Chapter 1: The Ashes of the Past

The night was quiet, a stillness that felt unnatural. The kind of silence that enveloped the world just before something terrible happened. Darius Thorne stood by the window of his apartment, his eyes fixed on the distant city skyline, but his mind was elsewhere. The faint glow of streetlights below cast long shadows on the walls of his office, but he didn't notice them. He hadn't noticed much of anything in years.

Not since that night.

The memory crashed into him like a tidal wave, merciless, cold, and all-encompassing.

Lena.

His wife. Beautiful, brilliant, and far too kind for this cruel world. The woman he had loved more than life itself, taken from him in a way that had never made sense. He'd been there when it happened. He had heard the muffled screams, the desperate cries for help that had torn at his very soul, but when he reached the door of their home office, it was already too late.

The woman who had been everything to him lay in a pool of her own blood, the marks of something… unnatural… etched into her skin. His world shattered that night, but it wasn't just her death that gnawed at him. It was the inexplicable disappearance of their daughter, Evelyn. His little girl, gone without a trace, as though the night had swallowed her whole.

Darius clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. His jaw tightened, the muscles in his face pulling taut. It was them. He knew it. The same shadowy organization that had been circling the periphery of his work for years, silently feeding off the very research he'd devoted his life to. A research that, unbeknownst to him, had unlocked the door to a world of horrors far beyond anything he could've ever imagined.

He wasn't a naive man. He was a scientist, after all, and a brilliant one at that. He understood the power of knowledge, the dangers of tampering with forces beyond human comprehension. But they—the organization—had twisted it all. Used it as a weapon, a tool for their dark ambitions. They took Lena, and they took Evelyn. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach. They were still out there. They had answers. And Darius would stop at nothing to find them.

But first, he needed to see the remains. He needed to understand what had happened to Lena.

With a deep breath, he turned away from the window and grabbed the leather-bound journal resting on his desk. It was the only thing he had left that contained Lena's thoughts, her research, and the fragments of the life they had shared. She had written everything down—every discovery, every breakthrough. Every clue she had uncovered about the organization's involvement in the underground world of human experimentation.

Darius flipped open to the most recent entry. The writing was shaky, as if she had been in a hurry, frantic even.

"They're getting closer, Darius. The work we're doing… it's not just theoretical anymore. They're trying to reverse-engineer the experiment. I think they know about Evelyn."

A chill ran down his spine. His fingers trembled as he traced the words on the page. Lena had been onto something, something so dangerous that she had become a target. The organization had known. And Evelyn—his little girl—was the key to something far more significant than Darius could have ever imagined.

Before he could process further, a sharp knock echoed through the door.

Darius's pulse quickened. His hand instinctively reached for the drawer where his handgun was kept, but he hesitated. It was always the same. He couldn't trust anyone. Not anymore.

"Who is it?" he called, his voice cold and distant.

A pause. Then the door creaked open slightly, just enough to reveal a familiar figure.

Isla Rae stood in the doorway, her face shadowed by the dim light, her expression unreadable. She was an unexpected sight—a woman from his past, a scientist who had once worked under his supervision. She had left the field years ago, but it was clear she hadn't left the game. Not really.

"Darius…" she said, her voice soft but firm. "We need to talk."

For a long moment, Darius said nothing. Isla had her own agenda, he knew that. She had always been ambitious, and now, standing before him, her eyes seemed to carry the weight of a thousand secrets.

"What do you want, Isla?" Darius finally asked, his voice hard.

"I know what you're after," she replied, stepping into the room. "And I'm here to help you. But you need to trust me."

Darius studied her for a moment, his gaze unwavering. Trust was a luxury he no longer had.

"You think I don't know that I'm being played?" he said, his voice low, almost dangerous. "I've spent years trying to figure out what happened to Lena, to Evelyn. You think I need your help?"

Isla didn't flinch. "You need information, Darius. Information that only I can provide. The organization is closing in on you. You're not going to get to them alone. If you want to find Evelyn, if you want to find out what really happened to Lena, you'll have to trust me."

The words hung in the air, and for the briefest moment, Darius felt the faintest stirring of hope. But it was quickly smothered. Trusting anyone would be his downfall. The only thing that mattered was vengeance. And he would get it—whatever the cost.

"What do you know?" he asked, his tone colder than before.

Isla's eyes locked onto his. "More than you think."

She pulled a small device from her jacket pocket and placed it on the desk between them. It was a sleek, black cube, the kind of technology that should've been out of reach for anyone but the most powerful corporations. But Darius recognized it immediately.

"This…" Isla began, her voice grim, "is the key. The key to everything."

Darius's pulse raced as his mind whirred into action. He knew it. This was it. The missing piece.

But the questions were just beginning. And the answers? They were more dangerous than he could possibly understand.

End of Chapter 1