Julian left the apartment without another word, the door clicked shut behind him, the sound sharp in the empty hallway. He took the stairs instead of the elevator, feet moving at a steady pace, each step deliberate.
The building's stairwell echoed faintly with his movement, but he kept going until he reached the ground floor and pushed through the main doors into the night air.
The street was alive with the usual rhythm. Cars passed in steady streams, their headlights cutting clean lines across the wet pavement. People moved along the sidewalks, some talking on phones, others hurrying with bags or umbrellas. Everything looked ordinary. Everything felt ordinary.
Julian kept walking.
He needed distance. Not to escape, not to run. Just to see if the pattern held when Lucian was not in the same room, not in the same building, not even in the same block. If it was real, it should still be there without him. If it was only Lucian, it should fade the moment he stepped away.
