Consciousness didn't return all at once.
It came in fragments—pain first, dull and heavy, settling deep into his bones. Then sound, distant and warped. Then breath, sharp and uneven, forced back into him.
Anwyll's eyes opened slowly.
The ceiling above him wasn't familiar. Rusted beams. Hanging wires. A flickering light that buzzed faintly overhead.
Not home.
He tried to move. His body didn't respond the way it should. Everything felt heavy, disconnected, like he'd been put back together wrong. Even the faint current beneath his skin was quiet—barely there.
"…took you long enough."
The voice came from his right.
Anwyll turned his head.
A man leaned against the wall, arms crossed, expression unreadable. Scarred. Still. Calm in a way that didn't belong in places like this.
Alex.
"You were out for four days," he said. "Didn't think you'd wake up."
Four days.
The words didn't settle.
Anwyll's lips parted slightly.
"…she's dead."
It wasn't a question.
Alex didn't react.
"…and she got taken."
Still not a question.
A pause.
Alex clicked his tongue lightly against his teeth, almost absentmindedly, like he was working something out in his mouth. "Didn't see it," he said. "Found you outside. That's it."
Silence followed.
Then—
"You're alive because I paid for it," Alex continued. "Healer wasn't cheap."
Anwyll didn't respond.
"You owe me."
Another pause.
"…fine."
The word came out hollow.
Alex studied him for a moment, then nodded once. "Good."
No comfort.
No sympathy.
Just business.
---
Anwyll left as soon as his body let him.
The walk back felt longer than it should have.
The deeper he moved into the broken parts of the zone, the quieter it became—but not empty. Never empty. There were shapes in the distance. Movement where there shouldn't have been. People that didn't want to be seen.
As he passed through a narrow stretch of collapsed buildings, he noticed them.
Figures crouched low in the shadows.
Too still.
Too quiet.
One of them shifted suddenly, turning away from him, shielding something close to their body. Another dragged something out of sight the moment Anwyll's eyes lingered too long.
A wet sound followed.
Soft.
Quickly muffled.
Anwyll didn't stop.
Didn't ask.
Didn't look again.
He kept walking.
---
When he reached the building, he stopped.
Something felt wrong.
Not danger.
Not presence.
Just… wrong.
He stepped inside.
The air was still.
Cold.
But not like before.
Not hers.
His eyes moved across the room slowly.
The walls.
The floor.
The place where she had stood.
Empty.
No body.
No trace where there should have been one.
Just absence.
For a moment, his mind didn't understand.
Then it did.
His chest tightened.
"No…"
He stepped forward, slower now, like moving too fast would make it real.
There were marks.
Disturbed dust. Scratches across the ground. Something dragged.
Taken.
Not buried.
Not left.
Taken.
His breathing became uneven.
"No…"
His voice broke.
He looked around again, like he had missed something, like she would still be there if he just looked hard enough.
Nothing.
The silence pressed in.
Then—
It broke.
A sound tore out of him—raw, uneven, something between a breath and a scream.
His body gave out.
He dropped to his knees.
His hands hit the ground hard, fingers digging into the cold surface as his shoulders shook.
"Maki…"
The name came out fractured.
Something inside him snapped.
The current answered.
Violently.
Lightning burst across his body without control, jagged arcs snapping into the walls, the ground, anything close enough to take it. The air cracked, sharp and unstable as the energy surged wildly, feeding off something deeper than anger.
Pain.
Loss.
It didn't stop.
The current tore through him, uncontrolled, lashing outward as the structure groaned under the strain. The ground split beneath him, debris scattering as the energy raged.
It burned him too.
Bit into his skin.
Turned against him as much as it obeyed.
Still—
He didn't stop.
He couldn't.
---
At the edge of the zone, Alex stood watching.
Faint flashes of light flickered in the distance, irregular and violent.
He clicked his tongue again, running it slowly along his teeth.
"…kid'll live."
A pause.
"…if he learns."
He turned away.
No interest in watching the rest.
---
Back inside the ruined building, the lightning finally died.
Silence returned.
Anwyll remained where he was, slumped forward, unmoving.
Not unconscious.
Not sleeping.
Just… still.
Something had changed.
Not all at once.
But enough.
And whatever was left of the boy who once looked up at distant lights and dreamed of something more—
Was gone.