Noah's scream split through the night like a crack in glass.
"TAEMIN!!!!!!!"
His voice carried across the abandoned grounds-raw, terrified, and trembling with something far deeper than fear. The wind seemed to hold its breath, the shadows stretching long and thin as if they were listening.
Somewhere between the broken walls and the overgrown weeds, Taemin staggered forward.
"NOAH, I'M COMING FOR YOU!!!" he shouted back.
His voice was rough, nearly drowned out by the ringing in his ears. Blood dripped down his forehead, tracing a hot, sticky line along his cheek. His steps faltered, his breath cut short-not because of the blow he'd taken, but because the knife buried in his chest pulsed with every heartbeat, threatening to stop them all.
He didn't care.
Pain meant nothing when Noah was screaming his name.
The world around him swayed, a dizzy swirl of peeling metal doors, rusted pipes, and flickering yellow lights. Every shadow twitched like something alive. The cold air tasted metallic, like breath before a storm. Somewhere in the dark, water dripped steadily-tap... tap... tap-echoing like a countdown.
"Noah... stay where you are," Taemin rasped, though he could barely hear himself.
A sudden crash-boots against gravel.
A cruel laugh.
A voice that slithered through the darkness.
"Well, well..." the man said, stepping into a sliver of broken light. His silhouette warped against the wall behind him. "You're harder to kill than I expected, Detective."
Taemin flinched. His hand pressed against his wound, but blood still spread across his shirt like a blooming flower.
"Noah..." he whispered again.
He needed to reach him. He needed to-
"TAEMIN!"
Noah appeared out of nowhere, running toward him-eyes wide, chest heaving, panic twisting his features. His skin looked strangely pale under the flickering lights, almost like the moon had carved him out of itself... cold, glowing faintly in the darkness. But Taemin didn't notice. He only saw Noah-only felt the desperate pull in his chest, the ache that had nothing to do with the knife buried there.
Before Taemin could react, the man behind him lifted a massive stone-dark, jagged, heavy enough to crack bone-and hurled it straight at Taemin's skull.
Everything seemed to slow.
The air froze.
The shadows recoiled.
The world narrowed to one sharp breath.
Then-
Noah moved.
With a force that seemed impossible for someone so slim, he slammed into Taemin, shoving him out of the stone's path. The impact knocked both of them to the ground. Taemin landed hard, the wind punched out of him, but Noah... Noah didn't make a sound when he hit the floor. He simply lay there, rising slowly to look at Taemin with a strange softness flickering behind the fear.
"Are you okay?" Noah whispered breathlessly.
Taemin nodded, though he wasn't. He was losing too much blood. He was seeing double. His hands trembled when he reached out-but he still reached for Noah.
Their fingers brushed.
Cold. Too cold.
But Taemin didn't notice anything except that Noah was here. He was alive. He was touchable. He was-
"ENOUGH!"
The man's snarl ripped through the moment. He stepped forward, boots crushing gravel, fury twisting his face.
"I'm going to kill you two!" he barked. "You are both too much trouble for me-and for Madam." His eyes gleamed with something vicious. "Tonight, it ends. You both should never have stayed alive this long."
He raised the gun.
Noah's eyes widened.
Taemin pushed himself up, chest screaming with pain.
The world shrank to the metallic click of a loaded chamber.
"Noah..." Taemin murmured-barely a sound, barely breath.
"Taemin, move!" Noah shouted, pulling him closer, shielding him with his own body as if he could take the bullet for him.
The man smiled.
One second.
Silence.
Then-
BANG.
(The gunshot tore through the darkness.)