4338.214 · August 2, 2018 AD
Closing In
Sarah's hand on his thigh. The radio shatters everything. Luke Smith's name—finally, after days of ghosts and dead ends. Karl and Sarah race towards Granton, adrenaline replacing intimacy. They arrive at Jeffries Manor—calm, too calm. Then Louise appears, clutching a kitchen knife, mascara streaking her face. Luke's trapped in the shed. Brianne's missing. Another disappearance. Another victim. The nightmare bleeding into daylight.
Behind Macquarie Point, stolen moments in an unmarked car. Sarah's touch. The Derwent catching afternoon light. Days of arguments and crossed lines dissolving into something wordless, human, necessary.
Then the radio: disturbance in Granton. Luke Smith on-site.
The spell breaks. Karl's already moving, engine roaring, lights flashing. Days of chasing shadows—the body under the stairs, the nightmare voice saying "Bye, Karl"—finally converging on something real.
They arrive at Jeffries Manor. Sandstone façade. Manicured hedges. Too elegant. Too quiet. Something's wrong beneath the surface calm.
Louise appears outside the shed, clutching a kitchen knife, shaking, mascara-streaked, terror and determination warring across her face. She's trapped Luke inside. He came to talk to Brianne—Kain's fiancée. Now Brianne's gone too.
Another missing person. Another name on the list.
Sarah takes the knife. Louise crumbles. Karl stares at the shed door—slightly ajar, darkness visible through the gap.
Weeks of investigation. Nightmares. Bodies. Guilt. All leading here.
Luke Smith is twenty metres away.
Trapped.
Waiting.
And Karl has no idea if he's chasing a killer or walking into something that will shatter his understanding of reality entirely.
