The Town That Doesn’t Exist.

The steady hum of the engine was the only sound keeping Leah awake.

She drove through the empty streets, her fingers gripping the wheel a little too tightly. It was late. Too late. But after the conversation with her boss, she couldn't bring herself to go home right away. The thought of lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, and waiting for failure to sink in made her stomach twist.

Streetlights flickered as she passed, casting long shadows against the pavement. The city felt deserted at this hour, the roads stretching out in eerie silence.

One good story. That's all she needed.

Her apartment wasn't much just a small, cluttered space on the third floor of a run-down complex. Leah pushed open the door, tossed her bag onto the couch, and kicked off her shoes before heading straight for her laptop.

She sat cross-legged on the floor, the screen casting a dull glow in the darkness. A half-empty coffee cup from this morning sat next to her, cold and forgotten.

She started searching.

Unsolved cases. Missing towns. Strange disappearances.

She skimmed article after article, but nothing stood out. Until

A forum post.

Buried in the depths of an obscure website, the thread was old, almost abandoned. The title caught her eye:

"The Town That Doesn't Exist."

Her pulse quickened as she clicked on it.

The original post was simple. Someone claimed they had stumbled upon a massive iron gate deep in the woods, covered in vines, leading to a town that shouldn't be there. No records, no maps, nothing official. Just whispers. Some had searched for it. None had returned.

Most of the replies mocked the idea. "Just another ghost story." "Urban legend." "People love making stuff up."

But one comment at the bottom stood out.

"It's real. I saw it. But if you find it… don't go in."

Leah exhaled slowly, tapping her fingers against the keyboard.

A hoax? Probably. But what if it wasn't?

She glanced at the clock. 2:47 AM. Too late to think clearly, but her mind was already working, piecing things together.

Her boss wanted a story.

This could be it.

She didn't know it yet, but this was the moment everything changed.