Xen's eyes were fixed on the scattered files on the desk, his mind swirling with suspicions and doubts. Seven missing persons—each photo coldly staring back at him, as though silently conveying some invisible fear. The cases seemed unrelated at first, but as his investigation deepened, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more sinister lurking beneath the surface.
Just as he was flipping through the papers, one file caught his attention. It was different from all the others—there was no detailed background, only a vague name: Eva Westbrook. This name was scarcely mentioned in any of the reports, and she seemed to have been deliberately erased from the records.
"Eva Westbrook…" Xen muttered under his breath, furrowing his brow. "What is going on here?"
He began examining the file more closely, but the more he looked, the stranger it seemed. There were no dates marking when she disappeared, no clear trace of her absence. Her photo showed a smiling, peaceful young woman, yet the note beside her name simply read: "Missing, all records invalid."
"This can't be right," Xen murmured, a growing sense of unease gnawing at him. Her name appeared to have been erased from existence, as though the world itself had conspired to make her disappear.
He searched through the other files, hoping for a clue that would make sense of this anomaly, but each page he turned added to his growing discomfort. Eva's disappearance had no evidence, no clues, as if she had never existed. Every time he tried to find more information about her, he felt an oppressive coldness creeping around him, as though some unseen force was preventing him from probing further.
He opened the file wider, forcing himself to focus, but the atmosphere became increasingly suffocating. As his fingers brushed over the photograph, an unnatural chill swept through the room, as though some invisible force was closing in behind him. Xen spun around abruptly, but there was nothing there.
"It's just the wind," he told himself, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves.
Yet, his unease didn't dissipate. His eyes returned to the photograph of Eva, and suddenly, something changed. Her eyes, once warm and inviting, now seemed to stare directly at him. There was something unnerving in her gaze, an emptiness that sent a shiver down his spine.
Xen's hand trembled as he tried to avert his gaze, but it was futile. The moment his eyes met hers, her expression began to distort, her face blurring, her eyes sinking into deep, black voids that seemed to pull him in, threatening to consume him.
"What's happening?" Xen's heartbeat quickened as his vision blurred, the room around him warping. The air grew unnaturally cold, and the world around him felt increasingly unreal.
"Xen…" a low, raspy voice whispered in his ear.
He whipped his head around, but no one was there. Only the photo of Eva, still staring at him with those unnatural eyes.
"You shouldn't have uncovered this name," the voice came again, this time carrying an ominous weight, as if something was slowly closing in on him.
His fingers involuntarily reached for the photo, and in that moment, a piercing shriek reverberated in his mind, an unbearable sound that seemed to tear through his eardrums. Everything around him became blurry, as if the fabric of reality itself was unraveling.
"You can never escape," the voice whispered again, colder and more insistent.
Xen's heart raced as his breath became shallow. The world around him began to bend and distort, the forgotten clues and erased memories converging into an uncontrollable force that overwhelmed him. Eva Westbrook's name had become a key—a curse that unlocked something far darker than he could have imagined.
Suddenly, Xen squeezed his eyes shut, his head spinning as he tried to shake off the suffocating dread. His hand jerked away from the photo, sending the papers flying into the air. The documents swirled around him, their edges twisting and curling as if they too were part of the nightmare.
When he opened his eyes again, the room was still. The oppressive air, however, clung to him like a shadow. Xen took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves, but the terror still lingered. He had uncovered something far more dangerous than a simple missing person. Eva Westbrook's name represented more than just a disappearance—it was a seal, a dark truth that defied reason and reality.
"This game is only beginning," Xen whispered to himself, unease mixing with determination in his voice.