Chapter 7: Failed Experiment
1573 Words
The emergency bell rang through the Silent Eyes headquarters just as the first light of dawn reached the city.
Its sharp sound echoed across every corridor.
Conversations stopped.
Detectives looked up from their desks.
For a brief moment, the entire headquarters stood still.
Halt closed the file in front of him and looked toward the entrance.
A messenger burst through the main doors, breathing heavily. Dust covered his boots, and sweat ran down his face as he searched the room.
His eyes landed on Halt.
"Detective Halt..."
Halt was already walking toward him.
"What happened?"
The messenger struggled to steady his breathing.
"...Another incident."
Lucien, who had been organizing reports nearby, looked up immediately.
"Another murder?"
The messenger hesitated.
"...No."
That single word caught everyone's attention.
Halt narrowed his eyes.
"No?"
The messenger swallowed.
"...The victim is still alive."
Silence spread through the room.
Kael slowly rose from his chair, his shoulder still wrapped beneath his coat from the previous night's attack. The wound no longer bled, but every movement reminded him it was there.
"Alive?" he repeated quietly.
The messenger nodded.
"He attacked several civilians before the city guards restrained him."
Lucien frowned.
"Attacked them?"
"They're alive," the messenger replied quickly. "Shaken... but alive."
Halt's expression hardened.
"Where?"
"The North Market."
Kael exchanged a glance with Halt.
"The North Market..." he muttered.
"That's nowhere near the Eastern District."
Halt didn't respond.
Instead, he reached for his coat.
"Let's move."
The streets of Necthera had only just begun to awaken.
Merchants were still opening their stalls when the three detectives crossed the city. People whispered as they passed. Rumors always travelled faster than the truth.
By the time they reached North Market, the area had already been surrounded by guards. A crowd had gathered behind the barricades. Fear had spread faster than curiosity.
Captain Rowan stepped forward the moment he saw Halt.
"Detective."
"What happened?"
Rowan looked back toward the marketplace.
"We found him wandering through the square."
"Wandering?"
"He didn't attack immediately."
The captain lowered his voice.
"He looked... lost."
Lucien frowned.
"Lost?"
Rowan nodded.
"He kept asking people where he was."
A pause.
"Then he started screaming."
The words hung in the air.
"He attacked anyone who got close."
Kael looked toward the square.
"How many injured?"
"Seven."
"No fatalities."
Halt remained silent.
That alone felt wrong. The previous victims had all died before anyone arrived.
This one... Was still alive.
The detectives stepped beyond the barricades. The market looked as though a storm had passed through it. Broken carts lay scattered across the stone road. Fruit rolled through puddles of water.
Wooden stalls had been torn apart. Deep claw marks covered the walls nearby.
Lucien stopped.
"Those weren't made by a weapon."
"No," Halt replied quietly.
"They weren't."
At the center of the square...
Several guards stood in a wide circle.
Inside it...
A young man knelt on the ground. His wrists had been chained. His breathing came in uneven gasps. His clothes were torn. Blood stained his sleeves.
Yet...
No visible wounds explained his condition.
The man slowly lifted his head.
His eyes wandered across the crowd.
Confused. Terrified.
As if he didn't understand where he was.
Then his gaze met Halt's.
For one brief second...
Everything became still.
Halt noticed it immediately.
The man's shadow.
It wasn't following the morning sun.
It moved...
Against it.
"Everyone back."
Halt's voice was calm.
But firm.
The guards hesitated.
"Now."
Years of training answered before questions did.
The officers immediately began forcing civilians farther away.
"Move back!"
"The investigation is restricted!"
"Leave the area!"
Some protested.
Others tried to look past the barricades.
Within minutes...
The marketplace had emptied.
Only trusted Silent Eyes personnel remained.
Lucien looked around.
"You think this is another Shade incident?"
Halt never took his eyes off the kneeling man.
"I don't know."
A pause.
"But we're about to find out."
The prisoner suddenly began trembling.
His chains rattled violently against the stone.
One guard instinctively stepped forward.
"Sir"
"Don't."
Halt's voice stopped him immediately.
The trembling became worse.
The man's breathing turned into painful, broken sounds.
Then... His scream tore through the empty marketplace.
Not a scream of anger. A scream of agony.
Dark veins spread beneath the skin of his neck. His shadow stretched unnaturally across the frozen cobblestones.
Lucien felt every hair on his arms stand upright.
Kael's hand slowly drifted toward the handle of his weapon.
Halt didn't move.
His eyes remained fixed on the man.
Then he whispered...Something is forcing its way out."
The man's screams echoed through the empty marketplace.
His body convulsed violently against the chains, each movement stronger than the last. The iron links groaned under the strain.
One of the guards instinctively stepped back.
"...What is happening to him?"
No one answered.
Not because they didn't want to.
Because none of them had ever seen anything like it.
The shadow beneath the man's feet began to spread across the cobblestones.
Not naturally.
It moved like thick black water, crawling in every direction.
Lucien's eyes widened.
"...His shadow."
Kael noticed it too.
"It isn't following him..."
"It has a will of its own," Halt finished quietly.
The air suddenly felt heavier.
The man's screams became deeper.
Almost...
As though another voice had begun screaming beneath his own. Then the chains snapped. The sharp sound echoed across the marketplace. Every guard instinctively raised their weapons.
The victim staggered to his feet.
His body shook uncontrollably.
His head remained lowered.
For several seconds...
He didn't move.
Then, without warning
He disappeared.
"No!"
Halt shouted.
A guard cried out as the victim reappeared beside him.
A black claw erupted from the man's shadow, throwing the guard several meters across the square.
Another tendril lashed toward two more officers.
They barely managed to dive away.
The marketplace erupted into chaos.
"Hold your positions!" Kael ordered.
But the victim wasn't attacking with purpose.
He was flailing.
Like a man drowning beneath something he couldn't control.
His shadow continued growing.
Each second it became darker.
Larger.
Hungrier.
Lucien watched in disbelief.
"He's losing himself."
Halt didn't answer.
His eyes never left the victim.
"No."
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"He's already gone."
The shadow suddenly burst outward.
Stone cracked beneath it.
The guards were forced backward.
One of the tendrils shot toward the entrance of the marketplace toward the last group of officers still escorting civilians away.
Lucien's heart skipped.
"They won't make it..."
Without thinking
He stepped forward.
"Lucien!" Kael shouted.
But it was already too late.
Lucien closed his eyes.
His breathing slowed.
He extended one trembling hand.
"...Dominancy."
For a single heartbeat...
Nothing happened.
Then
The temperature collapsed.
A freezing wind swept through the marketplace.
Frost spread across the ground with astonishing speed.
The cobblestones turned white.
Market stalls froze solid.
The air itself seemed to crystallize.
Every breath became visible.
The black tendril racing toward the guards slowed...
Then stopped.
Encased in ice.
The frost didn't stop there.
It continued spreading.
Across the walls.
Across the broken carts.
Across the abandoned market.
The guards looked around in stunned silence.
One whispered,
"...Everything's freezing..."
Kael immediately turned toward Lucien.
His eyes widened.
Lucien's entire body trembled.
Ice had begun forming around his boots.
His hands shook violently.
He couldn't stop it.
The cold continued expanding.
Another guard struggled to move.
"My legs... They're freezing..."
Halt's expression changed.
"Lucien!"
Lucien heard him.
But the sound felt distant.
His vision blurred.
The world around him became pale and silent.
He gritted his teeth, trying to pull the Shade back under control.
It refused.
The frost continued crawling across the marketplace.
One more minute...
And everyone remaining would be trapped within it.
Halt rushed forward.
He grabbed Lucien firmly by the shoulder.
"Enough."
Lucien's eyes snapped open.
The connection broke.
A deafening c***k echoed through the square.
The frozen tendrils shattered into thousands of glittering fragments.
The unnatural cold slowly faded.
Silence returned.
Lucien collapsed to one knee, breathing heavily.
"...I..."
His voice shook.
"...I almost lost it."
Halt offered him a hand.
"You stopped it."
Lucien looked down at the ice surrounding them.
"...Not completely."
Halt followed his gaze.
The victim stood several meters away.
Perfectly still.
The black shadow had vanished.
The veins beneath his skin slowly faded.
For the first time since they arrived...
His face looked peaceful.
He took one weak step forward.
Another.
His eyes searched the people standing before him.
Not with fear.
Not with anger.
But with confusion.
As though he had just awakened from a terrible dream.
He looked directly at Halt.
His lips parted.
He tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Blood slipped from the corner of his mouth.
He smiled.
A broken...
Almost relieved smile.
Then... His body collapsed.
Halt reached him before he hit the ground. He checked for a pulse.
Nothing. The marketplace fell silent once again. No one moved. No one spoke.
The tenth victim...
Had become the tenth corpse.
Halt slowly closed the man's eyes.
His gaze drifted toward the strange mark burned into the victim's wrist.
The same symbol.
Again.
But this time...
It wasn't the symbol that held his attention.
It was the realization forming in his mind.
The first nine victims had died before anyone could understand what happened.
This man had survived long enough to show them.
These were never ordinary murders.
Someone... Was trying to create something.
And they had just witnessed another failure.
- Writer
