The soft hum of the air conditioner filled the quiet office. White light spilled over the edges of the room, giving it a sterile calmness that belied the storm stirring within it. Noemie stepped out of the washroom, drying her hands slowly as if to delay what was already decided. Her heart beat faster with each step toward the eating corner of Lina's office. But Lina wasn't there.
Noemie paused, eyes falling on the open laptop left unattended on the table. The screen glowed with a digital sketch ... a strange helmet bristling with wires, cables branching from its sides like veins. The file was titled Dream Eater. Her breath caught. The name whispered of secrets too strange to be true.
Beside the laptop sat a silver pendant, delicate and cold to the touch. But Noemie knew it wasn't just jewelry. She unscrewed the tiny container, revealing a clear, glistening liquid inside. The smell was faint, sterile.....lab-born. Her fingers trembled as she held it over Lina's glass of juice. One drop. Two. Three.
A soft click. The door opened.
Lina returned, balancing a small box in her hands. "Here," she said brightly, "eat up. It's good and fresh."
Noemie forced a smile and took the sandwich. She lifted it, but her teeth never sank in. Her jaw was too tense. Her eyes weren't on the food...they were on Lina, who took a deep sip from the glass.
The synthetic suppressant was working fast. Within minutes, Lina's laughter lost its rhythm, her words tripping over each other. Her hands fumbled with her sleeves. She pulled her top off, giggling. "It's hot in here," she mumbled, swaying slightly, even as the cold air hummed around them.
Her body, lit by the pale office light, was sculpted like a model's.....graceful curves, smooth skin, a delicate collarbone rising beneath her slender neck. Her arms were lean, her posture usually perfect, now slack and swaying, like a statue melting in heat. It wasn't the bareness that shocked Noemie, but the vulnerability...how someone so confident now seemed so helpless.
"Noemie," she whispered, stumbling forward. "Come here."
Lina kissed her.
It was clumsy, impulsive, like a child mimicking desire without understanding it. Her lips tasted like juice and something sharp beneath. Her movements were wild and loose, her mouth talking faster than her thoughts could catch.
In another room of another building, Seraina was spiraling the same way.
Words spilled like broken glass from her mouth.
"I had to work overtime again," Lina slurred. "Dad left. Left Mom. Debt's on me. Can't skip shifts. Can't breathe sometimes. When I'm late sending money, Mom sleeps hungry."
Her eyes were glassy, but the truth in them was clear. The pain, the exhaustion, the loneliness.....bare beneath the surface, freed by the drug she didn't know she drank.
And Seraina?
"They used me," she said. "Mom. Dad. Treated me like a gold cow. Hit me when they were angry. Always angry. I ran. Came here. Now they can't touch me. I'm free, right?"
Matteo was listening through a monitor, watching both scenes unfold with detached fascination. He grinned....sharp, ugly, wrong.....as if the pain of others was a sweet song only he could hear.
Tears spilled from Annelise's eyes.
Noemie's hands clenched as she sobbed, the guilt and empathy bleeding out of her at once.
Lina held her, fragile and swaying.
Seraina crumbled into Annelise's arms.
There was no strength in their embraces—only sorrow and shared wounds.
Time passed like a ghost.
When Lina blinked again, the sun had shifted. Her head throbbed, her mouth dry. The remnants of dizziness still danced in her vision. She groaned.
And then.....
Voices. Footsteps. Radios.
The cops.
They were everywhere. Blue uniforms. Gloves. Flashlights. A badge glinting in the sterile light.
"Miss Lina?"
"What…?" she slurred, struggling to sit up.
"Noemie?"
No answer.
She was gone.
The same chaos echoed in the dorm where Seraina had passed out. Police, confusion. And she too, waking alone.
In the corner of Lina's desk, the laptop screen had gone dark, but if you tapped it, it would light back up, revealing Dream Eater still open.
And the glass.....
....still held a thin sheen of clear liquid at the bottom, catching the light like a hidden truth.