Chapter 95: Emptiness
The room was cold.A gray, nearly monochrome space, lit by a single harsh fluorescent tube hanging above a worn metal table, scarred by years of interrogations. Inspector Marc Lemaire sat in silence, watching Isaac across from him—slumped, barely held upright by the uncomfortable steel chair beneath him.
The young man’s hands were cuffed in front of him, resting carelessly on the table. His wrists and forearms were wrapped in white bandages, stained with dried blood and antiseptic. His face bore the fresh marks of recent care: small cuts and abrasions dotted his pale skin, grim reminders of the brutality he had endured.
But what struck Lemaire most was his eyes.
Isaac’s gaze was completely empty.Absent.Lifeless.His pupils were fixed, unmoving, staring at some invisible point in space, far beyond the cold walls of the room. His head hung slightly forward, his shoulders hunched, as if carrying the weight of the entire world on his back.
Lemaire exchanged a frustrated glance with his colleague, Inspector Laura Vasseur, seated beside him. The silence pressed down like an anvil—oppressive, suffocating. For over half an hour, they had been trying to get even a single word out of Isaac. But he remained mute. Absent. Either unable or unwilling to react to the simplest of prompts.
— "Isaac Nohr," Lemaire began again, his voice dry, shaking faintly with impatience. "Listen to me. We’ve already wasted enough time. Where are your teammates? Yvan Fournier, Charlotte Gauthier, Victor Martel, Sophie Lacroix, and Léon Faure. They were with you in that dungeon. Why are you the only one who came back?"
He paused, letting the names sink into the void behind Isaac’s eyes.But the boy still didn’t react.His face remained frozen—an expression of frozen despair that was almost unbearable to witness.
— "Can you hear me, Nohr?" Lemaire pressed, his tone growing sharper. "Answer the question. Your teammates—your comrades, the people who trusted you—where are they now, huh? Speak, damn it! We need to understand what happened in that damn dungeon!"
Still nothing. The silence was maddening.
Lemaire felt a wave of frustration boil inside him.He slammed his fist onto the table with a sharp bang, causing Vasseur to jump slightly beside him.But Isaac didn’t flinch.He remained completely motionless—his gaze still fixed on nothing. Like a soulless mannequin.
— "For fuck’s sake, Nohr!" Lemaire exploded, finally losing control. "This isn’t a game! This isn’t some twisted joke! We found no one—no one, you understand? Just you! Covered in blood, half-dead in front of a sealed portal! So tell us—tell me—how the hell did you survive, and why the hell are your teammates gone?!"