Detective Liora Blackwell stood at the edge of a dark alley, rain hammering against her coat as she surveyed the body in front of her. It wasn't the first crime scene she had encountered, but something about this one made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. The victim, a middle-aged man in a suit, lay motionless, his face frozen in shock. There were no visible wounds, no blood. He simply appeared… empty.
Liora crouched beside the body, examining it carefully. His eyes were wide open, unblinking, staring into the abyss as if caught in a moment of terror that had never ended. The scene was eerily quiet, save for the rain cascading down in steady sheets.
She noticed something odd—the victim's hand was tightly gripping a small scrap of paper. Gently, she pried the crumpled piece from his fingers. It was a torn fragment of a notebook page, scribbled with a single sentence, barely legible but still recognizable:
"Fate has a price. You cannot escape it."
A chill ran down Liora's spine. She had seen this before—this sense of foreboding. The words, though cryptic, resonated with her. They felt too personal, as though they were meant for her.
"Detective, you need to see this." Officer Barnes, her rookie partner, called from across the alley, his voice edged with unease.
Liora's attention snapped back to the scene. She stood and moved toward Barnes, her mind racing. This wasn't just another random death. It was something more—something she couldn't yet understand.
Barnes was staring at a shadowed corner, his face grim. "Look at this."
Liora followed his gaze, narrowing her eyes at what appeared to be more strange writing on the wall. Scrawled in what looked like red chalk or paint, the words were sharp and deliberate:
"Sin follows all. Fate never forgets."
A knot tightened in Liora's stomach. The messages were too coordinated, too deliberate to be the work of an ordinary criminal. This wasn't a simple murder—it was the beginning of something far more complicated, far darker.
"Whoever's behind this," she muttered, her hand tightening around the piece of paper, "wants me to see these signs. They want me to follow their trail."
As she turned to face the body again, something caught her eye—a glimmer from the victim's coat pocket. She reached down, pulling out a small, weathered book. It was old, bound in leather, with no title on its spine.
Liora opened it, her fingers trembling slightly. The pages were filled with dense, handwritten notes, the ink slightly faded but still legible. She flipped through them quickly, catching glimpses of sentences like:
"The first sin is the one you never see coming." "Fate is a force that cannot be stopped—only guided."
Liora felt her heart race. The pieces were beginning to align, but the puzzle was far from complete. Whoever was behind this knew far more about fate and sin than any ordinary person. And Liora? She was going to have to dive deep into this twisted game.
"Detective, you need to take a look at this," Barnes called again, his voice urgent.
Liora reluctantly closed the book and turned to her partner, trying to push the strange unease in her gut aside. She had a case to solve—and someone was playing a game she couldn't yet comprehend.
As she walked toward Barnes, the faintest whisper seemed to echo through the rain—a voice, soft and mocking, just beyond her reach. She stopped in her tracks, her breath catching in her throat. She didn't know where it had come from, but it sounded almost like a warning.
"You cannot escape your fate, Detective."
Liora's heart skipped a beat. This wasn't just another case. This was something far more dangerous.
And it was only just beginning.