Chris left the hideout dragging an indescribable exhaustion behind him. The "Black Book" lay tucked under his arm like a smoldering coal beneath his clothes; he felt its weight as if he were carrying the souls of all the victims. When he stepped into his apartment, a majestic silence greeted him. The air was infused with the light scent of incense that his sister loved, and he found "Rose" immersed in a deep, peaceful sleep. Her angelic face was the total antithesis of all the ugliness he had heard from Edward and the horrific matters contained within the Black Book.
He entered his room with slow, heavy steps and threw his weary body onto the old wooden chair. Silence reigned, save for the sound of his ragged breathing, as he stared at the ceiling where cracks drew shadows resembling faces. He whispered to himself in a choked voice:
— "It seems the hour has struck, Christopher... Is it time to make your decision regarding this state riddled with corruption? Do you strike now like a lightning bolt, or do you wait for the moment the spider's webs are complete?"
He sat thinking and thinking, until he felt his mind would explode from sheer bewilderment, and exhaustion began to creep into his limbs like a cold numbness.
In that moment, the ringing of the landline phone pierced the stillness of the night; its sound was as sharp as a knife tearing through the silence. Chris slowly picked up the receiver to hear the voice of "Barney." It was a voice trying to sound concerned, but behind it lay an unsettling tone:
— "Christopher? Sorry to disturb you at this late hour, but a neighbor just reported hearing the sound of gunfire in that abandoned building near your area... When we stormed the place, we found the body of a man who died of poisoning, and bullet marks fill the walls like a painting from hell. Do you have any knowledge of what happened there?"
Chris closed his eyes and steadied his tone like a rock:
— "I know nothing about this, Barney. All that happened was that I dropped that man (Edward) off at his doorstep and returned home immediately. That is all I have."
Barney replied with a suspicious smoothness: "I see... Exhaustion is clear in the rasp of your voice. Go to sleep, my friend."
Barney hung up, but on the other end, he wore a sallow smile as he spoke to himself: "Edward is hiding with you, Christopher. I can smell him in your trembling voice. I must pretend to be even friendlier; I will earn your trust until I know his location, and then I will kill you both together with a single shot. Once Chris vanishes from existence, no one will dare stop me from marrying Rose."
In his room, Chris put down the receiver, feeling a cold shiver: "Barney seems like a good person; I don't know why I feel this unease every time I speak with him. Perhaps I've started doubting my own shadow from everything I've seen. I shouldn't treat everyone as an enemy."
Chris decided to put an end to this train of thought. Tomorrow, he would head to the station not as an ordinary employee, but as a hunter gathering information on "Julian Mortimer" and his family, to find their new hideouts after they abandoned that cursed mine.
Chris finally surrendered to sleep, but his nightmares were waiting for him behind his eyelids. He saw his brother "Ronald" standing in the middle of a red mist; his small body was covered in crimson blood that had not yet dried, and his eyes overflowed with reproach:
— "You were my hero, Christopher... Why did you stand by and watch, leaving me to die? You promised us that we would brave the world's adventures together. We are the three brothers—where is your promise?"
Chris woke up with a violent jolt, sweat soaking his pillow. The first thread of dawn had begun to appear. He rose mechanically and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, the clinking of utensils the only sound breaking the dawn silence. He set the food on the table, then went to Rose's room and woke her with a gentle touch on her shoulder. The siblings sat eating; Rose tried to start any conversation, recounting her dreams or her plans for the day, but Chris was entirely absent, staring into his plate as if he saw the faces of the dead within it.
They left the apartment together, walking through the morning streets where fog washed the city's pavements. Silence was the master of the situation; they walked side by side like strangers joined by the bond of blood. When they reached the crossroads where their paths diverged, Chris stopped suddenly and looked at Rose with eyes laden with a heavy decision:
— "Rose... Are you free today? I was thinking we could go out together this evening."
Rose's face lit up, and joy leaped in her eyes like lightning. She approached her brother and kissed his cheek in tender gratitude, then set off toward her university with light steps.
As for him, he turned toward the police station, his features hardening like steel, having dedicated himself to one final mission: "I will save them all... even if I have to burn the world down for them."