“This isn’t a threat,” Aaron had said. “It’s an execution.”
Those words followed me into the building.
They clung to my skin, my breath, and my thoughts as I pushed past the broken entrance and stepped inside.
The building smelled like old smoke and wet concrete.
That was the first thing that hit me as I stepped inside – not fire, not danger, but memory. Burned paper. Rusted metal. A place that had already died once and refused to stay buried.
My pulse thudded in my ears as I moved deeper into the structure, every footstep echoing too loudly. The flashlight in my hand trembled, cutting through dust and shadows. This was the building Pierce was supposed to destroy again.
The past, erased twice.
I swallowed and checked my phone. No signal. Of course.
The investigator had stayed outsi
