A strange silence filled the room.
Only the irritating clink of a spoon against a cup broke it.
The sound came from beside me—from the entity I had once believed to be a hallucination. But now he sat next to me. A human being of flesh and blood, calmly sipping his tea.
Am I like them? Is that why they brought me here?
"Before I tell you anything," Suleiman said evenly, "answer me this—have you seen anything else besides the black sphere? Think twice if you intend to lie again. We have methods far easier than questioning you directly."
I didn't even want to imagine what those methods were.
A damned global organization… what kind of organization threatens an innocent citizen who harmed no one? This isn't an organization. It's a gang that kidnaps and intimidates people.
"Yes," I said at last. "I saw something… a few days ago. A faceless creature."
I watched their expressions carefully. Something unreadable flickered across all three faces. The two men exchanged a glance that clearly meant: We found something.
But I didn't know what.
The tension in the room thickened until even the tea in our cups cooled rapidly.
"What did you do when it appeared?" he asked, his voice sharp with urgency—as if the answer mattered more than anything else.
"Nothing. I froze. Then I lost consciousness. I don't know what happened after that."
Disappointment surfaced on his face. The corner of his mouth tightened faintly.
"Didn't I tell you lying is useless?"
So he doesn't actually have a real way to detect lies… because what I just said was the truth.
"And now it's your turn," I pressed. "The woman beside you said you'd explain everything if I followed you. Who are you really? How did you do all this? And why me?"
He exhaled slowly.
"Where do I begin… As I said, the N.U.L.L organization confronts supernatural phenomena that threaten human life. Each of us is sensitive to a strange energy we call Aetherion. Why us? That, we do not know either."
He paused briefly.
"But we all share one thing: we experienced a trauma. That trauma granted us this ability."
He gestured toward the man beside me.
"You see him? I'm certain you see him now. His ability is called Aetheric Projection. But every ability comes with a price."
The last words were spoken with bitterness, as though he had stepped on an old wound.
I glanced at the woman beside him. Her face had changed again—now bearing an old, massive scar that devoured half of it.
I began to understand what kind of "price" he meant.
At least… partly.
"But what does that have to do with me?" I demanded.
"That is precisely what we want to know," he replied. "We call creatures like the one you saw 'Specters.' What we want to understand is how you managed—within seconds of us detecting it—to make it disappear completely."
"…I don't know. Maybe it left on its own."
I deliberately avoided mentioning the black sphere I had seen that day.
No matter how I looked at it, this organization was suspicious.
I could feel he wasn't telling me everything.
So I wouldn't lay all my cards on the table either.
I kept one or two for myself.
The tension grew heavier.
I could sense he didn't trust me.
And I didn't trust him either.
"This is Lina, Vice Leader of Gamma Squad. And the person beside you is—"
"No. Stop. No more."
I cut him off quickly.
The more he spoke, the more I felt invisible chains tightening around my neck. The more I understood about this supposedly "secret" organization, the deeper I would be entangled in it.
And the harder it would be to leave.
I didn't want to belong to anything.
"This is where our conversation ends," I said firmly. "From what I understand, you have no way to stop me from seeing these creatures—or Specters, as you call them. So if that's all you have, excuse me while I leave."
I stood up.
"And… if you intend to erase my memory of this meeting, go ahead. If you don't have that capability, then I swear I will not speak of what I saw or heard here."
I had no desire to join any organization—especially one that leaked its patients' information. From the black sphere… to my address… to manipulating my family and friends—
I felt threatened.
Cornered.
Suffocated.
"But—"
*Rrrring. *Rrrring.
Suleiman had been about to say something when a sudden ringtone cut through the tension.
It came from all three of their phones.
Not mine.
Despite the fact that there was no signal underground.
They each picked up their devices. Within seconds, their expressions distorted as their eyes scanned the small screens once.
"I'll have to cut this short," he said sharply. "We have something urgent."
The three of them rose at once.
"No need to continue anything," I said quickly. "I'll stay out of it. Thank you. At least now I know I'm not insane."
He looked at me silently.
I don't know why—but that look gave me the same feeling I had when I saw the Faceless Specter.
It froze me in place.
"Escort her," he ordered curtly to the woman beside him.
"Yes."
She obeyed immediately.
The walk back to the elevator passed in complete silence.
Any lingering curiosity died the moment we stood before the center's entrance.
The same entrance that had been decorated by a corpse less than two weeks ago.
A corpse that might once have been someone like me.
As he had said—
Everything comes at a price.
And I was not prepared to pay that kind of price.