The moment Lilly stepped out of the library, she knew where she had to go next. The vision had given her clues, but they weren't substantial enough for her; she needed hard facts—something that could help piece together what happened to Silas. The historical records in the library were her best bet.
She went back to the darkened room of the archives and quickly scanned the old newspapers and town records, trying to find anything concerning Silas Mercer and his associates.
Her eyes swept over article after article, most of them dull reports about local events in the mid-1800s. Then she saw it—an article from the same year Silas had died.
"Businessman found dead under mysterious circumstances."
Lilly leaned forward, her heart quickening. The article was short, but it mentioned Silas Mercer by name. He had been found dead outside of town, under circumstances that had stumped investigators. The article hinted at foul play but gave no real details. There were whispers of a deal gone wrong, but nobody's specific name was mentioned.
Lilly's mind raced as she jotted down notes in shaky handwriting. Silas hadn't been some random victim; he was involved in something—something dangerous. And it wasn't just the vision that told her that. The article confirmed what she had already suspected: his death wasn't an accident.
She kept digging, scrolling through article after article from that time. Little by little, pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. Silas had been part of a very powerful circle of men in the town, and one name kept coming up in connection to him: the Grey family.
As she read on, her pulse quickened. The Greys were one of the richest and most influential families in the area, with ties to local politics and law enforcement. If the Greys had something to do with Silas's death, no wonder the investigation had gone nowhere.
One article stood out in particular. It described secret meetings between Henry Grey, the family patriarch, and other prominent men in town, just days before Silas's death. Those meetings were held in secret, but their location made Lilly's skin crawl: West Wood Cemetery.
Her hands still shaking, she wrote down more and more notes. Silas had been involved with the Greys. His death hadn't been over some personal vendetta, but something much larger, something that had been covered up for over a century.
The puzzle pieces were falling into place, but there were still too many gaps. Lilly needed more information. She needed to know what happened that night in the cemetery—and why Silas was still tied to this world.
Lilly left the library that evening with her notebook full of hurriedly scribbled notes and a mind buzzing with questions. The cool night air wrapped around her as she walked home, her thoughts spinning in a hundred different directions. She had uncovered more about Silas and who else had been involved in his death, but there were still so many things she didn't know.
The Greys. The secret meetings at the cemetery. The strange vision she had experienced.
It all pointed to something dark, bound in eerie silence for far too long. And the more she uncovered, the more she realized that Silas's warning hadn't just been about the cemetery—it had been about the people connected to it.
As she walked, a strange sensation washed over her, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. She stopped and turned around, but the street behind her was empty. The soft hum of traffic from somewhere far away was the only sound.
Am I being paranoid? she wondered, shaking her head and continuing to walk. But the feeling wouldn't go. It stayed there, heavy as a boulder, tailing her all the way home.
When she finally reached her apartment, Lilly locked the door behind her and leaned against it, her heart still pounding. She knew she had to confront Silas again. She needed more answers, and he was the only one who could provide them.
But a little voice told her she was stepping into dangerous territory. The Greys were powerful, and if they had gone as far as killing Silas in secret to protect themselves, what would they do to her to keep those secrets buried?
Slowly, she let her breath out, pushing away the fear. She had come too far to turn back now. Silas needed her help, and she wasn't going to stop until she knew what had happened.