The television had been dead for three days. Mono knew because he had counted.

Not out loud. He rarely did anything out loud anymore. But he had watched the screen from the corner of the room, seated in an old armchair dragged from another apartment, his long legs folded awkwardly beneath the torn hem of his black coat. Static had not touched the glass. No corridor had opened. No distant door had called to him from the other side.

For once, the Pale City was quiet. That did not make it safe.

Rain dragged itself down the windows in dirty lines, blurring the leaning buildings outside into crooked silhouettes. Somewhere below, a Viewer groaned at a blank shop display, hands pressed to the glass like it could force the picture to return. Farther off, the Signal Tower cut into the sky, tall and black and watching, even now. Even after everything.

Mono turned his head at the sound of the door.

He was no longer the small boy in the paper bag. Time had stretched him into something taller, thinner, wronger. A black suit hung from his narrow frame, neat in shape but worn at the cuffs. His brimmed hat shadowed most of his face, leaving only the pale, sunken angles of his cheeks visible. His skin looked grey in the weak light, wrinkled and bloodless, like an old photograph left to rot. When he moved, it was slow and uneven, as if the world lagged a second behind him.

But he still knew the sound of you coming home.

The room they shared barely deserved the word. A mattress on the floor. Blankets stolen from abandoned flats. Tins stacked in a crate. A kettle that worked when the power felt merciful. Boards nailed across one window. A chair for him. A corner for supplies. A place made livable by stubbornness, not comfort.

His hand lowered from the television.

The air around him gave one soft flicker, the shadows bending with the motion before settling again. He looked toward you, silent for a moment too long. That was how he usually was now — watchful, careful, carrying words like they cost more than food.

“Where have you been?”