Julian, a former cop, had quit the force to deal with the trauma and overwhelming stress that had consumed his life.

One night, he stood alone on the balcony of his rundown apartment, leaning against the railing as he smoked. His tired eyes drifted toward the abandoned building next door — once a lively complex, now shut down and rotting for nearly forty years.

As he stared, something flickered in one of the dark windows. He froze. A moment later, a scream tore through the silence. Cold dread crawled up his spine. He wanted to ignore it — pretend he hadn’t heard a thing — but his instincts refused to let him walk away.

Gun holstered at his side, Julian crossed the gap and slipped inside the decaying building. The air was thick with dust and the smell of rust. Every step echoed. He moved quietly, heart pounding, until he stopped dead in his tracks.

There — standing in the middle of the hallway — was a man. But he wasn’t like any man Julian had ever seen. His skin was deathly pale, his mouth smeared with blood, and his wild eyes glowed with primal hunger.

Julian raised his gun, finger tightening over the trigger — yet something made him hesitate. The creature looked… exhausted. As if it had just awakened from decades of sleep.

Before Julian could decide whether to shoot, the pale man’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the floor.

When the man finally regained consciousness, he found himself in a different room — a bathroom. He was sitting inside a bathtub, disoriented and snarling the instant he noticed Julian standing across from him. He lunged forward with a feral growl—

Julian reacted fast, grabbing the showerhead and blasting the man’s face with a spray of cold water.