2026-06-13 08:17:34Rain hammered Ravenswood through the early hours of morning.
Alex barely slept.
The message from the unknown caller kept replaying inside his head.
You Should Have Let The Past Die.
At around 6:13 AM, his phone rang again but this time it was Brooks.
“We have got another one”.
Alex closed his eyes briefly. Of course they did.
Mark Reed's apartment overlooked the industrial district near Ravenswood Harbor. The entire building smelled like mold, cigarette smoke, and stale coffee.
Uniformed officers crowded the hallway outside apartment 4B.
Ramirez stood near the doorway scrolling through a digital tablet. Unlike Brooks, Ramirez rarely showed emotion openly. He's calm, analytical, and quietly brilliant.
“Victim, male”, Ramirez said as Alex approached.
“Thirty four. Cybersecurity Consultant”.
“Cause?”.
“Dr. Lee is still inside”.
Alex entered slowly.
The apartment was dark except for flickering police lights reflecting against computer monitors lining the walls.
Mark Reed sat slumped Inside a chair near his desk.
Dead. No blood. No visible wounds.
Just like Sarah Porter.
Dr. Lee glanced up from beside the body.
“Poison again”, she said quietly.
Alex exhaled slowly.
Same method. Same pericion. Same message.
Sure enough, another black envelope rested beside the keyboard, with the same word.
Eclipse.
Ramirez stepped closer. “ Okay. This officially isn't a coincidence anymore”.
Alex picked up the envelope carefully and inside was a photograph of a younger Alex standing beside Daniel Cross outside Ravenswood Harbor. The photo had been burned around the edges and written across it: Do You Miss Him?. Alex felt ice crawl beneath his skin.
Brooks noticed immediately. “What is it?”.
He folded the photo shut quickly. “Nothing”.
But the lie sounded weak even to him.
Three hours later, the team gathered inside the conference room, while coffee cups covered the table beside the evidence, photographs and victims reports.
Ramirez projected data onto the screen.
“Sarah Porter and Mark Reed had no direct contact”, he explained. “Different careers, different social circles”.
“But?”, Alex asked.
Ramirez clicked another slide.
A dark neon sign appeared on screen.
The Blackout Bar.
Brooks frowned, “Night club?”.
“Underground members only bar”, Ramirez said. “Both victims visited within the last month”.
Alex leaned back slowly.
“What kind of place is it?”.
Ramirez shrugged. “ Depends who you ask”.
Dr. Lee answered quietly.
“The kind where powerful people go when they don't want cameras around.
Everyone looked at her while she calmly sipped her coffee.
Alex noticed something strange, which is, the way she said it, not like a guess, like a knowledge but before he could think further captain Voss entered.
“What do we have?”.
Alex stood. “ Connection between victims is the Blackout Bar”.
Voss's expression tightened subtly.
“I want warrants approved immediately”, Alex said.
“No”. Voss answered.
The room went silent.
Alex frowned. “No?”.
“You don't storm a place like Blackout Bar without hard evidence”.
“We have two bodies”.
“And two envelopes”, Voss corrected sharply. “That does not justify political disaster”. She said,
Brooks exchanged a glance with Ramirez.
Political disaster?.
What exactly was Blackout Bar connected to?.
Alex stared at Voss carefully.
“You know something about that place”.
“I know rich people panic when police start asking questions”. Her tone ended the conversation.
But Alex no longer believed that was the full truth.
The Blackout Bar opened at midnight.
And hidden beneath an abandoned theater downtown, was the club but it looked invisible from the outside.
There were no signs, no advertisement, just a narrow staircase descending underground and heavy bass vibrated through the walls as Alex, Brooks, and Ramirez entered. Inside the club were red neon lights that cut through cigarette smoke and shadows, also with expensive suits mixed with criminal's, politicians, stranger's, and people impossible to identify beneath darkness.
Nobody here looked innocent.
Ramirez muttered quietly. “ This place feels illegal”.
Brooks smirked. “ Pretty sure that's the point”.
As Alex approached the bar, the bartender froze slightly when he saw Alex's badge.
“We're closed to cops tonight”. The bartender said.
But Alex immediately slid photographs of Sarah and Mark across the counter.
“You seen them before?”. He asked.
The bartender barely glanced down.
“No”.
“He's lying”, Brooks whispered.
Alex then noticed sweat forming near the man's collar. “Try again”.
The bartender swallowed hard.
“They came here separately”, he admitted quietly. “ That's all I know”.
“What were they meeting about?”, Alex asked.
“I don't ask questions”.
Alex leaned closer. “ But you know the word Eclipse, don't you?”.
The bartender's face drained instantly. Too fast, too terrified. Then suddenly the lights went out and complete darkness swallowed the club. Which made people scream, glasses shattered, and movement erupted everywhere.
Brooks grabbed for her weapon. “Alex!”.
Emergency backup lights flickered red seconds later. The entire club looked different beneath the blood coloured light, and sitting directly on the counter in front of Alex, was a fresh black envelope and nobody had seen who placed it there. Alex picked up the envelope, he slowly opened it, and inside it was a single handwritten message. WELCOME BACK DETECTIVE. Then beneath it: HE NEVER LEFT RAVENSWOOD.
Alex's heartbeat stopped.
Daniel.
Outside the club, rain poured violently across empty streets.
Brooks caught up with Alex near his car.
“You okay?”.
“No”. He answered too honestly.
Brooks studied him carefully.
“You really think your old partner is connected to this?”.
Alex stared into the rain.
Five years ago, Daniel Cross died during the Eclipse investigation. At least that is what everyone believed, but now – the killer was using Daniel's name too specifically, too personal, as if they knew exactly where to hurt him. He turned the screen towards them and on it was security footage from inside the Blackout Bar. The moment the lights went out for less than one second, a hooded figure appeared beside Alex, he was tall, still, watching him, and then gone.
Brooks frowned. “ Can you enhance the face?”.
Ramirez zoomed carefully.
The image was heavily blurred, but one detail became visible. The figure wore a silver necklace, a necklace Alex recognized and immediately his blood ran cold.
Daniel Cross used to wear the exact same one.
Across the city, inside a dark apartment lit only by computers screens, there was a figure watching them.
A distorted voice echoed softly through the room
.
“He remembers faster than expected”.
Another voice answered from the darkness.
“Should we stop him?”.
Silence followed briefly, then –
“No”.
A pause
“Not yet”.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 10
The entire station froze after the call.Nobody moved, nobody breathed.Alex stared at the extension number glowing on Ramirez’s screen while tension spread across the room like smoke. Internal police line. Someone inside Ravenswood PD had direct contact with Victor Hale before his death.Brooks broke the silence first.“Who does the extension belong to?”Ramirez swallowed hard.Then turned the monitor slightly toward Alex.Extension 214. Evidence Archives Division.Alex frowned immediately.“That office was destroyed in the bombing.”“Exactly,” Ramirez said quietly.The realization hit the room instantly.Whoever contacted Victor Hale either died in the explosion, or used the bombing to erase evidence.Captain Voss stepped forward sharply.“Lock down the building.”Brooks moved immediately while Ramirez began tracing additional internal calls.Alex watched Voss carefully, too carefully now, because every step forward in the investigation seemed to tighten something inside her like sh
Chapter 9
The fourth body appeared two days later.A male in his mid-fifties, was found inside a luxury apartment overlooking Ravenswood Bay.By the time Alex arrived, the media already crowded the streets below the building, flashing cameras lit the rain-soaked entrance while reporters shouted questions at every officer passing through.Captain Voss looked furious.“Keep the press contained,” she ordered sharply.But Alex barely listened, because the moment he entered the apartment he knew this victim was different. The man sat dead beside a grand piano, dressed in an expensive charcoal suit. No signs of forced entry, no defensive wounds. Another Eclipse envelope rested neatly beside a wine glass. But unlike the previous victims, this room felt… Disturbed, not physically, emotionally, as if whoever killed him hated him personally.Dr. Lee examined the body quietly while Ramirez searched nearby computers.Brooks flipped through framed photographs lining the shelves. Among the photographs are V
Chapter 8
By morning, Ravenswood felt infected, not with fear, with paranoia.Every officer inside the temporary operations building watched one another differently now. Conversations stopped when people entered rooms. Files disappeared from desks. Security access logs were suddenly wiped without explanation.Daniel’s warning had spread through the team like poison.Trust nobody inside the department.Alex stood alone near the evidence board staring at photographs connected by red lines and handwritten notes. Sarah Porter. Mark Reed. Leah Chen. Blackout Bar. Phase Two. Daniel Cross.And now, Captain Eleanor Voss.Brooks approached carrying two coffees.“You’ve been here all night again.”Alex accepted the cup without looking away from the board.“Something’s wrong.”“That narrows it down.”He finally turned toward her.“Voss already knew Daniel was alive.”Brooks frowned immediately.“She admitted that?”“Not directly.”“But enough.”Brooks leaned against the desk thoughtfully.“You think she’s
Chapter 7
Alex didn’t sleep all night. By sunrise, he was still sitting inside his car outside Ravenswood Harbor, staring at his phone like Daniel’s voice might somehow return but the line stayed dead. Rain drifted softly across the windshield. Five years of grief had cracked open overnight and Alex no longer knew which memories were real.Ravenswood PD remained partially closed after the bombing. Temporary desks filled the downtown operations building while exhausted officers shuffled through stacks of salvaged evidence. Brooks found Alex studying old harbor photographs.“You look terrible.”“Feel worse.”She sat across from him carefully.“You really think it was Daniel on the phone?”Alex didn’t answer immediately.Then:“I know his voice.”Brooks folded her arms.“Could someone fake it?”“Maybe.”But his tone lacked conviction.Ramirez suddenly rushed into the room carrying printed documents. “I found something.”Alex stood instantly.Ramirez spread cemetery maintenance reports across the
Chapter 6
The drive to Ravenswood PD became a blur of sirens, smoke, and flashing lights.Alex barely remembered parking the car.Officers and firefighters flooded the street outside the station. Half the building had lost power. Windows on the lower floors were blown out completely. Smoke poured from beneath the structure.“Move!” Alex shouted, forcing past paramedics.Brooks intercepted him near the barricades, coughing violently.“You’re bleeding,” Alex snapped.“I’m fine.”She absolutely wasn’t.Dust covered her face and uniform, and a deep cut stretched along her forehead.“What happened?”Brooks swallowed hard.“The bomb went off in evidence storage.”Alex froze.Inside the evidence storage, every Eclipse file, every photograph, every recording were gone.Captain Voss emerged from the smoke-filled entrance surrounded by officers.“Casualties?” Alex demanded.“Two injured. Nobody died.”Relief hit briefly before anger replaced it.“This was targeted.”“No kidding,” Brooks muttered.Ramirez
Chapter 5
The explosion shook half of downtown Ravenswood. People screamed, glass shattered across nearby streets, smoke erupted into the night sky from beneath the industrial district.Alex turned instantly toward the sound. The underground facility.“Mina,” he breathed. Brooks’ voice crackled through his earpiece through heavy static.“Alex—!”Then silence, complete silence.Alex’s pulse crashed violently inside his chest, and for one horrifying second, he couldn’t move, couldn’t think.The killer had forced him into exactly what they wanted— An impossible choice.Sirens screamed through the city as emergency responders flooded both scenes.Ramirez grabbed Alex’s shoulder hard.“We need to move!”But Alex barely heard him, all he could see was that hooded figure standing above the city moments earlier, watching and waiting like they already knew how this would end.Forty minutes later, Alex stood outside Ravenswood General Hospital soaked by rain and smoke. Emergency crews rushed stretchers
