Chapter 106: Confined at Home
The first rays of sunlight bathed the city in a warm orange glow, slowly revealing an urban landscape that felt both familiar and oppressively foreign. Isaac walked through the nearly deserted streets, his steps heavy and slow, his thoughts still muddled by recent events. The inspectors had finally released him after a seemingly endless night of interrogation and tense waiting. Their condition had been clear: remain in the city, available to the justice system, or be immediately flagged as a high-level threat. Isaac hadn’t protested he knew this wasn’t the time to challenge authority.
The sounds of the city waking around him felt strangely distant. The sputtering engine of an old scooter struggling to start, the metallic groan of shop shutters rising, the muffled conversations of early commuters... All of it seemed to belong to another world a world he no longer felt fully part of.
He passed through the still-drowsy city center, with its elegant, well-maintained buildings and impeccably clean sidewalks, before turning toward the poorer neighborhood where he lived. The contrast was immediate. The buildings were dull and weather-worn, stained by humidity and time. The walls were covered in loud graffiti sometimes political, often just vulgar. The air smelled of overflowing trash bins mixed with the bitter stench of cheap cigarettes.
Isaac lowered his gaze slightly as he passed a group of teenagers loitering in front of a crumbling building. They watched him, but said nothing recognizing one of their own. He sighed and quickened his pace, feeling a familiar, almost painful tension building inside him.
Finally, he reached the building he shared with his sister. It was in particularly bad shape: cracked, filthy walls, creaking stairwells, poorly lit corridors. Climbing the stairs to the third floor felt like scaling a mountain, his heart pounding harder with each step, instinctively anticipating what awaited him.
When he finally pushed open the door to their apartment, he was met with an eerily cold, silent atmosphere.
- "Léna?" he called out hesitantly.
Silence answered him like a slap. He stepped cautiously into the living room, his heart hammering in his chest.
Léna stood there, arms crossed, her expression closed and stone-cold. Her dark eyes sparkled with barely contained fury.
Isaac swallowed hard, a bead of cold sweat sliding down his temple.
- "Hey," he said awkwardly, trying in vain to sound casual.