Juson slowly lowered the torch toward the kitchen floor once again, allowing the narrow beam to travel across the cracked tiles before climbing cautiously over the surrounding walls. Apart from the shattered window, the room appeared strangely untouched. The cupboards remained closed, the shelves stood where they always had, and even the utensils hanging above the counter looked undisturbed. That unnatural order unsettled him far more than open destruction would have. It was as though violence had entered the house with remarkable precision, choosing only a few places to leave behind its mark while sparing everything else. His gaze settled upon the broken window once more. Thick grey dust clung stubbornly to the fractured wooden frame, collecting along every splintered edge in layers that seemed impossible for a single evening. Even stranger, the surrounding wall carried the same powder, as though it had spread outward from the opening itself rather than drifting in from outside. The protective metal grill that should have covered the window had vanished entirely, leaving only twisted bolts protruding from the wall. Juson narrowed his eyes, immediately recognising the substance. It was identical to the strange dust coating Hakiten's table, the same dust he had cleaned from his own car earlier that morning, and the same dust that had appeared in places where no ordinary dust should ever have existed. Every new encounter with it deepened the feeling that the particles were somehow following events rather than simply accumulating over time.
Carefully, Juson stepped closer until he stood directly before the broken opening. Beyond it lay only darkness, interrupted here and there by distant streetlights filtering weakly through neighbouring trees. He wanted desperately to look outside, yet every instinct warned him against exposing himself carelessly. Something about the silence beyond the window felt watchful. Instead of leaning forward, he slowly extended one arm through the opening while keeping the torch firmly in his hand. The beam swept across the darkness outside, revealing nothing except overgrown grass and patches of uneven ground beneath the wall. No movement answered him. No sound followed. After several tense seconds, he withdrew his arm again and rested the torch upon a nearby shelf so that its beam continued illuminating the interior of the kitchen. Placing both hands carefully against the jagged remains of the broken frame, he gathered enough courage to lean slightly forward and peer outside. Before he could move any farther, however, a loud vehicle horn suddenly shattered the silence beyond the house. The sharp horn echoed across the neighbourhood with startling force, causing Juson to instinctively recoil from the window. His heartbeat surged as he spun around toward the source of the sound, abandoning the opening immediately. He snatched the torch from the shelf and moved several steps away from the broken wall before forcing himself to breathe again. Only then did his eyes wander back toward the darkness below the window, where something new had caught his attention.
Lying directly beneath the broken opening was a shape that had not registered in his first glance. It resembled a small human body curled tightly upon itself, roughly the size of a child. Thick layers of grey dust covered nearly every part of it, making individual features impossible to distinguish.Unlike ordinary particles lying motionless upon the earth, faint blue grains drifted slowly across the ground toward the figure, gathering around it one after another with quiet determination. They did not blow in the wind. They moved deliberately, as though responding to an unseen force hidden within the body itself. Juson remained standing at the window, unable to decide whether he look out of the window . Before he could step closer, the horn sounded again from somewhere beyond the front of the house, louder this time and filled with unmistakable urgency. The strange body remained where it was, but Juson forced himself to turn away from it. Whatever waited outside demanded immediate attention, and lingering here no longer felt wise.
Leaving the kitchen behind, he hurried toward the entrance hall, the torch beam bouncing unevenly across the floor with every hurried step. The front door still hung crookedly upon its damaged hinges, allowing cold night air to drift silently into the house. Stepping outside, Juson found a man standing beside a parked car several houses away, repeatedly calling out toward one of the neighbouring homes. Moments later, a frightened woman burst through her doorway carrying two heavy suitcases, barely pausing long enough to shut the door behind her before throwing the luggage into the vehicle. Neither of them looked toward Hakiten's house. Neither wanted to. Within seconds the engine roared to life, the headlights swung across the empty street, and the car disappeared quickly into the darkness beyond the neighbourhood. Juson watched its taillights vanish until nothing remained except silence once more. The meaning behind what he had witnessed settled heavily inside him. The neighbours were no longer waiting for explanations. Fear had already convinced them to abandon their homes. Under different circumstances, he knew he should have followed their example. He should have returned to Yokina and Herik immediately and forgotten everything connected to this place. Yet every answer he sought still seemed trapped somewhere inside Hakiten's house, hidden beneath layers of confusion and impossible events. Until he understood what had happened here, leaving felt more dangerous than staying.
Making up his mind, Juson turned back toward the darkness and headed directly for Hakiten's room. His pace remained cautious, the torch angled downward to illuminate the floor rather than the walls, partly to avoid tripping over debris and partly because he no longer wished to see what else might be watching from the shadows surrounding him. The familiar corridor stretched ahead in complete silence until he finally reached the sliding door leading into Hakiten's room. He paused outside for several seconds, listening carefully. Nothing answered. Slowly he pushed the door aside, its wooden frame scraping harshly against the wall before coming to rest with a dull thud. The beam from the torch swept slowly across the interior. The room remained almost exactly as he remembered it from earlier that afternoon. The bed stood against the wall. Shelves remained undisturbed. Yet the table occupying the centre of the room immediately drew his attention. It had not merely cracked. It had been torn apart. The thick wooden surface had split cleanly through its centre as though an enormous invisible force had ripped directly across it, scattering broken fragments in every direction. Juson stepped forward slowly, unable to take his eyes away from the destruction. Whatever had happened inside this room had exceeded any ordinary struggle. No person could have produced damage like this through physical strength alone.
Without wasting another moment, Juson crouched beside the shattered table. Holding the torch low in one hand, he reached toward the half-destroyed drawer with the other, already knowing exactly what he hoped to find. The incomplete glass cube. The strange object containing the restless red particles. The drawer, however, was already hanging partially open before he even touched it. A feeling of unease settled immediately in his stomach. He pulled it outward completely and stared inside. Empty. The cube had vanished. His breathing grew noticeably heavier as realisation struck him. Someone had already taken it, or something had. Refusing to accept that conclusion without searching further, Juson placed the torch upon the floor and began tearing broken planks away from the destroyed table, convinced the cube might have fallen somewhere beneath the wreckage. One splinter after another struck the wooden floor with dull impacts while fragments scattered around his knees. The empty drawer only got in his way. Frustrated, he shoved it aside carelessly. It slid across the floor before colliding directly with the torch. The impact sent the flashlight rolling away into the darkness, its beam spinning wildly across the room before finally stopping against something hidden beyond the broken furniture. Juson immediately crawled after it, reaching desperately toward the faint light. For one brief, unnatural instant, the beam grew brighter than ever before, flooding the room with pale illumination that seemed almost alive. Then, without warning, the light failed completely. The torch died. Absolute darkness swallowed Hakiten's room once again.