Liam glanced at his friends, giving a brief signal without needing to explain anything.
One of them immediately walked to the side of the warehouse wall, toward the light switch. His finger pressed the button without hesitation.
Click.
The lights inside the warehouse went out instantly.
Darkness.
Sia stiffened immediately. Her breath caught at once.
Laughter broke out around the room.
"Hey, why so quiet?" one of them laughed.
"Scared?" another chimed in, his voice full of mockery.
Liam chuckled. "Relax. It's just dark."
Sia shook her head slightly, her body trembling in the chair.
"P-please… turn it back on…" her voice was faint, almost swallowed by the air. "Please…"
No one moved.
The darkness felt suffocating. Her chest tightened, as if the air around her had thinned. Her breaths came short and shallow. Her head felt heavy, throbbing.
Her hands clenched behind the bindings.
The voices came back all at once.
Her mother's crying.
Her sibling's screams calling her name.
The laughter of people standing around her, mocking, pointing, as if her suffering were entertainment.
Everything blended together.
Tears streamed down her cheeks, but there were no sobs. Her lips trembled, moving unconsciously.
"No… no… stop…"
"Please…"
"Don't…"
The murmurs kept escaping her, broken and uneven.
Liam heard it and snickered.
"Oh, now you're begging?" he said mockingly.
"Acting brave earlier, and now you're crying?"
"Listen to that," one of his friends laughed. "She's asking for mercy."
Their laughter once again filled the dark warehouse, while Sia remained silent in her chair, drowning in a fear they could never understand.
Suddenly, in the suffocating darkness, Sia felt a touch on her shoulder.
Her body stiffened immediately.
The hand did not stop. It moved hesitantly yet clearly, sliding along the side of her body before stopping at her waist. Fingers gripped the edge of the jacket she was wearing, as if intending to pull it.
Sia's breath hitched sharply. Her entire body trembled violently.
"D-don't…" her voice cracked. "Stop…"
But the only answer was laughter.
Low laughter. Mocking laughter. Laughter that sounded farther and farther from anything human.
Sia struggled as best she could, but the bindings on her hands left her helpless. Her head throbbed, her mind blank, fear pressing down so heavily that she could barely think. The darkness, the laughter, and that touch merged into one. Her chest felt like it was being crushed.
For a moment, just a moment, Sia almost gave up.
Then…
A voice was heard.
Soft. Clear. As if it came from somewhere very close, yet also far away.
"Even if the world feels unfamiliar,
remember you are never alone."
The tone flowed into her ears, calm yet full of strength. Cutting through the darkness, cutting through the panic.
In an instant, something struck the air.
Liam and his friends were thrown backward as if pushed by an invisible force. One of them winced when a flying rope struck his face. Another fell when fragments of the broken chair shot through the air and slammed against the floor near him.
The lights on the ceiling flickered wildly.
Once.
Twice.
Then they shone brightly.
The warehouse became visible again.
In the middle of the room stood Sia.
The chair she had been tied to lay shattered on the floor. The ropes had come loose, scattered like lifeless things. Her head was lowered, her hair covering part of her face.
Liam and the others stepped back slowly. Their faces were pale, their breaths caught in their throats. There was no more laughter. No more mockery. Only fear clearly visible in their eyes.
Sia slowly raised her head.
Little by little.
A thin smile appeared on her face. Not a smile of relief, nor one of happiness. It was cold. Cynical. Her eyes stared straight at them, sharp and empty at the same time.
A gaze that made anyone understand
that everything had completely turned around.
Sia laughed softly.
Not a carefree laugh, nor a joyful one. Her voice was low, steady, and far too calm for a situation like this. She stepped forward with small steps.
Very slowly.
As if deliberately making every second feel longer for them.
"How amusing," she said at last, her voice gentle yet cold, carefully composed like someone who had fully taken control. "You all seem so brave… when you believe the darkness protects you."
The air behind her trembled.
One by one, several blades appeared, floating silently in the air. The light reflected off their surfaces, casting sharp shadows dancing across the warehouse walls. Liam and his friends flinched. Their breaths quickened, their bodies stiff with fear.
"Relax," Sia continued, turning her head slightly, her thin smile becoming clearer. "I won't touch you."
The knives shot forward.
Not toward their bodies, but past them at an extremely close distance.
Too close.
The sharp wind from the blades made them scream reflexively. One knife stopped right beside a face, another hovered near a shoulder, a thigh, and a neck.
Not harming them.
But enough to make their hearts feel as if they had stopped beating.
Suddenly, their feet lifted off the floor.
Their bodies hung in the air, as though invisible hands were gripping their throats. Faces reddened, breaths choked, strangled sounds escaping without forming words.
Sia stepped closer toward Liam.
Her steps remained slow.
Calm.
As if she were walking down a school corridor rather than standing in the middle of a warehouse with several terrified people hanging in the air.
"Liam…" she called softly, almost as if greeting an old friend. "You called yourself powerful, didn't you?"
She stopped right in front of him.
A knife now rested in her hand.
With a casual motion, Sia raised it and touched the tip of the blade to Liam's chest. The contact was as light as a feather. She moved it slightly up and down, teasing the distance with patience.
Liam trembled violently.
"Yet how strange," Sia continued, her tone still gentle, almost polite. "When your power is taken away… you cannot even stand."
She tilted her head slightly, looking at Liam with cold eyes filled with contempt.
"Pathetic," she whispered.
Sia smiled wider.
Her tone shifted.
Still calm. Still soft.
But now it sounded… possessive.
As if she were speaking about something extremely precious.
"This body," she said slowly, her voice nearly filled with pride, "does not belong to you to damage."
The knife in her hand still touched Liam's chest, moving slightly, patiently playing with the distance.
Liam trembled violently, his eyes wide, his throat shaking without sound.
"I allowed it to survive," she continued, her voice lowering into something like a secret whisper. "I keep it breathing. Standing. Alive… even while the world keeps trying to break it."
Sia stepped closer.
"You are not worthy of touching it," she said flatly. "Even your shadow is too filthy."
The knife slowly lifted.
Now it aligned with Liam's neck.
Its movement was extremely controlled. No hesitation. No excessive emotion.
That was what made it even more terrifying.
But just as the tip of the blade was about to-
"A-ah…!"
Sia suddenly screamed.
Her voice shattered, not a cry of anger but a scream of pain. Her hand trembled violently, and the knife slipped from her grip and vanished into the air. Her body staggered backward, as if something were pulling her away by force.
"W-what are you-" she muttered brokenly.
The invisible grip holding Liam and his friends vanished.
They fell to the floor with loud thuds, coughing and gasping, too terrified to speak.
The floating knives disappeared one by one.
Sia clutched her head with both hands, her body shaking. Her breathing was ragged, her face tense as if she were battling something unseen.
"No… not now…" she muttered faintly, her voice unstable.
She stood unsteadily, her head tilting upward, her eyes tightly shut.
Her body tensed for a moment.
Then all that power collapsed.
Sia fell to the floor.
Motionless.
The warehouse fell silent, leaving only the sound of frightened breathing.
Liam and his friends looked at each other, their faces pale. Without thinking twice, they scrambled to their feet and fled the warehouse in panic, leaving Sia alone, lying unconscious on the cold floor.
Silence took over the room again.
A few moments later, the warehouse door closed by itself.
A heavy thud echoed briefly, then quiet.
The scattered wooden fragments slowly moved, as if time were reversing itself. The pieces of rope lying on the floor crawled back to their original place, whole and neat again. The overturned bucket stood upright once more.
The warehouse returned as if chaos had never touched it.
In front of the door, something appeared.
Asher.
He stood still with a blank expression, his sharp eyes sweeping briefly across the room.
Not at the walls.
Not at the objects.
But directly at Sia's unmoving body lying on the floor.
Asher walked closer.
This time without a smirk. Without a playful tone.
He knelt beside Sia carefully, as if afraid to make even the slightest sound. His hand lifted, brushing the messy strands of hair from Sia's forehead and cheek.
"…Idiot," he murmured softly, his voice low and heavy. "I told you before… don't interfere."
He let out a long sigh, sounding weary.
Not angry.
Not annoyed.
Just deeply tired.
"Just so you know," he continued quietly, his eyes fixed on Sia's pale face, "if I had been even a little late…"
The sentence stopped there.
Asher looked away, as if unwilling to finish it.
His gaze then fell to the watch on Sia's wrist.
The hands pointed to almost nine at night.
"Great," he muttered sarcastically. "Her mother will be here soon."
Without wasting time, Asher slipped one arm beneath Sia's body and the other behind her back.
He lifted her easily, as if she weighed nothing at all.
"Sleep," he whispered shortly.
In an instant, they vanished from the warehouse.
***
They were already in Sia's room.
Asher laid Sia down gently on her bed, making sure her head rested comfortably on the pillow. He pulled the blanket over her neatly, then turned on the fan so the sweat on her temples and neck would slowly dry.
He stood there for a moment, looking at her face.
"Always like this," he said quietly. "Stubborn… even for the two of you."
He turned off the bedroom light.
The room sank into calm darkness.
Not long after, the sound of knocking came from the front door.
Yana had come home.
She paused for a moment as she turned the doorknob and realized the door was not locked.
"Huh…?" she murmured in confusion.
She stepped inside and called out, "Sia?"
No answer.
Yana quickly walked toward Sia's room and opened the door slowly.
Light from the hallway slipped into the dark room, revealing Sia lying peacefully on the bed.
Yana let out a relieved sigh.
"Asleep, huh…" she murmured softly. "Must be really tired."
She closed the door carefully again.
Inside the quiet room, Asher was already sitting on top of the wardrobe.
He looked at the closed door, then shifted his gaze toward Sia.
His face returned to its blank expression.
"…Don't make me regret saving you," he said softly, almost inaudible.
Asher then dropped down and lay on top of the wardrobe, one arm supporting his head while his gaze fixed on the dark ceiling of the room.
The fan spun slowly, creating a constant humming sound.
"My life has become really strange now," he muttered lightly, as if joking to himself. "Watching over a stubborn human child… who almost died trying to be a hero."
His eyes glanced toward the sleeping Sia.
"But I already made a promise," he continued quietly. His tone sounded casual, almost indifferent. "And I'm not the type who breaks promises."
He fell silent.
The image of a woman's face appeared in his mind.
A warm smile and eyes that always brought calm.
The way she looked at him without fear.
Without disgust.
The way she said Asher was not frightening.
Just… lonely.
The corner of Asher's lips lowered slightly.
For a moment, his expression looked gloomy, as if an old burden had returned to press on his chest.
"…You were too kind," he whispered almost inaudibly. "Even to a creature like me."
Silence.
He let out a small sigh, and his expression returned to calm, almost blank as usual.
"Don't worry," he said quietly, more firmly this time. "I will keep my promise."
His gaze focused again on the ceiling.
"At least… until they no longer need me."
Asher closed his eyes, as if sealing away the feelings that had briefly surfaced. Locking them deep inside, like a secret that must never be spoken.