Juson lowered the torch toward the floor again.
The kitchen itself looked mostly untouched. Only the broken window seemed damaged.
But somehow, that made the room feel even worse.
The broken window stood on the left side of the kitchen wall. Juson slowly walked toward it before stopping halfway.
Then he noticed something strange.
Dust.
The window was covered in it.
Not only the frame, but the edges surrounding it as well. Thick grey dust clung to the broken structure unnaturally. The metal grill was completely missing.
Juson narrowed his eyes.
It was the same dust he had seen earlier on the table.
Slowly, he stepped closer until he stood directly before the broken window.
He wanted to look outside.
But he hesitated.
Putting his head outside directly felt dangerous for reasons he could not explain.
Instead, he carefully stretched his hand outward while holding the torch.
Nothing happened.
Juson slowly pulled his hand back.
He placed the torch on the nearby shelf facing inside the kitchen and positioned both hands against the broken edges of the window frame.
Just as he prepared to look outside, a loud horn echoed from somewhere beyond the house.
Juson immediately turned around.
The sound had come from outside.
He grabbed the torch and quickly moved away from the window.
But before leaving the kitchen, something outside caught his attention.
Right below the broken window.
Something was lying there.
Juson stepped closer carefully.
His breathing slowed.
A body.
A small body.
The shape looked almost like a child curled against the ground.
It was difficult to see clearly because thick dust covered it completely.
But the dust around the body looked different.
Denser.
And moving.
Juson stared silently as faint blue grains slowly gathered toward the body itself, almost as if they were being pulled into it.
The horn echoed again from outside the house.
This time Juson left the kitchen.
The front door already stood slightly open. Outside, a man stood near a car while calling out for someone.
Moments later, a woman rushed out from the neighboring house carrying two suitcases.
Juson immediately understood.
The neighbors were fleeing.
Fear had finally forced them to leave.
Juson silently watched the car disappear into the darkness beyond the road.
Then he turned back toward Hakiten's house again.
He should have gone home too.
But he could not.
Something inside him still searched for answers.
Even if he did not fully understand what he was searching for.
This time Juson moved directly toward Hakiten's room.
The torch beam pointed downward near his feet as he walked slowly through the darkness. It took only a few moments for him to reach the room.
He stopped outside the entrance.
Then aimed the torch inside.
The dark room glowed faintly beneath the beam.
Juson stepped forward carefully and pushed the sliding door aside.
The door pressed against the wall with a dull sound.
And the room revealed itself.
The table remained there.
The same table Hakiten had used earlier that afternoon.
But now something about it looked horribly wrong.
The table had split apart from the center.
Not cracked.
Split.
As if some enormous force had torn directly through it.
Juson stepped toward it slowly.
Immediately he understood something terrible had happened to Hakiten.
No ordinary struggle could have caused damage like this.
Without wasting time, Juson crouched beside the destroyed table.
One hand held the torch while the other moved toward the drawer.
He searched desperately for the cube he had seen earlier.
But something felt wrong immediately.
The drawer was already half open.
Juson quickly pulled it out completely.
Empty.
The cube was gone.
His breathing became uneven.
Juson placed the torch on the floor facing upward and began pulling apart broken pieces of wood from the shattered table, hoping the cube had become trapped somewhere inside it.
Wood struck the floor repeatedly.
Then he pushed the broken drawer aside carelessly.
It slammed directly into the torch.
The torch rolled away across the floor.
Juson immediately turned toward it.
The beam continued rolling through the darkness before suddenly stopping after colliding with something unseen.
Juson crawled quickly toward the faint light.
Then the torch beam intensified suddenly.
For one unnatural second, the room glowed brighter than before.
And then the light died completely.
Darkness swallowed the room once again