Chapter 36: The Rising Storm

The police station was nearly empty. The quiet hum of the flickering overhead lights was the only sound filling the space, aside from the occasional rustling of papers as Taylor continued his research.

Kai sat at his desk, staring at the pile of reports in front of him. His conversation with Eleanor played on a loop in his head.

"The cycle didn't start in Stowntown. It started somewhere else—long ago."

He needed to find that origin.

Kai picked up his coffee cup and took a slow sip. Cold. He didn't care. His mind was locked on the bigger issue. If the curse wasn't tied to one location anymore, then the threat had escalated beyond anything he had faced before.

But there was something else that bothered him.

The creature on Route 16.

"You're already part of it."

It had spoken like it knew him. Like it had seen something in him that he hadn't realized yet.

Kai clenched his jaw. He had spent years in this fight, watching innocent people die, losing officers, friends. He wasn't about to let this thing worm its way into his head.

He flipped through the reports Taylor had gathered, scanning the names and locations. The disappearances along Route 16 matched the timeframe of the 27-day cycle. But that wasn't what caught his eye.

It was the pattern.

Every attack had a link to a previous one, like an infection spreading through people instead of places. Someone would survive an encounter, leave town, and a few years later, the curse would surface near where they had relocated.

Kai's blood ran cold.

Had he done the same thing? Had he unknowingly carried the curse with him when he left Stowntown?

He shook the thought away. No. He had left to escape the horror, to make sure it wouldn't follow him. But now it seemed like it hadn't needed to follow him—it had already been waiting.

Taylor looked up from his desk, rubbing his temples. "Sir, I found something else."

Kai raised an eyebrow.

Taylor hesitated before continuing. "You asked me to check old reports, right? Well, I went further back—way further." He slid a file across the desk.

Kai opened it. The paper was old, yellowed with age, the ink faded but still readable.

And then he saw the date.

1903.

Kai's heart pounded as he read. It was a case file from a small town two states over. Multiple disappearances over 27 days. No survivors. No explanation.

And then, another report from 1866. Another town. Another cycle.

Taylor spoke quietly. "It goes back centuries."

Kai closed the file. "Then that means we've been looking at this the wrong way."

Taylor nodded. "This isn't something new. It's always been here."

Kai exhaled sharply and stood. "Get the car ready. We're heading out."

Taylor blinked. "Where?"

Kai grabbed his shotgun and slung it over his shoulder. "Back to where it all began."

The Forgotten Town

The drive was long, the road stretching endlessly into the countryside. The town they were heading toward wasn't on modern maps. It had been abandoned over a hundred years ago.

As they drove, the radio crackled with faint static. No signal. The farther they got from civilization, the more the world seemed to close in around them.

Taylor glanced at Kai. "You ever hear about this place before?"

Kai kept his eyes on the road. "No. And that's the problem. If this is where the cycle started, then someone went to a lot of trouble to erase it."

The trees grew denser as they drove, the headlights barely cutting through the thick fog that had settled in.

Then, the road ended.

Beyond it, ruins.

The remains of an old town, barely standing. A few buildings, their wood rotted and blackened. A church missing half its roof. The skeleton of a town long forgotten.

Kai stepped out of the car, his boots crunching on the overgrown path.

Taylor hesitated. "Sir... I don't like this."

"Neither do I," Kai admitted. "But we're here now."

They moved forward, guns ready, every step slow and deliberate. The air was heavy, thick with the scent of decay.

Then, a whisper.

Not from a person. Not from the wind.

From everywhere.

Kai's grip tightened on his shotgun. "You hear that?"

Taylor swallowed. "Yeah."

The whispering grew louder, overlapping voices that made no sense. And then—

Something moved.

A shadow slipped between the ruins. Too fast to be human.

Kai raised his weapon. "Come out."

No response.

Then, another whisper—this time, his own name.

"Kai..."

Cold sweat ran down his spine.

Taylor cursed under his breath. "Sir, we need to—"

The ground shifted.

A deep, guttural noise rumbled beneath them. Not thunder. Not an earthquake.

Something alive.

And then—

A figure stepped out from the ruins.

A woman.

Or, at least, something that looked like a woman.

Her eyes were hollow, black voids in her pale face. Her skin was cracked, like porcelain about to break. She wore an old, tattered dress, something from another century.

She smiled.

And in that moment, Kai knew.

She wasn't human.

And she had been waiting for him.

"You came," she whispered.

Kai didn't lower his gun. "Who are you?"

The woman tilted her head. "The same as you."

Kai's fingers flexed over the trigger. "I doubt that."

The woman took a step forward. The air around her warped, as if reality itself was struggling to contain her presence.

"You are part of this now," she said softly. "You have always been part of this."

Kai's pulse pounded.

This was the source.

This thing was where it all began.

Taylor's voice was tight. "Sir... I think we should leave."

Kai didn't move. His instincts screamed at him to fire, to end this right now.

But something told him that wouldn't work.

The woman smiled again, her black eyes gleaming. "Run if you wish. It won't matter."

The whispering grew louder. The shadows moved.

And then—

The woman vanished.

Gone.

Like she had never been there at all.

The whispering stopped.

The air grew still.

Kai slowly lowered his shotgun, his mind racing.

Taylor let out a shaky breath. "What the hell was that?"

Kai didn't answer. He turned back toward the car.

"We're leaving," he said.

Taylor didn't argue.

But as they drove away, Kai knew one thing for certain.

This wasn't over.

This was just the beginning.