identical in clothing, posture, and faceless masks—stood like sentinels.
When the voice came, it wasn't from the center.It came from the right.
"Our boss says… you've been looking in the wrong direction, Rang. That's how people like you disappear."
The tone was measured, almost bored—delivered with the cold assurance of someone who spoke for power, not to it.
Rang didn't answer. His eyes kept drifting to the man in the middle, who had yet to make a single movement. The stillness was worse than any threat.
The figure on the left stepped forward. Without a word, he let something drop over the railing.It fell silently, landing at Rang's feet with an almost deliberate grace.
Rang crouched. His fingers brushed cool metal.
A pocket watch.Perfectly polished brass that caught even the weak light, but wrong—its numbers spiraled backward, twelve to one, as if time itself had been wound the other way.
He had seen it before.Long ago.On a night when the house was too quiet, and his father had left without a word… returning hours later with eyes that wouldn't meet his.
The memory clenched around his chest like a fist.By the time he looked up, the platform was empty.
The watch sat in his palm, still and heavy.It didn't tick.It didn't need to.
Because whatever it measured… had already begun.
He thought the watch was just a message.By the time the first hand moved… he'd realize it was a countdown.And when it hits zero — someone won't be breathing.