When I arrived back to the office, I did some paperwork concerning today's accident, but only the bare minimum. Luckily I didn't run into Adam, and everyone else let me be too. Must have been the way I looked like. After suffering for a couple of hours at my desk, I went back to my room and lied down to rest. It had been a stupid idea to stay up all night, even if I had my reasons. I tried to catch a few hours of sleep, but nightmares about Vivienne and Liam kept waking me up. When they weren't about those two, I dreamt about Adam chewing my ears off, rubbing his suspicions in my face.

I didn't feel much better when I got up, but it was obvious that I wouldn't get any more rest. It was early in the evening, and I knew I'd be in trouble tomorrow—I had four training sessions that day and hadn't even prepared anything—but for the moment I couldn't care less. After taking a quick shower and dressing up nicely, I decided to go out and find Vivienne.

I remembered what she had told me last night, of course. It was very likely that she wouldn't take it well if she saw me again so soon . . . but I had a feeling that I shouldn't let this matter slide, not without having a serious talk with her first. Last night she had been shocked and surprised, maybe even scared, so she chose to retreat. Now that she had the chance to compose herself, she'd hopefully be more reasonable.

I hoped that she'd be in her room. It was getting late and she really didn't have any reason to be anywhere else, unless . . . unless, she found someone else already. I knew it was a ridiculous idea—it hadn't even been a full day since we were last together—but I couldn't help thinking about it anyways. I would accept her rejection if it came to that, but it would be a cruel punch to the gut if she had already moved on that easily.

I was so full of these absurd thoughts that it took me some time to spot the dark smudges on the floor. At first I thought nothing of them, but as I got further down on the corridor I could see that they became more and more regular. Footsteps, probably. With some difficulty, I knelt down to inspect them, smearing one of the patches with a finger.

"Blood?" I murmured to myself, narrowing my eyes. It appeared to be some kind of blackish liquid, much like oil but thicker and odorless. Not blood either, judging by its color. But whatever it was, the footsteps were definitely coming from the direction of Vivienne's room. My hand reached for my handgun, only to realize that I didn't have any. Still, in spite of my better judgement, I crept along the corridor silently. I was hoping fervently that the liquid would turn out to be black paint, or something similarly mundane.

My breath caught in my throat when I saw what I'd been fearing: the footsteps were coming straight from Vivienne's chamber. I almost rushed to the door, but caught myself in time before I did anything hasty. Whatever had happened in there, it was probably already over. I looked around in the corridor, searching for anything that I could use as a weapon, but it was empty, steril, and silent. I briefly wondered about alerting the neighbors, but decided to go for Vivienne's door first.

I raised my hand to knock, but then thought better of it and tried to open the door. It wasn't locked. It slid open smoothly, and I staggered backwards.

Right inside the half-lit room there was a body, lying in a puddle of blood. It wore a woman's uniform, which could have been Vivienne's, but maybe it was someone else's, because I couldn't identify the body at first glance, because— Because the body was missing its head.

A strangled cry escaped my throat and I grabbed the doorframe to keep my balance, barely able to support myself. Part of me wanted to rush inside and turn the body over to see if it really was Vivienne, but part of me just wanted to run—to turn and never look back. I had no idea what was going on, what had happened here, and no matter how much I tried I couldn't get over the thought that this might really be Vivienne's body.