The elevator doors slide shut behind me with a soft, final sigh, sealing me into the silence of the forty-ninth floor. The sound of the mechanism clicking into place echoes for just a moment before fading, swallowed by the oppressive quiet of the hallway. I stand still for a heartbeat, letting the silence settle around me like a second skin.
The hallway stretches before me—endless, empty, bathed in a dim golden glow that pools across the polished marble floor like honey left too long in the cold. Sconces set high along the walls cast long, wavering shadows that shift with the faintest stir of air.
My footsteps echo as I walk, each one a question I don't have the answer to, each one swallowed by the thick, expensive silence of this floor.
Where is it coming from?
Tonight, I'll find out.
