POV: Charles

The elevator stopped with a soft ding, and the doors opened slowly, almost too quietly, like the machine was trying not to disturb the silence of the place we were about to enter. I stood there for a moment, staring into the penthouse. My feet refused to move at first. The air that drifted out smelled fresh and clean, like expensive soap mixed with something I couldn’t name. It wasn’t like anything I’d breathed in for the last six years.

The space in front of me looked too perfect to be real. The ceilings stretched high above, smooth and white, like something out of a dream. The floors...