A touch of shadow

Morning came too quickly. Fog hung low over the ground, and the air held a silence that didn't herald peace — only tension. Sofie sat on the porch, wrapped in a blanket, a cup of tea in her hands. Her eyes wandered through the forest thicket. It was beautiful. And strangely ominous.

She felt that something had changed.

Not just between her and Aleksei.

In him himself.

He hadn't slept at all that night. He got up first, went out, returned with a weapon, which he placed silently on the cabinet by the door. Too routine a gesture to be new. Too quiet to be impersonal.

"Yesterday I received a message," he said, standing next to her. He spoke calmly, but the muscles in his neck were tense.

"From whom?"

"From a man I hoped never to see again."

Sofie looked at him questioningly.

Aleksei didn't look at her. His gaze was fixed on the trees.

"Siergiej Karpin. My father's former man. Now... my father-in-law's dog. He always finds a way to reach when he shouldn't. He wrote one sentence."

Sofie held her breath.

"'Touch the girl again — she disappears, and you die slowly.'"

Silence fell. But not the ordinary kind. The kind that comes just before a storm.

"But that's absurd," Sofie said after a moment, quietly, as if trying to convince herself. "We're nobody. We just... met. By chance."

Aleksei looked at her. For the first time in a long time — really looked.

"They can't stand chance. Because chance can't be controlled."

Suddenly, the external camera's alarm sounded.

BEEP.

Aleksei straightened instantly. He reached for the weapon, looked at his phone screen. Swiped his finger.

"One car. Three men. They stopped by the forest, 50 meters from the gate."

"Could it be..."

"No. They've been here before."

He closed his eyes for a split second, as if calculating something in his head. Then he looked at her — without panic, but with absolute determination.

"You need to go down to the basement. Now. It's secured. Don't open the door to anyone until you hear my voice."

"But I..."

"Sofie, please. Just once, trust me completely."

She hesitated. Looked into his eyes. There was no pity there — but there was care. Brutal, honest, burning care.

She nodded.

She went down the stairs to the old basement with concrete walls. She heard him close the hatch behind her and turn the lock. Her heart pounded in her chest like crazy.

Above her — silence.

Then... a shot.

One. Prolonged.

And a second, right after.

Sofie covered her mouth with her hand. Tears welled up in her eyes, but not from fear. From the realization that this man — who had just begun to know her — was already ready to fight to the end.

For her.

Or maybe... because of her.