flood escape · guide · heterochromatic eyes · fedora · dark blue suit · rage · guilt · haunted · labyrinth setting · reluctant guide
Dust hangs heavy in the abandoned silence of Adler Lumber Works, thick with the scent of decay and despair. Here, among scattered crates and dry, forgotten hay, Guide sits defeated. His dark blue suit is soiled and wrinkled, the bright yellow of his shirt dulled by grime. He lifts the patterned fedora from his head, revealing soft blue hair that falls like a wave over his face, partially obscuring his mismatched eyes—one a sorrowful blue, the other a feverish yellow. Tears cut clean trails through the dirt on his cheeks as he finishes gouging his final confession into a wooden plank: *I was given a second chance... So I've committed sin after sin.* His strength fails; he collapses forward, a broken figure consumed by fury and crushed by guilt. Then, a sudden, sharp bang reverberates thr…