Chapter 1: The Vanishing
The rain came down in sheets, turning the city into a blur of neon reflections and shifting shadows. Elias Voss watched the world from the cracked window of his office, a cigarette burning low between his fingers. The case file sat open on his desk, its pages curling at the edges from the damp air.
The job was simple find a book.
But things were never simple.
The man who stole The Codex Noctis had vanished six nights ago. No ransom demand, no last-minute sale to a black-market collector. Just… gone. His apartment was left unlocked, his belongings undisturbed. A half-eaten meal sat on the table. The kind of disappearance that didn't happen naturally.
Elias took another drag, exhaling as he leaned over the file again. The last known photo of the thief, Anton Mercer, stared back at him a wiry man in his early forties, glasses slightly askew, the kind of face that belonged in archives, not on missing posters. Mercer had been a rare book dealer, specializing in texts no one was supposed to own. The Codex Noctis had been his last acquisition. And now, it seemed, it had been his last mistake.
A knock at the door. Sharp. Precise.
Elias extinguished his cigarette, reaching for the revolver in his desk drawer before calling out, "It's open."
The door creaked, and a woman stepped inside. She was dressed in a dark trench coat, her auburn hair pulled back into a sharp ponytail. Evelyn Pierce—journalist, professional pain in his ass, and the last person he wanted to see.
"I heard you took the Halloway job," she said, crossing the room without invitation.
Elias sighed. "I don't recall inviting the press."
"You don't have to. Word gets around." She glanced at the file on his desk, then at him. "You know Mercer didn't just steal that book, right?"
Elias studied her, waiting. He knew that look—she had something.
She reached into her bag and tossed a manila envelope onto his desk. "I was supposed to meet him the night he disappeared. He said he found something—something inside the book. A hidden cipher."
Elias frowned. "A code?"
"More than that. A warning." She hesitated. "And he was scared."
Elias flipped open the envelope, his fingers brushing over the contents a single photograph. It showed a page from The Codex Noctis, its ancient Latin script interrupted by a series of strange symbols, ones that didn't belong.
He felt the first stirrings of something he hadn't felt in a long time.
A mystery.
And then, the lights flickered. A shadow passed the window. Evelyn stiffened.
Elias reached for his gun.
Someone was watching.
And whoever it was—they didn't want the book to be found.
Chapter 2: The Warning
The silence stretched between them, thick as the smoke curling from Elias's ashtray. Evelyn's gaze flickered to the window, her fingers twitching slightly — nervous, but trying not to show it.
Elias moved first, crossing the room in three measured steps. He pressed his back against the wall beside the window, his revolver steady in his grip. The streetlights outside cast jagged reflections across the rain-streaked glass.
A figure stood on the opposite sidewalk.
Too still.
Too deliberate.
The kind of presence that wasn't just passing through.
Elias didn't like it.
With a practiced hand, he flicked off the desk lamp, plunging the office into near darkness. Evelyn's breathing slowed. She'd been in enough dangerous situations to know when to shut up and listen.
The figure didn't move.
Didn't even shift their weight.
Elias counted five heartbeats, then six. A gust of wind sent rain slamming against the windowpane. And just like that
The figure was gone.
Elias exhaled through his nose, rolling his shoulders before turning back to Evelyn. "Start talking."
She hesitated, but only for a second. "Mercer contacted me a week ago. He was panicked — kept saying he found something inside the book. Said he wasn't safe."
Elias dragged a hand down his face. "And you didn't think to mention this before?"
"I thought he was just being dramatic. You know how book dealers are, paranoid about their own shadows. But then he actually vanished, and now" — she gestured toward the window — "now someone's watching you, too."
Elias returned to his desk, flipping the photograph over. The strange symbols etched between the Latin script seemed almost burned into the page, their meaning just out of reach.
He traced one with his finger. "You ever seen anything like this before?"
Evelyn shook her head. "But I know someone who might have."
He looked up.
She hesitated again, then said, "Professor Calloway. Linguistics expert at Ashcroft University. If anyone can decipher this, it's him."
Elias considered it. He'd dealt with Calloway before — brilliant, eccentric, and the kind of man who liked secrets a little too much. If Mercer had found something hidden within The Codex Noctis, Calloway might be the key to understanding it.
Elias grabbed his coat. "Let's go."
Evelyn arched a brow. "Just like that?"
"You said Mercer was scared." He holstered his revolver. "Let's find out if he was right to be."
Outside, the rain hadn't let up. It washed the streets clean, erasing footprints and sins alike.
But some things couldn't be washed away.
And Elias had the feeling this was one of them.
Chapter 3: The Scholar and the Cipher
The drive to Ashcroft University was quiet, except for the steady drumming of rain against the windshield. The city's glow faded behind them, swallowed by the looming iron gates and ivy-cloaked buildings of the old academic district.
Elias parked near the library, cutting the engine. "Calloway still working late nights?"
Evelyn smirked. "If by 'working' you mean poring over ancient texts and drinking scotch in his office, then yeah."
They made their way up the stone steps of the linguistics building, their footsteps echoing in the deserted hallways. The scent of old parchment and floor polish hung thick in the air.
Evelyn rapped her knuckles against Calloway's door.
Nothing.
She knocked again, louder. "Professor? It's Evelyn Pierce."
Still nothing.
Elias exchanged a glance with her before trying the handle. The door swung open with a groan.
Inside, the office was dim, lit only by a green-shaded desk lamp. Bookshelves lined the walls, their contents in carefully curated chaos. Stacks of papers covered the professor's desk, alongside an empty tumbler and a half-finished bottle of scotch.
Calloway himself was slumped over a book, his face resting against the open pages.
Evelyn exhaled in relief. "Jesus, for a second I thought—"
Elias stepped closer. Something was wrong. The way Calloway's fingers were curled, rigid. The unnatural stillness of his body.
Then he saw it.
A single sheet of paper, clutched in Calloway's left hand. His knuckles had gone white around it, as if he'd died trying to hold onto it.
Elias swore under his breath.
Evelyn covered her mouth. "Oh, God."
Carefully, Elias pried the paper from Calloway's grip. His skin was ice cold. The paper crackled as it unfolded. A single line of symbols — similar to the ones in Mercer's photograph — had been scrawled across the page.
But beneath them, in jagged, desperate handwriting, was a single sentence in English.
They found me.
A silence settled between them, heavier than before.
Elias set the note down, scanning the room. No signs of forced entry. No overturned furniture. No blood. Just a man, dead in his office, as if death had simply crept in and taken him without a sound.
Evelyn whispered, "This can't be a coincidence."
Elias agreed.
Mercer had disappeared.
Calloway was dead.
And The Codex Noctis was still missing.
Elias pulled his coat tighter. The air in the room suddenly felt colder.
Someone was tying up loose ends.
And if they weren't careful—
They'd be next.