
The Shadow Code
The rain fell in sheets, turning the city into a blur of neon and shadow. Detective Mara Voss stood at the edge of the crime scene, her boots sinking into the puddles as she scanned the alley. The body lay…
Mara stood at the edge of the pine forest, her boots sinking into the damp earth as the wind carried the scent of cedar and distant rain. The town of Black Hollow had always felt like a place suspended in…
Clara stepped off the bus, her boots crunching on gravel as the wind tugged at her coat. The town of Black Hollow sat like a wound in the earth, its buildings hunched against the cold. She hadn’t set foot here…
The morning air hung thick with the scent of rain-soaked earth and decaying leaves, a cloying perfume that clung to Clara’s coat as she stepped off the rusted bus. The town of Blackmoor sprawled before her, its crooked buildings leaning…
The rain fell in sheets as Clara Voss stepped off the creaking bus, her boots sinking into the mud of Cedar Hollow’s main road. The town had not changed—a patchwork of sagging porches, rusted fences, and the acrid tang of…
The neon smeared across the slick pavement, fractured by the downpour. Rain tasted like ozone and regret. Kai traced the glyphs blossoming on the wall – not spray paint, but *rain graffiti*, ephemeral code blooming in the moisture. It pulsed,…
The fog tasted of coal and secrets. August clung to Violet’s threadbare shawl, the damp chilling him to the bone despite the summer month. Parliament House loomed, a gray beast breathing the city’s grime. Violet, barely ten, slipped between the…