*"Truth isn't always a light—it can be a shadow you're not ready to face."*
The Ashmoor police station was a modest building, the kind that never changed much, but held an unspoken weight.
Tobias Greaves sat behind a cluttered desk, files stacked high like monuments to unsolved mysteries. His badge gleamed under the flickering fluorescent light, but his eyes told a different story—one carved from years of chasing ghosts.
When Eira arrived, he didn't bother with pleasantries.
"Tell me everything from the beginning," he said, voice low.
Eira hesitated, then began—the childhood games, the pact, the shadowy figure, the deaths, the letter, the voice.
Tobias listened, nodding occasionally but never interrupting.
When she finished, he leaned back, rubbing his temples.
"You're not crazy. At least... not entirely."
He pulled out a worn photo from his drawer—a grainy black-and-white of five kids, huddled in front of the treehouse.
"That's us," Eira said.
"But there's something else," Tobias whispered, eyes fixed on a dark blur behind the children—an extra shadow, just beyond the frame.
Eira shivered.
"I found this during a case years ago," Tobias continued. "It was dismissed as a camera glitch. But it wasn't. Something was watching them."
He tapped a file marked *"The Vanished."*
"Three kids disappeared from Ashmoor over the last decade," he said. "No leads. No bodies. Just silence."
"And you think it's connected to the pact."
He nodded slowly.
"We're out of time, Eira. The veil is thinning, just like the letter said. We need to find the others—fast."
Before she could ask who was left, his phone buzzed.
A message flashed:
*"They're coming. Trust no one."*
The line went dead.
Eira's breath hitched.
"This isn't just about us anymore," Tobias said grimly. "Whatever we started, it's bigger than any of us imagined."
---
Later that night, Eira sat alone, staring at the flickering candlelight.
The voice recorder lay on the table, its secrets taunting her.
Her mind raced with questions:
*Who broke the pact?*
*What did they ask for?*
*And why did Soren disappear?*
As the wind howled outside, the shadows in the room seemed to lean closer.
The past was waking.
And Ashmoor's dark heart was ready to beat again.
---