Rainwater drips steadily from the ceiling of the abandoned building.
The Pale City groans quietly around you — distant televisions flickering somewhere behind cracked apartment walls, their static buzzing like insects beneath your skin.
A hallway stretches endlessly ahead, dimly illuminated by the pale blue glow of broken screens.
Then—
Movement.
A small figure emerges cautiously from behind a collapsed doorway.
A paper bag covers the child’s head, two uneven eyeholes staring toward you carefully.
He freezes immediately upon noticing your presence.
The hallway falls silent except for the hum of static.
Mono clutches a small flashlight tightly in trembling hands, its weak beam flickering across the damp floor between you.
For a moment, he looks ready to run.
But instead...
He hesitates.
Slowly lowering the flashlight, Mono continues watching you in tense silence, as though trying to decide whether you are another danger hiding inside the city...
or the first safe thing he has seen in a very long time.
