When the dilapidated wooden house, already on the verge of collapse, finally crumbled under the hooded man's terrifying attack...
Sylvia, who had barely caught her breath behind a huge rock nearby, felt as though an invisible hand had seized her heart at that very moment and crushed it.
Dust, splinters, and rubble billowed into the air, completely obscuring her view.
After the deafening crash came a deathly silence. Only the night wind wailed through the ruins, stirring scattered ashes.
"The... the house... collapsed... Senior Greg... he's still inside..."
Overwhelming terror and despair instantly flooded her pink eyes.
She slid limply down the rock and sat on the ground, clamping both hands over her mouth to keep a heart-rending scream from escaping.
Her tears surged uncontrollably like a flood bursting through a dam, blurring her vision and tracing burning trails down her cold cheeks.
It was over.
Everything was over.
That figure who had descended like a fairy-tale prince tearing through the darkness, that gentle voice saying, "I'll help you," that resolute silhouette standing before her to face a terrifying enemy... all of it had been buried beneath those ruins.
Because she was useless. Because she had held him back.
"No... please... Senior Greg... I'm begging you... don't die..."
Utter grief and self-reproach washed over her like an icy tide, threatening to drown her.
How she wished she could have been just a little more useful, could have possessed greater strength. At least... at least she wouldn't have had to hide outside like a useless fool, helplessly watching the person who had saved her be buried alive.
Just as despair was about to swallow the last shreds of her awareness and leave her utterly broken-
The wind seemed to pick up.
The lingering dust began to disperse slowly in the night