Chapter 393

Six months later. Outside, the city was loud with light. It was New Year’s Eve. Fireworks kept bursting open in the sky, one after another, colors spreading wide before disappearing into smoke. People were laughing somewhere below. Music floated faintly from distant streets. The whole city looked alive, as if nothing bad had ever happened here. Jabco stood alone on the hotel balcony. He was tall and still, his body barely moving except for the slow rise and fall of his chest. A cigarette burned quietly between his fingers, the smoke curling upward before being carried away by the sea wind. He didn’t cough. He didn’t even seem to notice it. His eyes were fixed on the distance, past the lights, past the noise, past everything. The sky was shining so brightly tonight, but none of that light reached him. Not even a little. Inside his chest, everything was dark. It had been six months. Six long, heavy months. Six months without a full night of sleep. Six months of waking up in the middle of