Teeth.
Ripped into her shoulder. Tore away a chunk of indigo hair and flesh.
Jae-Min couldn't scream. His throat was already torn open. He could only watch. Watch the neighbor—the middle-aged man from Unit 1412—bury his face into Alessia's stomach.
A buffet.
That's what they had become. Food.
Alessia's eyes found his. Those calm, sweet blue eyes. Now wide. Now glassy. Her mouth opened. No sound came out. Just a wet, choking bubble of blood.
No.
He loved her. He hadn't even told her yet. Three months of late-night conversations in the hallway. Her soft laughter. The way she tucked her indigo hair behind her ear when she was nervous. The way she looked at him like he was worth something.
Gone.
Jae-Min tried to crawl. His fingers scraped against the frozen concrete. Nails broke. Blood smeared the ice.
Hands grabbed his ankles.
Jaws clamped down on his calf. Muscle tore. Bone snapped.
The pain was cold. A freezing, jagged fire that traveled up his spine and detonated in his skull.
He didn't look back. He kept his eyes on her.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
More hands. More teeth. They dragged him back. A child from the 10th floor sank its teeth into his ribs. A woman—Mrs. Dela Cruz—gnawed on his wrist like a starving dog.
Through the agony, his mind fractured.
Ji-Yoo. His twin. Dead. Burned in the wreckage of that plane in the Alishan mountains before the freeze even came. Mom and Dad with her. He hadn't been able to save them.
He couldn't save anyone.
And now Alessia.
A man grabbed Alessia's face. Sank his thumbs into her eyes. Popped them.
Jae-Min's heart stopped. Not from the blood loss. From the sound.
The wet, squelching sound of her skull cracking open.
Not her.
Something hot splashed across his face. Her blood. It steamed against his frozen skin.
Kiara's face flashed in his mind. That smug, manipulative smile. The scent of another man on her skin a year ago. The lies. The cheating bitch who ruined three years of his life.
A bitter, broken laugh tried to bubble up from his ruined throat.
He had given his heart to a whore. And when a real woman finally touched his soul, he was too much of a coward to say the words.
Now she was being eaten alive in front of him.
Teeth sank into his throat. Deep. Pulling.
His vision tunneled. The world shrank to a single point.
Alessia's mangled face. Her parted lips. The last trace of indigo hair stained crimson.
I love you.
He never said it.
Ji-Yoo's face. Mom. Dad. All of them gone because he was useless. Because he was weak. Because he didn't know.
Please.
God. Anyone. Something.
I'll do anything.
Give me one more chance.
I'll save them all. Ji-Yoo. Mom. Dad. Alessia.
I'll find the words. I'll protect her. I'll kill every single one of them.
JUST GIVE ME ONE MORE—
Something inside him snapped.
Not his body. Something deeper. Something behind his ribs. A cord that connected his soul to the world. It vibrated. Hummed. Shattered.
Time stopped.
The teeth in his throat froze mid-bite. The blood hanging in the air crystallized into perfect red spheres. Alessia's falling eyelash suspended like a feather.
A crack split through the air. Black. Fractured. Wrong.
Space tore open.
And Jae-Min fell through.
...
Warmth.
Humming. The smell of lavender detergent and stale air conditioning.
Jae-Min gasped.
His hands flew to his throat. Whole. His chest. Whole. His legs. Whole.
He scrambled up. The bed sheets tangled around his legs. He fell to the floor, slamming his elbow against the cheap nightstand.
Pain. Normal pain. Not teeth.
He was hyperventilating. His lungs burned. The room was sweltering. 36°C. The window unit AC was struggling to keep up with the peak Philippine summer.
He looked around.
Shore Residence 3. Building B. Unit 1418.
His phone buzzed on the floor where it fell. The screen lit up.
March 16. 6:47 AM.
Jae-Min stopped breathing.
Thirty days.
The plane hadn't taken off.
Ji-Yoo was alive.
Alessia was alive.
Next door. Unit 1419. Just a wall between them. She was probably sleeping right now. Safe. Whole.
His hands shook. Not from the cold. From the absolute, suffocating weight of the date.
He reached for the notebook on his desk. Pen in hand. He pressed so hard the tip nearly snapped.
He wrote three words.
THIRTY DAYS LEFT.
He stared at the ink. The shaking stopped.
The crying stopped.
In its place, something colder settled into his chest. Something hollow. Something hungry.
He didn't know what tore him out of hell. He didn't care.
Kiara was still alive.
The neighbors were still alive.
But Alessia was alive.
And this time, he wouldn't stay silent.
He had thirty days to save his family. Thirty days to turn Unit 1418 into a fortress. Thirty days to become the man she deserved.
Jae-Min stood up.
He walked to the door. Just to check. Just to make sure the world was real.
He opened it.
The hallway was quiet. Morning light filtered through the windows at the end of the corridor. Normal. Peaceful.
Then he looked left.
Unit 1419.
The door was open. Just a crack. A sliver of darkness.
And someone was watching him through the gap.
A single blue eye.
Alessia.