Chapter 4: Gaze
772words
"Stay calm, Sato Kiko," I ordered myself, though my teeth chattered wildly. "Think clearly. Fear will get you killed."
Survival instinct took over. Terror sharpened my senses to a razor's edge. My gaze transformed from fearful to searching, desperate. Like a cornered animal, my pupils dilated as I scanned the massive wall of windows.
Snowflakes drifted lazily, adding surreal beauty to the nightmare. The building loomed like a silent monster under the leaden sky. Most windows were covered—beige, gray, navy curtains creating the illusion of normal homes. Behind them, people napped, watched TV, planned dinners—oblivious to the horror in the park below.
My gaze swept upward like a searchlight—ground floor, second, third—examining each window. Each one a separate world, silent as a tomb. Doubt crept in. Was I wrong? Had the killer fled? Was I putting on a one-man show for an empty building?
Despair washed over me. Hope flickered in the bitter wind, nearly dying. My search grew mechanical, numb. Just as I was about to surrender to the silence—
My gaze stopped cold.
Seven or eight floors up, among the uniform drawn curtains, one window looked different. Its curtain had been pulled back slightly, leaving a tiny gap. From this distance, it was barely visible. But to me, it stood out like a lightning bolt against the sky.
I stopped breathing.
A silhouette.
They stood there, perfectly still. Distance and light obscured any details—I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman, couldn't make out clothes or features. Just a dark outline against darkness. But I knew with absolute certainty they were watching me. Their gaze cut through glass, through snow and wind, through yards of empty space. Cold. Focused. Emotionless.
Time froze. The figure and I, separated by swirling snow, locked in silent combat. The world vanished—no wind, no snowfall, no heartbeat—just the watcher and the watched.
Then the dark silhouette shifted slightly, coming into sharper focus.
Within that blackness, a crimson point flared to life. The glow flickered briefly before dying. A moment later, a wisp of pale smoke curled from the gap, dissolving into the frigid air.
They were smoking.
The realization hit me like a jolt of electricity. Not the smoking itself, but what it meant. Lighting a cigarette takes both hands, coordination, focus. While watching me, they were calm enough for this casual act. No fear. No tension. Not even a hint of concern.
They knew I was watching.
They knew I'd spotted them.
And they... simply didn't give a damn.
A chill like nothing I'd ever felt rose from my feet, flooding upward with overwhelming force until it crashed against my heart like a sledgehammer. This wasn't fear—it was something deeper, more primal. The kind of terror that vibrates in your very DNA.
They weren't just watching—they weren't even trying to hide. After I spotted them, they lit a cigarette—the most casual, brazen declaration possible.
My mind went blank. All analysis, all deduction shattered against this wall of pure malice. I was naked in Arctic waters—every cell in my body screaming: RUN!
I had to get out. Now. Call the police. Tell them everything!
Just as I tried to fix the figure's silhouette in my memory, to burn it into my brain, they vanished.
The gap in the curtain returned to bottomless darkness. The silhouette, the glowing cigarette, the wisp of smoke—all gone without a trace, as if the whole scene had been a vivid hallucination from my injured brain.
But my body knew better. My heart hammered like war drums, threatening to crack my ribs. Blood roared through my veins, my temples pounding. Every survival instinct screamed danger.
RUN!
The command shot through me like lightning. Without hesitation, I spun around and forced my frozen legs to move, desperate to reach the park exit.
The instant I turned, the very moment my body surged with survival's desperate energy—
A familiar, devastating pain exploded in the back of my skull.
The pain dwarfed what I'd felt earlier—a hundred times worse! Not dull this time, but sharp, concentrated—pure violence piercing my skull.
Darkness swallowed my vision instantly.
All sounds, thoughts, struggles dissolved into nothing. The world spun, then sank away. My final awareness was the icy kiss of snow against my cheek as I fell, and one last glimpse of that window—now empty and innocent—before everything went black.
Then, nothing.
Oblivion.
