When the Patrol Van screeched to a halt outside the school gates, Li Jie noticed a thin layer of ash covering the concrete.
It wasn't dust, but charcoal-like debris, scattered all the way from the gates to the main building. When the wind blew, tiny particles swirled upward, glimmering with an eerie pink light before disintegrating into ash.
"What is..."
Harleen pushed open the door with her helmet on, her Baseball Bat in hand, and scanned their surroundings warily.
There were no whispers, no people covered in starfish. The playground was deserted, the slides and swings motionless beneath the gray-white sky. Every window in the main building was shut, its curtains drawn tight.
But something still wasn't right. It was too quiet. This wasn't the controlled, deathly silence of the streets outside. It was something else...
"Sheriff!"
A second-floor window suddenly swung open. A little girl with a ponytail leaned halfway out, waving her arms excitedly. "The sheriff's here!"
Then more little heads popped out of the windows. There was no seafood on their faces, no dull obedience-just bright eyes full of curiosity and excitement.
"Sheriff!"
"Are all those weird things outside dead?"
The children's chattering cries shattered the silence. Li Jie and Harleen exchanged glances, each seeing the confusion in the other's eyes.
The school gates weren't locked. They pushed open the iron gates and walked inside, their boots crunching softly over the charcoal-like fragments. With every step, more pink glimmers rose from the debris and vanished completely into the air.
"Are these..." Harleen bent down and prodded the fragments with her Baseball Bat. "Those starfish?"
"Burned ones," Li Jie said, looking up at the main entrance.
The door opened, and Raven came out first. Today she wore an ordinary dark sweatshirt and jeans, her hair tied in a