The moon hung heavy and distant, an indifferent eye watching a world crumbling piece by piece.
Inside the small, dim lighted apartment room, Noemie trembled, curled in on herself like a dying thing.
The faint fluorescent light buzzed overhead, cold and unforgiving.
Pain burned under her skin, crawling, howling.
Her eye throbbed with a deep, pulsing ache, every blink slicing the wound open anew. Tears slid down her cheeks, but they didn't soothe the fire.
It was the kind of suffering that made you forget how to scream .... just raw breathlessness, a fish thrown onto the shore, gasping for a life slipping away.
She sobbed, quietly at first, then louder, losing herself.
The walls, the floor, the whole world seemed to tilt and dissolve into her agony.
And then....
A soft shadow moved beside her.
Matteo knelt down, his hand hovering just above her trembling shoulder but never quite touching, like he was afraid she'd shatter at a single graze.
He leaned closer, his breath brushing her ear.
"Don't do anything stupid," Matteo whispered, voice hoarse but firm.
"You still have your mom."
The words cut through her grief like a blade.
Her heart squeezed so hard it felt like it might rip in two.
Noemie bit her lip, stifling another sob, clutching the phone Matteo had left her ..... a mercy in a day without any.
A trembling reminder that someone, somewhere, might still say her name with love.
The night outside thickened into a deeper black.
Far across the city, Ladina sat curled up on a worn couch, her face lit only by the ghostly glow of her phone screen.
Her fingers tapped quickly, sending a message.
"Do it tomorrow. The product should be ready for sell."
A reply came almost instantly.
"Yes. Don't worry. I'm just seasoning the lamb."
Ladina stared at the message for a long moment, then closed her eyes and leaned back, exhaustion etched into every line of her body.
The city never slept. Neither did the devils walking inside it.
Meanwhile, a car hummed quietly to a stop in front of the office quarters.
Annelise stepped out, clutching her bag to her chest like a shield. Her legs shook under her, her throat dry.
"Tomasz...…" she whispered, waving a trembling hand in farewell.
He nodded at her silently, face grim, before driving off into the night.
Annelise stood alone, shivering, the heavy iron doors of the quarters looming before her like a prison gate.
Gathering her courage, she hurried inside, her footsteps echoing eerily down the narrow, cracked hallway.
Up the staircase.
One step at a time.
Don't think. Don't feel.
She stopped in front of a door, her knuckles hovering in the air.
The number was half-scratched off.
Knock.
Once. Twice.
The door creaked open, and Eliane appeared, her face pale and drawn.
The staleness of the room hit Annelise like a slap ... sweat, blood, despair.
Behind Eliane, Annelise caught sight of Noemie.
And her heart broke.
Noemie sat on the floor in nothing but her undergarments, her back riddled with red welts, as if someone had painted her with rage and hatred.
The marks looked fresh, raw.
She clutched the phone like a lifeline, her dead eyes staring into nothingness.
Noemie wasn't sitting there. She was trapped somewhere far, far away.
"My God…...." Annelise choked out, stumbling forward.
Her bag dropped from her fingers, forgotten .... sweets and warm food spilling onto the floor.
Pointless. Laughable.
"This is hell," Eliane murmured bitterly, her voice cracking.
Without a second thought, Annelise knelt beside Noemie and wrapped her arms around her, pulling her close.
Noemie tensed, frozen stiff at first .... but when Annelise whispered brokenly, "I'm here…... I'm here, please don't be alone," Noemie finally sagged into her embrace.
Both girls cried, their sobs mingling, the room filling with the sound of shared sorrow.
Then ....
A shrill ring tore through the grief.
The phone.
Noemie's phone.
Noemie's eyes widened in terror. She recoiled, shoving the device away as if it had burned her.
"No....…" she gasped. "I can't…... I can't…..."
"You can," Eliane said, kneeling beside her, her hand covering Noemie's trembling fingers.
"You have to."
Annelise wiped her face hastily and nodded.
"She's your mother, Noemie. She's waiting. Please….... talk to her."
Noemie whimpered, biting down on her already bleeding lip.
Every instinct screamed at her to run, to hide.
She wasn't ready. She wasn't clean. She was a broken thing.
How could she talk to her mother like this?
But somehow, through the wreckage inside her, she pressed the green button.
A small, trembling voice came through the speaker, ragged with tears.
"Noemie?
Noemie, baby?
I just got your money today....… Thank you, my daughter…... Thank you so much…..."
The dam inside Noemie shattered.
A sob wrenched itself out of her chest.
She clutched the phone to her ear like it was the only thing keeping her alive.
"Mom...…" she cried, voice shaking, raw.
"I'm sorry…... I'm so sorry…...."
"Don't say sorry, love," her mother said, sobbing.
"I'm proud of you. You're my little girl. You did something so good. I'm.....I'm proud."
Noemie shook with grief, her face buried in Annelise's shoulder, the phone clutched tight against her ear.
Proud.
The word hurt more than anything.
In that moment, under the filthy buzzing light, in a room that smelled of blood and sadness ....Noemie was just a daughter again.
Not a corpse.
Not a failure.
A daughter.
A spark, a tiny ember of life, flickered somewhere inside her broken chest.