Except for the low, constant hum of the refrigeration system.
The guards were gone, and I was alone; the cold didn’t creep in or ease around me—it struck all at once, violent, immediate, and utterly merciless.
My soaked dress turned stiff within seconds, the fabric freezing against my skin.
My breath hitched, coming out in thick white clouds that lingered in the air before freezing on my eyelashes.
My teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.
Hard. Fast.
Painful.
My jaw ached with every involuntary movement.
I wrapped my arms around myself instinctively, but it did nothing.
Nothing helped.
Nothing warmed me.
I forced myself to look up.
To take in my surroundings.
And then I saw them: frozen bodies, strewn across the room, each one still, lifeless.
My breath caught in my throat.
No.
No, no, no...
One man hung half-off a metal table, his arm stretched toward the door as if he’d tried to escape.
Another crouched in the corner, knees pulled tightly to his chest, his face locked in a permanent grimace of pain.
A third stood near the wall, one hand raised—frozen mid-plea.
All of them...
Blue-white. Lips darkened. Eyes open.
Glass.
Gone. Dead.
And on every wall—
Written in tall, stark, relentless letters—
“I AM A BETRAYER TO THE BLACK VEIL SOCIETY.”
The words echoed, repeating again and again, stretching from floor to ceiling, relentless.
A message. A warning. A sentence. A fate.
I froze, every muscle locked in place.
