The cabin breathed stillness.
It wasn’t the kind of quiet that came with absence. It was the kind that pressed against the ribs, settled in the spine, and reminded Michael Vladmir just how much noise lived inside him.
The pine walls creaked in the wind. The fire whispered in its hearth, splitting logs in slow protest. Dust hung in the air like the ghosts he hadn’t invited but knew would follow.
No one knew where he’d gone not even Elias. He’d left no trail, no signal, nothing but a blank stretch of time and the static hush of isolation. No satellites. No surveillance. Just a burner phone, a pistol, and memories he couldn’t put back in the box.
He sat near the fire, watching it consume the wood with a slow, indifferent hunger. Flames curled around the logs like they knew secrets too.
F
