Late at night, Lang Son was cold enough for breath to freeze in midair.Tam Thanh Lake lay motionless beneath a thick blanket of fog, hazy and unnaturally quiet, as if every sound from the distant city had been swallowed whole.
A motorbike stood alone by the lakeside.No one nearby. No sign that its owner had simply stepped away.Yet something felt… wrong.
Investigator Minh Phong pulled his jacket collar higher and swept his flashlight across the pitch-black water. A faint fishy scent drifted on the wind—not strong enough to identify, but enough to put him on edge.
Phong crouched down, examining the footprints pressed into the damp soil.Two sets.One large.One small.
Both led straight toward the edge of the lake…and ended abruptly, as if cut off.
Another disappearance in the middle of the night, he thought.The fifth case this month.
Footsteps sounded behind him. Deputy Captain Chi approached.
"Find anything?"
Phong pointed at the ground."An adult carrying a child. This wasn't an accidental fall."
Chi frowned. "You think it's the same culprit?"
Phong didn't answer. He only nodded.
The recent missing-person cases—different victims, scattered locations—shared one chilling similarity:every victim lived alone, had no close family, no one watching over them.Their disappearances weren't reported until days later.
People who existed on the edges of society.People without faces.
Nearby, a small house by the lake still had its light on. An old man sat outside, trembling as he held a cigarette. Phong walked over.
"You're the one who called it in?"
The old man nodded. His eyes were sunken, carrying something heavier than fear.
"What did you see?" Phong asked.
The man swallowed."I heard a child crying. Around… after one a.m. Then I heard a man's voice. Not loud—but cold. I looked out and saw a tall, thin figure, his face hidden by a hood. He was carrying the child straight into the lake… and then he disappeared into the fog."
"Disappeared?" Phong frowned. "You mean he walked out of sight?"
The old man shook his head, voice barely above a whisper."No… he dissolved into the fog. Like he never had a face to begin with."
Phong fell silent.
Previous witnesses had said the same thing.No face.No clear features.A tall figure in a hood.
Like a shadow that breathed.Like a man… without a face.
The fog thickened unnaturally as Phong returned to the lakeside. He stepped closer to the edge, shining his light into the water.
Something moved beneath the surface—too fast to see clearly, but enough to make his heart jolt.
He held his breath, crouched lower, and touched the water.
Cold.Not winter cold.But the kind of cold that felt like someone was staring up from below.
Suddenly—
A small, pale hand pressed against the surface from beneath.
Phong stumbled backward.
When he shone the light again—nothing.The water was calm. Dark. Silent.
"I saw it."
Chi's voice came from behind.
Phong turned. Chi held up his phone, displaying footage from a nearby warehouse security camera.
"In the video… someone really does walk into the fog. But halfway across the lake, he vanishes completely. No shadow. No reflection. And no face."
Phong stared at the screen, then at the lake.
A clear realization settled in his mind:
What they were chasing was not entirely human.Or worse—it once had been.
The wind picked up, rolling the fog like a living curtain. Phong's flashlight pierced the mist but never reached an end point. Tam Thanh Lake now looked like a void, devouring everything.
"We should call the dive team," Chi said.
"No." Phong shook his head. "The water's deep. Freezing. The mud's over half a meter thick. If the culprit chose this place to erase evidence, we won't find anything tonight."
Chi watched him carefully.
Something about the lake stopped Phong from following normal procedure—like it was hiding a truth far bigger than a simple kidnapping.
A phone rang sharply in the suffocating silence.
Phong answered.
"Another missing person, sir," said the duty officer. "Dong Dang."
Phong froze."How long?"
"Just reported. Likely missing since last night."
Chi exhaled slowly. "Again…"
"Male. Forty-two. Manual laborer. Lives alone."
Phong closed his eyes for a second.The profile was painfully familiar.
People who disappeared as if no one ever saw them vanish.
Phong ended the call and looked back at the lake.
"Leave the scene. We'll return in the morning. The fog's too thick tonight."
As they walked away, Chi glanced over his shoulder.
"You have a bad feeling, don't you?"
Phong hesitated.
"Not exactly fear," he said quietly."But this isn't just a kidnapper."
Chi gave a dry laugh. "You're talking like we ran into a ghost."
Phong said nothing.
Because that thought brought him no comfort at all.