Chapter 16 - Everglow

Morning came, and the scent of warm food filled the air. Emma had prepared breakfast, setting the plates down in front of Holloway and Kath. The two looked at her, momentarily surprised.

Kath: "You cook?"

Emma: "I do a lot of things."

Holloway took a bite, nodding approvingly. "We'll finish this lovely meal and then head out."

They ate in silence, each lost in thought, the weight of recent events pressing on them.

Meanwhile, outside their quiet moment, the world was anything but still.

The press refused to let up, hammering the higher-ups with relentless questions. The juvenile center was not an ordinary facility, and its destruction had ignited a firestorm. It was one thing for corruption to be whispered about in dark corners, but now, with children involved, the public demanded answers.

Inside the packed conference room, the air was thick with murmurs and tension. Journalists leaned forward, cameras at the ready.

Then, the door opened.

A man walked in, tall, broad-shouldered, his presence commanding immediate attention. He wasn't old, perhaps 39 or 40, but there was something about him that made him seem older. Experience, perhaps. Or the burden of responsibility. His suit was crisp, his movements deliberate.

This was Mr. Tai, the man responsible for police operations in Araguob.

The cameras went wild. Tchk tchk tchk. The room flashed with light.

A journalist near the front leaned forward, gripping their microphone. "Mr. Tai, the public demands answers. How do you explain the explosion at the juvenile center?"

Another reporter jumped in before he could respond. "Was this a terror attack? An inside job? And what about the children-"

"Enough."

Tai's voice was deep, unwavering. The room instantly quieted. He exhaled, rolling his shoulders slightly, before speaking again.

"First and foremost, we extend our deepest condolences to the families affected by this tragedy. The situation is still under active investigation, and at this moment, there is no official confirmation regarding the cause of the explosion."

A murmur rippled through the room, but no one dared interrupt him now.

"However," he continued, "I can assure you this: We will find the truth. And when we do, there will be consequences."

The tension in the room thickened. He had given them just enough to stir speculation but not enough to satisfy them. That was intentional.

A young journalist raised her voice, determined. "And the investigators? The ones who went there-"

Tai cut in. "No further comments."

The cameras flashed again, tchk tchk tchk but Tai had already turned away.

The press conference was over. But the hunt for answers was only beginning.

Everglow Cemetery-

The car came to a slow stop in front of the cemetery gates. The iron bars stretched high, rust creeping along their edges, the once-grand entrance now looking forgotten by time.

Emma, Holloway, and Kath stepped out, their shoes crunching against the gravel. The air was cold, thick with the scent of damp earth and decay.

Kath rubbed her arms. "Creepy. Why do clues never lead us to, I don't know… a café?"

Emma ignored her, eyes locked on the statue that loomed just beyond the gate. A solemn figure stood tall, carved from weathered stone. In its hands, a long spear, its tip aimed downward.

And right at the center of that spear.

An eye.

A familiar symbol.

Emma's stomach tightened. She turned to Holloway. "You seeing this?"

He gave a slow nod. "Yeah. And I don't like it."

Kath took a cautious step closer, studying the statue. "It's old. Like, really old. This place has probably been abandoned for decades."

Holloway exhaled sharply. "Let's move."

The gate groaned as they pushed it open. The hinges shrieked in protest, and then they were inside.

The cemetery stretched before them, rows of forgotten graves, cracked tombstones, and moss-covered statues standing like silent sentinels. Time had not been kind to this place.

Emma scanned the graves as they walked, her boots sinking slightly into the soft ground. The names on the stones had mostly eroded, reduced to ghostly imprints of the past.

Kath huffed. "You know, I'd really like it if we weren't wandering around a graveyard. Even if it is in the morning. This is how people die in horror movies."

Holloway shot her a look. "Not a horror movie. Just another job."

"Right," Kath muttered. "A job where we follow cryptic messages into abandoned cemeteries. Totally normal."

Emma wasn't listening. Her eyes darted from grave to grave, searching for something, anything, that stood out. Then, as they turned a corner past a half-collapsed mausoleum, she saw it.

"Wait." Emma stopped, pointing.

A single grave stood apart from the others, as if it had been placed there deliberately.

The headstone was smoother than the rest, less weathered, but what caught her attention was the inscription:

"Are you seeking salvation or destruction?"

Emma felt a chill crawl up her spine. Below the inscription, the name had been scratched out, leaving only a faint indent where it once was. But the dates remained:

Born: 1934

Died: 1950

Sixteen years old.

Just like Cain.

And the missing boy.

And beneath the dates, in smaller, fainter text, almost as if it had been carved in later

"Wrong place."

A heavy silence settled between them.

Kath swallowed hard. "Okay. That's officially creepy."

Holloway knelt, running his fingers over the engraving. His jaw tightened. "Someone put this here intentionally. They wanted it to be found."

Emma crouched beside him, staring at the words. Her mind raced.

Salvation or destruction.

A choice.

Or maybe a warning.

Her fingers brushed the base of the headstone, and then she froze.

The ground beneath her palm didn't feel solid.

It felt… hollow.

She looked up, meeting Holloway's gaze. "There's something buried here."

Holloway pressed his palm against the earth. A faint, unnatural give beneath his weight. He frowned. "No. There was something buried here."

Emma's breath hitched. "What?"

Holloway swept his hand across the dirt. His fingers dug in slightly loose soil, recently disturbed. He glanced at Emma. "Someone was here before us."

Kath took a cautious step back, suddenly uneasy. "And they didn't just find something… they took it."

Emma turned her head sharply, eyes tracing the surroundings. The way the dirt had settled. The subtle indentations in the soil. Whoever had been here-

They weren't just searching.

They were erasing.

She exhaled slowly. "Then we need to find out what they were trying to hide."

Holloway stood, dusting off his hands. He turned back toward the entrance, toward the statue standing tall in the distance.

His eyes followed the angle of the spear.

Emma followed his gaze. Her stomach dropped.

"Wait… the book said the eye isn't watching you, it's watching for you."

Holloway and Kath turned to her.

Emma took a step back, looking at the statue again. "And look at the spear."

Kath frowned. "What about it?"

Emma traced the line of its aim, her breath hitching. "It's not pointed at the cemetery. It's aimed at something down the hill."

They followed her gaze. Past the tangled weeds and forgotten gravestones, something lay hidden in the shadows below.

A stone structure, barely visible through the overgrowth.

Holloway's jaw tightened. "Guess we're not done here."

Emma nodded, gripping her arm. "Let's go."