The heavy rain washed the glass skylight of the sculpture studio. Elvira squatted in the mess and picked up half a piece of plaster wolf ear. The bust that was still standing on the turntable three hours ago was now broken into more than 400 pieces, and each edge had a neat cut from a tool chiseling - it was not an accident, it was an execution.
"At least they kept your sketchbook." Max used the tip of his shoe to push aside a pool of wet clay, revealing the soaked paper fragments underneath. "I can still read this line... What comes after 'the moonlight fades'?"
Elvira used a utility knife to scrape away the plaster debris, and the blade carved deep marks on the countertop. The fragments of unfinished love letters were scattered around the wreckage of the hydraulic press, as if they were deliberately arranged in a radial pattern. She picked up half a piece of paper with teeth marks on it, and there were only a few words left on it: "Don't believe in the full moon--".
The studio door was suddenly blown open by the wind. Lucas stood in the rain, silver-blue liquid dripping from the hem of his black coat. He held the twisted iron door handle in his left hand and a bloody sculpture knife in his right hand - the one that Elvira lost last week.
"A farewell gift from Lady Audrey?" Max grabbed the melta gun and blocked Elvira. "Tell the lady to use a baseball bat when she wants to break things up."
Lucas's eyes were glued to the area below Elvira's collarbone. The moonlight shone through the broken skylight, and the bite marks from the previous night were oozing fluorescent blue blood. He suddenly knelt on one knee, inserted a sculptor's knife into the cracks in the floor, and pried out a metal object - a wolf's tooth made of clay, with a miniature constellation engraved on the root of the tooth.
"When did you..." Elvira just started to speak, and the roar of helicopter blades came from the roof. The searchlight penetrated the rain curtain and swept across the studio. She saw the silver lines on the back of Lucas' neck twisting wildly.
Max suddenly dragged her towards the material cabinet. Amid the explosion of bullets shattering the plaster statue behind her, Elvira touched the metal box that Lucas had stuffed in. The wolf head relief on the lid of the box was stained with fresh blood, and the clay wolf tooth was embedded in the velvet lining inside.
"Hold it." Lucas' breath sprayed on the wound behind her ear, and ice crystals immediately formed on the skin. "Otherwise the chip will locate your dream."
As the helicopter flew over the third round, the east wall of the studio suddenly exploded. The blast blew away all the unsecured objects, and among the flying pieces of sketch paper, Elvira saw Lucas using his body to protect a corner. When the smoke cleared, he found a charred piece of paper in his palm - the last missing part of the love letter, with the words "I" and "necklace" written on it.
As the police cordoned off the scene, Max was bandaging Elvira's bleeding knuckles. She put her tongue against the clay wolf's teeth and tasted the bitter taste of volcanic ash and blood. Outside the cordon, Lucas's windbreaker back was dyed blue and red by the police lights, and finally disappeared at the back door of the ambulance.
At 3:17 in the morning, the doorbell of the apartment rang twelve times. Elvira saw through the peephole that there was a brown paper package on the floor of the corridor, with a wax seal of a wolf head and thorns. When it was opened, it was a well-repaired clay wolf tooth pendant, with a yellowed film wrapped around a silver chain - fifteen-year-old Lucas stood in the ruins of the explosion site, holding an unconscious little girl in his arms, with a crescent scar on the girl's collarbone.
The phone suddenly vibrated, and an audio clip came from an unfamiliar number. The background sound was the ticking of medical equipment, and Lucas' voice carried the friction sound of the endotracheal tube: "...When I found you in the ventilation duct, the necklace was already..."
The audio was cut off by electromagnetic noise. Elvira held up the pendant to the moonlight and found that the constellation map on the inside of the wolf's fang was slowly reorganizing, eventually forming the constellation of a winter night in the northern hemisphere - the starry sky on her birthday.
There was a scraping sound of metal outside the window. A figure in a gray sweater was sitting on the fire escape, carving words with the sculpture knife that Elvira had lost. When the moonlight illuminated the unfinished handwriting, the night wind suddenly blew away the carving knife. Elvira ran to the window and saw only deep scratches on the iron railings - "They used your -"
The last word was obscured by blood.