Leon covered his face with his palm as the sun's rays stabbed into his eyes when the door opened.
Mr. Lee's hand steadied him and pushed him forward as he kept buckling on his knees.
Each step seemed like a stumble through brightness and noise as the world stayed a blur in Leon's vision.
He barely noticed when Mr. Lee opened the sleek silver car, and he also barely felt himself slide into the seat.
Leon's thoughts stirred only when the engine hummed as the city began to move past the window.
There, his vision came completely clear as they passed a military tanker streaked with ichor.
'Dad. Tower. Crash.' The thought clawed in, but his mind couldn't hold as the truth he wasn't ready to accept.
They climbed a high-arching bridge in a speeding silence as they drove past the military tanker.
The city unfurled like two separate worlds in Leon's gaze through the tinted glass.
Towers gleamed as floating gardens drifted on anti-gravity platforms on his left. And to his right, crammed into the river basin like an open wound, was Dusthollow. His very own birthplace.
A sprawl of cracked concrete, rust-stained beams, and laundry lines dropping between towers, ready to collapse.
At their height, it didn't look like home. It looked like a scar he wished he could scrub off the map as he saw shadows moving with the wind.
Being the first place to experience the celestial monster outbreak, it had secrets that the elders there weren't ready to answer. And through the rearview mirror, a faint red light erupted, but as he blinked, it vanished.
A sudden ripple from the back seat made Leon jolt and nearly flinch as he turned his head and saw a man in a dark hoodie sitting there silently.
When Mr. Lee saw the alarm in Leon's face, he gestured toward the man in the back seat. "This is my nephew, Wang."
He turned and gestured toward Leon. "Wang, this is Leon," he added quietly.
"I know," Wang uttered and narrowed his eyes slightly as he leaned forward.
Even though the car was small, Wang's presence felt powerful and intimidating like a god among men.
Through the rearview mirror, Leon saw the strange red light flickering in Mr. Wang's eyes.
They scanned him, assessing and judging him like a hungry lion against its prey.
"You have the kind of energy we need at the base. Unstable and dangerous." Wang's voice was a low rumble. "But you look frail."
The words that weren't meant as an insult but just a flat judgment landed on Leon's raw nerves like a whip. 'Frail.'
"We're here," Leon whispered the moment he saw Mr. Lee moving his gaze from one billboard to another as the car they were in began to slow near the outskirts of Dusthollow.
"Here?" Mr. Lee and Wang said in unison, their heads pivoting to take in the squalor.
Sweat beaded on Leon's face as their gaze felt heavier and more menacing.
"I thought you…" Mr. Lee said, "I assumed you lived at the junction we just missed. I didn't realize you meant… here!"
"I… I didn't want it to seem more pitiful, so I lied. I'm sorry, sir." Leon bowed his head apologizing in humiliation.
Mr. Lee's voice dropped, almost like he was speaking only to himself, but Leon heard it. "This is where the city dumps the weak and wretched."
For a moment that felt endless with silence, Leon broke the silence. "I'll take my leave. Thank you for the ride."
The moment Leon stepped down, the strange man's voice echoed from the car, "Isn't this the forgotten settlement where hope is scarce? Let's hope the boy has the same trait as his father."
The words struck Leon so deeply that even as he moved far from the car, his gaze kept shifting back.
Just as Leon passed an overflowed trash bin, voices rose from where he was heading so loud it made him slow his steps.
Since this wasn't the first time he had heard such sounds on his way home, he snubbed it and moved forward, placing his hands in his pockets.
He kept turning back until he reached his house. "Mom! Dad! Lily! Is anybody home?" He pounded on the door, calling their names from the outside. Then, on the third knock, a sob answered him.
"Mon!" Leon's voice tightened as he pressed himself against the door, fingers digging into the wood.
As he braced himself to break it down, the door swung open—revealing what he was never prepared to see.
"Mom?!" Leon shouted and rushed inside without hesitation. When he reached her, he saw her pointing a trembling hand at the mini modern television they had.
The news report confirmed what both Mr. Lee and Vera had mentioned at school, but now, the presenter mentioned the names and small details of the survivors.
What he saw puzzled him so much that he couldn't close his eyes for five minutes straight.
"Good evening, Bion City. We regret to announce this afternoon's tragic incident…"
The reporter gestured behind her at the crash site.
"The plane crash rumors you all heard were true. And among the survivors is an eyewitness who was working on the very building the plane crashed into. Not to mention, there is a looming monster door just opposite the building."
"Before we hear his account, let's review these images."
Leon took his time, studying the frames one after the other, hoping to see anything resembling his father. Then, the camera cut to the witness.
"Sir, can you describe what you saw? How it happened? And where is your working partner?"
The reporter stretched the microphone to the forty-five-year-old looming man.
"We started painting the building before dawn. We have five floors left to complete when…" The man's voice broke, causing the reporter to turn and dab her tears.
"As my partner Damien reached the top floor, he became happy as he spotted his son—Leon's—school and alerted me to check if I could also see it. But as I turned, I saw the plane coming straight to us."
At the mention of the name Damien, Leon collapsed. Tears flooded his vision, hot enough to make him blind.
"Damien!" His mother's wail pierced the air so loud Leon rose from the floor and wrapped his arms around hers.
"Leon, do you see your father there?" Hearing her sobbing voice, Leon tightened his toes, since if he had tightened his fist, his mother would have known through the touch language they all learnt.
Not to cause more harm to her situation, Leon lied and walked her to her room, made sure she was asleep, and walked back to the hall with a clenched fist.
The sky began to rumble as Leon realized the television mysteriously glitching on the last image he saw before taking his mother to her room.