2025-07-26 17:07:56The SUV roared down the midnight highway, the city lights of Ravenport a blur outside the windows. Inside, silence hummed between Jeffrey and Camilla, broken only by the faint beeping of her vitals on Victor’s portable medscanner.
“She’ll live,” Victor said, stowing the device. “Bullet grazed her side. Missed anything vital. She’s lucky.”
Camilla winced as she leaned against the seat. “Don’t feel lucky.”
“You’re breathing,” Jeffrey said without looking at her. “That’s lucky enough.”
He held the safe on his lap like it was a bomb which, in a way, it was. A bomb packed with names, crimes, bribes, and betrayals. The kind that didn’t just end lives it ended legacies.
Camilla turned her head toward him. “When we open that, there’s no turning back.”
“We already passed that point,” he said.
Victor nodded. “So where are we going?”
Jeffrey’s eyes darkened. “Someplace no one would ever think I’d go.”
The gates groaned as Victor forced them open. Wind whistled through the iron bars, carrying the scent of damp earth and old secrets. Moonlight bathed the headstones in silver, but the crypt at the far end sat in cold shadow.
Jeffrey stepped out first, safe in hand, coat whipping in the wind. Camilla followed, limping slightly. Victor brought up the rear with a duffel bag of weapons and tools. “You sure this place is secure?” Camilla asked.
“No one’s used it in years,” Jeffrey said. “Not since my grandfather was buried. My father refused to come back after that. Said the dead should be left to rot in peace.”
Victor smirked. “Well, tonight, the dead are going to help us bring the living to justice.”
Inside, the crypt smelled of stone and secrets. Dust blanketed the floor. Marble plaques lined the walls. Jeffrey found the old maintenance room in the back, once used by groundskeepers, now converted into a makeshift bunker.
He set the safe on the steel table. Camilla lit a lantern. Victor locked the iron door, They were in, Now came the hard part.
Jeffrey stared at the safe’s keypad. “This model uses a 12-digit override code. It’s military grade.”
Victor stepped forward. “Then we brute-force it. I’ve got software that can try combinations.”
“No,” Jeffrey said. “I think I know the code.”
Camilla blinked. “You do?”
He exhaled slowly. “My father had a habit, he used the same code for things he wanted me to find someday. Birthday patterns. Hidden in chess scores. It was his way of testing me.”
Jeffrey typed slowly: 0406-1993-1210-195-9
Camilla tilted her head. “Your birthday and his?”
Jeffrey didn’t answer, The safe beeped.
Clicked, Unlocked. They all froze.
Victor pulled the lid open carefully, and inside, a single black ledger rested beneath a velvet cloth. No USBs. No backup drives. Just paper, Camilla stepped forward. “That’s it?”
Jeffrey opened the book, His breath caught. It was everything.
Names of politicians, CEOs, Foreign bank accounts, Illegal property acquisitions, Murder-for-hire contracts. A network stretching across continents, and at the center of it all, Henry Vance.
Camilla swallowed. “He owns half of Parliament. And half of Ravenport’s judiciary. This… this is treason.”
Jeffrey flipped another page, His own name stared back at him. Marked: “Liability. Watchlist. Neutralize if exposed.”
Camilla’s voice dropped. “They planned to kill you. Even before your exile.”
Jeffrey closed the ledger, hands trembling, Victor paced. “We leak this, we start a war.”
“Good,” Jeffrey said. “Let them come.”
Camilla hesitated. “There’s something else. The reason I was sent for the ledger, it wasn’t just about destroying it. They think there’s something else hidden with it. Something your father buried. A secondary document.”
Jeffrey frowned. “There was nothing else in the safe.”
But Victor was already scanning the walls. “Wait… here.”
He pressed his hand against the far wall of the crypt, where a faint groove circled a stone panel. He dug out a knife, pried at the edge and with a groan, the panel slid loose, revealing a hidden compartment.
Inside: a sealed envelope, yellowed with time. On it, written in his father’s handwriting: “To my firstborn son. When you’re ready to know the truth.”
Jeffrey stared at it, fingers trembling, Camilla placed a hand on his arm. “You don’t have to read it now.”
“I do.” He broke the seal, Inside was a handwritten letter.
Jeffrey,
I pretended to hate you to protect you. I had to keep you out of the family’s reach. They would’ve killed you if they knew how much I trusted you.
Zane was never meant to inherit. He wasn’t strong enough. But I had to play my part until I had enough proof to clean house.
The ledger is only the beginning. The real power is hidden deeper in the vault beneath Goodman Tower. Only you can access it. Only you know the combination. I made sure of that.
Be careful who you trust.
-R.G.
Jeffrey lowered the letter, Camilla looked at him. “Vault?”
Victor stepped forward. “Goodman Tower has a private sublevel. Never on the building plans. I’ve only heard rumors.”
Jeffrey’s face turned to stone. “My father buried the real crown there.”
Victor’s phone buzzed suddenly, he answered, Then his face drained of color. “Say that again.”
They Paused. He looked at Jeffrey, “It’s Zane. He just announced to the press that you’re under investigation for murder. The police have a warrant. They’re heading to every property you’ve ever touched.”
Jeffrey’s blood boiled. “He’s trying to smoke me out.”
Victor didn’t blink. “He’s trying to bury you. For good.”
Jeffrey looked at the ledger, then at the letter. “I need to get into that vault before Zane does.”
Camilla hesitated. “Jeffrey… if what your father said is true, what’s in that vault could be dangerous.”
“Everything’s dangerous now.”
“But what if it’s not just weapons or documents? What if it’s something worse? Something… alive?”
He met her gaze.“I’ll face whatever’s in that vault. Because whatever it is, it’s the only way I end this war.”
Suddenly-BOOM.
The door to the crypt blew off its hinges, Flashbangs rolled in. Light, Screams, Smoke, Victor shouted, “MOVE!” Gunfire erupted. Jeffrey grabbed the ledger and dove behind a marble slab, Camilla was pulled down beside him.
Victor returned fire, dropping two masked soldiers. “Who are they?” she yelled.
Jeffrey’s voice was ice. “Not police.”
He saw the insignia on one attacker’s sleeve as the smoke cleared: A black chess rook.
Camilla gasped. “That’s Henry Vance’s private security.” Victor fired another shot, But more were coming. Jeffrey looked at the exit tunnel behind the crypt wall.
Only one choice, He grabbed Camilla’s hand. “We run now. Or we die in this tomb.”
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Chapter 54 – The Third Shadow
The sky was breaking. Every soul in the city looked up, frozen beneath the rain of chains that screamed like falling blades.The rift above gaped wider, tearing the heavens apart. Fire bled into blackness, and blackness pulsed like a living heart.Jeffrey’s knees buckled beneath him. He was slick with blood, barely standing, his sword trembling in his hand. His vision was ash and fire, but his instincts screamed what his mind refused to accept.This wasn’t over. It had never been about the Doppelgänger or the Beast. They were gatekeepers. And the true horror was still behind the door.“The heir has awakened. The seals are broken.”The voice rolled through the city like an earthquake, rattling windows, shaking steel, making children scream and soldiers drop their guns.Camilla stopped mid-run, clutching her ears as blood streamed from her nose. Her body crumpled, but still her lips formed his name.Jeffrey staggered toward her, each step tearing his muscles raw. He reached her in time t
Chapter 53 – The Ashen Veil
The world was fire. Jeffrey’s lungs burned, his skin flayed by molten air. Darkness pressed in from all sides, pierced only by violent flashes of red and white.He tried to move. His body didn’t respond. Then, voices. Whispers, endless, writhing. They slithered through the inferno, caressing his skull like smoke.Child of flame. Son of ash. You are not broken. You are becoming. Jeffrey’s eyes snapped open. He wasn’t in the courtyard anymore. He wasn’t anywhere human.The ground beneath him was charred bone. The sky above was a ceiling of fire, cracking, bleeding light. Chains hung down from nothing, rattling with no wind, stretching into infinity.And between them, two shadows. The Doppelgänger. The Beast. Alive. Waiting. The Doppelgänger loomed, his molten form reduced but no less menacing, heat dripping from his limbs. His eyes burned, twin suns locked on Jeffrey.The Beast crouched opposite, its body darker than void, its eyes two smoldering embers. Chains slithered from its skin,
Chapter 52 – Chains of the Abyss
The giant’s grip was closing. Jeffrey’s ribs buckled, vision tunneling, blood rising in his throat. The Doppelgänger’s molten fist was a coffin, searing, suffocating, inevitable. And then came the chains.They tore up from the fractured earth, red-hot and clanging, each link thick as a carriage wheel. They coiled around the titan’s arms, burning into molten flesh, dragging him backward toward the yawning abyss below.The Doppelgänger howled, his colossal body thrashing as though hooked by the hands of hell itself. And then, from that abyss, eyes ignited. Twin infernos, vast and hungry. The beast.The same abomination Jeffrey had chained in the underworld, the same monster he had bled and broken to prove his dominion, alive, reborn, hungrier than ever. Its roar split the heavens.The Doppelgänger reeled, momentarily distracted, and his grip slackened just enough for Jeffrey to gasp a ragged breath.Pain lanced through every bone in his chest, but he forced his arm to move, his blade to
Chapter 51 – Inferno Ascending
The sky was on fire. Not the scattered glow of burning rooftops or the desperate flicker of torchlight, but a living blaze that swallowed the heavens whole.The Doppelgänger, now a colossal infernal titan, towered above the Goodman manor. His molten limbs stretched wide, dripping rivers of fire that scorched streets, melted stone, and sent entire neighborhoods crumbling into ash. The city screamed beneath him.And on the fractured courtyard stone, Jeffrey Goodman stood alone, fire wreathing his shoulders like a mantle, his broken blade glowing like the heart of a dying star. He tilted his head up, eyes burning gold. “Then let’s finish this.”The infernal giant moved first. Its arm swept down, a molten hammer meant to crush Jeffrey and the manor in one strike. The impact split the ground, sending shockwaves that toppled walls and threw men screaming into the air.But Jeffrey was already moving. He leapt skyward, fire propelling him like a comet, and met the giant’s strike head-on. His
Chapter 50 – Fire and Shadow
The fire swallowed him whole. Jeffrey’s scream was drowned in the roar of molten flame. It seared his skin, clawed down his throat, boiled the blood in his veins.His body should have disintegrated instantly, reduced to ash, yet something deep within him refused. The beast’s voice thundered through the inferno. “Die, Goodman. Die as your father should have.”Jeffrey’s vision blurred. The broken blade slipped from his fingers. His knees buckled. And in that moment, between life and death, a shadow moved.It wasn’t the beast. It wasn’t the chained remnants. It was something else, darker, older, sharper than fire. A voice that coiled inside his skull.Stand, heir. This fire is not your enemy. It is your birthright. Jeffrey’s eyes snapped open, his pupils contracting to slits.The flames that should have consumed him bent, spiraled, and wrapped around him instead. They didn’t burn, they bled into him, stitching wounds closed, filling his lungs with power.The beast roared in fury. “Imposs
Chapter 49 – Into the Inferno
The fall felt endless. Jeffrey’s body plummeted through darkness that wasn’t just absence of light, it was alive, pressing against him, whispering with the voices of the damned.Heat licked his skin, ash burned his throat, and his ears roared with the sound of a thousand unseen wings. He slammed against stone, hard enough to break a lesser man.Agony shot through his ribs, but he forced himself to breathe, coughing blood and dust. The world around him glowed dimly, an underground chasm lit by rivers of molten fire that ran like veins beneath the earth.He wasn’t dead. Not yet. And from the shadows, something laughed.It was low, guttural, echoing through the cavern. “Finally,” it rasped. “The heir of Goodman returns to the place where his blood belongs.”Jeffrey staggered to his feet, his broken blade still clutched in his burned hand. “Show yourself.”From the fire, shapes emerged. Twisted figures with skin of stone and eyes like coals. Chains rattled across their bodies. The smell o
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