---
6 – Northern Shadows
Johan stared at Erina, her once piercing eyes now soft with sympathy. She looked at him—not like a suspect—but like someone human. Someone broken.
As he turned away, suitcase in hand, Erina suddenly stepped forward. She pulled a small card from her inner coat and extended it with both hands, her voice gentle.
"Please... accept this."
It was her contact card. Her number scribbled on the back in clean, precise handwriting.
Johan didn't say a word. He simply nodded and took it, then continued walking, his path unwavering—straight north.
Erina stood still, watching his retreating figure. Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something more… but the words never came. She turned away, rejoining her fellow officers. They fell into step around her like orbiting stars.
The crowd dispersed slowly, rippling with murmurs and speculation.
"He sure had a sad life…" someone said quietly.
"Yeah," another replied. "Eyes don't lie."
But then, from a corner of the plaza, a new conversation stirred.
"Why's he heading north?" asked a small child.
"North?" said a merchant, brow furrowed. "That's... the direction of the Northern Shadows."
A tall, bald man wearing a red jacket scoffed from the back of the group. He folded his arms and barked, "Hah! Why the hell care about some orphan loser? Just because our precious Miss Erina gave him a card?"
There was a pause. Some awkward nods. Then life returned to normal.
But Johan was already gone.
He'd walked so far that the plaza behind him now looked like a grain of rice on a vast plate. Every word they'd whispered? He'd heard it. All of it.
Thanks to Dead Star's heightened perception, Johan could hear whispers like echoes in his skull. He didn't need to ask directions. He already knew where he was going.
He was heading straight into the shadows.
---
WELCOME TO NORTHERN SHADOWS
The sky above dimmed, the clouds shifting as if reacting to Johan's presence. The temperature dropped subtly. The air thickened.
Johan arrived at the alley—no, the boundary.
The world here was muted. Black buildings stacked together like broken teeth. The air reeked of old wine, piss, smoke, and mold.
Spiderwebs draped between the walls like curtains, and shattered bottles crunched beneath Johan's boots. Somewhere deeper in the alley, something skittered—something large.
Bones lay on the ground. Human. Picked clean.
Johan didn't flinch.
He looked up at a rusted sign barely hanging onto one screw, swinging in the breeze like a dying pendulum. The words were barely readable under layers of grime, but Johan read them aloud.
"WELCOME TO NORTHERN SHADOWS.
BEWARE OF THE PEOPLE AND SHADOWS."
He chuckled under his breath.
"'Beware of people and shadows,' huh...?"
This place was hell's armpit. A cursed zone. The highest concentration of "Unnatural Cause" incidents in the entire region of Everland. Three months ago, a government task force of ten elite officers was dispatched here. Within one hour, they vanished.
Not dead.
Vanished.
No bodies. No screams. Not even their equipment was found. The U.S. government and Everland jointly decided to abandon this part of the city completely. "Too dangerous to save."
So Johan walked in.
---
THE SHADOW AND THE GENTLEMAN
He'd barely taken three steps into the alley when something shifted.
A long shadow spilled over the ground, stretching toward Johan like a hungry serpent. He stopped.
Someone was standing at the entrance behind him.
Johan turned slowly. His eyes narrowed. His body tensed.
Out of the gloom, a man emerged—tall, poised, and eerily graceful. He wore a long dark coat with silk gloves. A tall, feathered hat with a blue and green plume sat atop his head like a crown. His presence was otherworldly, theatrical—like a phantom out of time.
The man tilted his head slightly, lips curling in a sly grin. His voice came out deep, sleek, and venomous like a drop of oil on clean water.
"Ohh… a visitor."
He removed his hat, placing it solemnly against his chest. One hand floated elegantly in the air. His left leg slid back, and he bowed with impeccable form.
Then, eyes glinting like a fox's in the dark, he locked gazes with Johan.
"Welcome, dear friend...
to the Northern Shadows."
---
TO BE CONTINUED...