Chapter 305
Leonard called out over his shoulder to urge the others, then lengthened his stride and took off.
The main entrance to Building 8 was right before his eyes, and Leonard was the first to step inside. Immediately following him was Liam. He practically pushed past Thomas and Derek, looking so frantic that even Lucas and the others were caught off guard.
"What’s got Liam in such a rush?" Lucas asked in surprise.
Elijah glanced at him and said, "Duh. His brother is still at home."
"True," Lucas replied thoughtfully.
Both of them assumed Liam was rushing solely because Noah was back at the apartment, and they found it perfectly understandable.
The stairwell echoed with a chaotic flurry of footsteps. Leonard was moving incredibly fast, practically flying up the stairs. However, as he climbed higher, his pace gradually slowed.
He caught a faint whiff of copper.
It was drifting down from above—subtle, but distinct. The scent of blood.
Leonard’s brow furrowed tightly, and his expression turned serious. Where is that smell coming from? Before they left, the scent of blood in the stairwell had already mostly dissipated. Now, the odor was much stronger than before—fresh and warm, as if it had only just left a body.
Liam, who had been right behind Leonard, quickly noticed the change in him.
"What is it?" he asked quietly.
Leonard didn’t turn around, his voice tightening. "I smell blood."
Liam’s eyes widened.
At this point, he still hadn’t fully realized something was wrong. His sense of smell was nowhere near as sharp as Leonard’s, whose senses had become superhuman from being constantly fed spiritual spring water by Suzy. But prompted by the warning, Liam focused and managed to catch a faint, metallic scent as well.
"There is. Hurry, let’s go check!"
A sudden, ominous premonition seized both of them, and they took off up the stairs, their long legs moving in a blur.
Thomas, following closely behind, caught the scent too. His brow knit together, and he rapidly accelerated his pace, with Derek hot on his heels.
As the four of them bolted, Lucas and the others at the bottom were left completely bewildered. Elijah opened his mouth to call out and ask what was going on, but before the words could leave his lips, the men had already rounded the landing, their shadows vanishing from sight.
"What happened?" Lucas looked up, a bunch of supplies still gripped in his hands.
"I don’t know, but something seems wrong," Bill said.
Exchanging glances, the three of them instinctively quickened their pace as well.
Leonard led the pack, taking the stairs three at a time as if his legs were on springs. He could no longer care about the people behind him; only one thought consumed his mind: Get up there! Hurry up! He didn’t know what he was so afraid of—maybe it was the scent of blood that grew heavier with every step, or maybe it was just a gut feeling screaming that something had gone horribly wrong.
After leaping up a dozen more steps, he suddenly paused and glanced back at Liam.
Liam was right behind him, his face as white as a sheet and his lips pressed into a bloodless line. He didn’t say a word, only stared back at Leonard with dark, heavy eyes that hid a rising panic.
Without breaking stride, Liam pushed past Leonard and continued to race up the stairs.
The twelfth floor.
The scent of blood was overpowering here, so thick that the rusty stench hung heavy in the air without even needing to sniff for it.
Liam’s brain went entirely blank for a fraction of a second.
Noah and her... Please tell me nothing happened to them!
The security door stood half-open, its surface riddled with bullet holes. The lock had been blasted to pieces, leaving behind nothing but a gaping, blackened void.
A figure lay in the stairwell.
No, not a figure—a corpse.
It was a woman in her early thirties. The expensive black mink coat she wore was completely drenched in blood. Her pale skin still bore the traces of exquisite makeup, but her chest had been blown entirely to pieces. Her eyes were still wide open, pupils already dilated, staring blankly up at the ceiling. A pungent, metallic stench of blood emanated from her body, filling the entire hallway.
Liam didn’t know this woman. He had never seen her before in his life.
Why was she here?
And why was she dead?
A torrent of questions flooded his mind, but after a mere second of paralysis, he forced the thoughts down. It didn’t matter. As long as the dead person wasn’t Suzy or any of the others, nothing else mattered.
Taking a deep breath, he pulled open the bullet-riddled security door.
The scene of utter devastation inside left him completely rooted to the spot.
Wait... is this even his apartment anymore?
Where was the door?
Where the hell was his front door?
The place looked like it had been through a miniature war zone. The entire apartment was in absolute chaos, and blood was splattered everywhere across the floor. He remembered clearly that the place hadn’t looked anything like this before he left.
Was the woman outside responsible for this?
While Liam stood there in a daze, Thomas, Derek, and Leonard pushed past him and burst into the room. Seeing the chaotic wreckage, the three of them froze in shock as well.
"Are you sure we didn’t walk into the wrong apartment?" Leonard muttered, his voice sounding hollow and ungrounded.
They had only been gone for a short while. How had Liam’s place turned into this?
Someone had raided their home base.
A collective wave of panic gripped their hearts.
"Suzy!"
Ignoring the sheer mess covering the floor, Derek shouted toward the inner rooms, desperate to check on her.
However, there was no reply.
But soon after, the sound of rushed, frantic footsteps drew near. A small figure came into view.
Having heard the commotion, Noah had run out immediately. He poked his head out, his eyes rimmed red with tears. The moment he saw Liam, his tears spilled over completely, and he lunged forward, throwing himself into Liam’s arms.
It really was his brother. His brother was back!
"Liam... you’re back!"
Noah’s voice cracked with a sob, sending a sharp pang of heartache straight through Liam. He knelt down, wrapping Noah tightly in his arms.
"I’m back. Are you okay?"
His little brother’s fragile frame was trembling violently, like a leaf battered by a storm.
"Mm... I’m okay," Noah choked out through his tears.
"Noah, what on earth happened here? Are you the only one home? Where are Aaron and Suzy?" Liam asked urgently.
Noah lifted his head from Liam’s chest, his lips trembling violently for a few seconds before he could squeeze out a broken response:
"Someone came... and then Suzy... Suzy, she..."
Before he could finish the sentence, a fresh wave of tears surged from his eyes, streaming down his cheeks.
"What happened to her?!" Derek’s voice cut in abruptly, sharp and laced with panic.
"She... she got hurt... There was so much blood... It won’t stop... So, so much blood..."
The moment those words left his mouth, the faces of every man in the room drained of all color.
Suzy was injured again?!