Chapter 252: Chaprer 252 - Forgotten
The door creaked open.
Zei stepped inside, his feet dragging lightly across the wooden floor. His eyes were glazed over, pupils dilated like he wasn’t fully there—like something else had dragged him through the streets and dumped him back in the house without his permission. His breath came in slow, steady gasps, as if he hadn’t realized he’d been holding it in all this time.
The house was dim, the sun just beginning to dip under the ruined skyline, casting golden shadows along the broken furniture and battered walls. The place had been randomly chosen during one of their desperate searches for shelter. A once cozy single-story house, now quiet and stripped of life.
"Zei? Where did you go?" Hana’s voice came from the old leather sofa where she sat cross-legged, her eyes flicking up from a small, half-broken flashlight she’d been fiddling with.
Zei didn’t answer.
"You shouldn’t roam outside alone. It’s not safe, you know that," she added, her voice dropping into a quiet grumble as she leaned back, resting her head against the cushion with a small pout. "You’re not even dressed properly for going out. And don’t even get me started on the infected."
He blinked slowly, like her voice reached him through water. His eyes moved around the room like he didn’t recognize it.
Something was wrong.
Not wrong in a loud, dangerous way—but wrong in a deep, unsettling way. Like a dream fading too quickly upon waking, just out of reach.
His fingers clenched around nothing. His chest rose and fell unevenly.
"What just happened?" he finally muttered under his breath. "Why am I here? Wasn’t I in my room...."