The secluded vacation home stood like a lonely sentinel atop the windswept cliff, its wooden structure groaning under the pressure of the gale. Rain lashed against the windowpanes, creating a distorted, watery barrier between the inside world and the chaotic nature outside. Gillian stood in the center of the living area, his coat drenched and his boots leaving muddy tracks on the polished floorboards. He felt the cold seeping into his bones, but his mind remained sharply focused on the figure sitting across from him by the dying fireplace. Ghea’s superior, the man who had turned Gillian’s world upside down in a single night in the forest, watched him with an unsettling, calm patience.
"You followed me through the storm, Gillian," the man remarked, his voice steady despite the howling wi
