The night air outside felt heavier than before.
It wasn't just the suffocating humidity of the city—it was something unnatural. Like the entire sky was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.
Danny walked down the rain-slicked streets, his frozen grin aching with every step. His jaw felt like it had been wired into place, muscles cramping, blood faintly trickling from the corners of his cracked lips.
Yet, despite the pain, his body moved on its own.
His phone vibrated again.
📧 FROM: Fate Exchange
"Client confirmed. Location: 404 Eclipse Alley. Time: Midnight. Special Instructions: DO NOT LOOK THE CLIENT IN THE EYES."
He checked the time. 11:59 PM.
The address was just ahead—an alley so narrow and dark it seemed to swallow the surrounding streetlights.
A cold draft spiraled out from the alleyway, laced with the scent of burnt metal and something fouler… like rotting flowers.
Danny hesitated at the entrance, every instinct screaming at him to turn back.
But then his phone buzzed again.
📧 FROM: Fate Exchange
"Proceed, Agent Wong. The transaction window is brief. Failure to complete may result in… forfeiture."
Forfeiture.
He didn't dare imagine what that meant.
Steeling himself, Danny stepped into the alley.
With every footfall, the sound of the city behind him faded, swallowed by the oppressive silence.
At the end of the passage, a faint crimson glow pulsed like a dying heartbeat.
And then… he saw it.
A figure stood waiting beneath a flickering neon sign that read "Open House"—but the letters kept glitching, shifting between languages he couldn't recognize.
The figure was wrapped in what looked like a tattered black cloak, its face hidden beneath a wide-brimmed hat.
But it wasn't the shape that disturbed him most—it was the way the air seemed to bend and ripple around it, like reality itself was trying to avoid touching this… thing.
Danny stopped exactly six feet away, as his phone had instructed.
He swallowed hard, his forced smile trembling.
"Agent Wong reporting for transaction," he croaked, his voice brittle and barely audible.
The figure lifted its head slightly.
From beneath the hat, Danny caught the faintest glimpse of something… wrong.
Where eyes should have been, there were empty, swirling voids, as if the night sky itself had collapsed into its sockets.
Don't look into the eyes. Don't look!
Danny snapped his gaze downward, his heart hammering so hard he thought his ribs might break.
The figure spoke—not in words, but directly into his mind.
"Do you have the item?"
Danny's shaking hands pulled a black envelope from his coat. It bore the same blood-red seal as before—an official Fate Exchange contract.
He held it out, but the figure didn't reach for it.
Instead, a long, pale hand with impossibly thin fingers extended from beneath the cloak, hovering just inches above the envelope.
The air around it crackled, and with a sudden flash of red light, the envelope disintegrated into ash.
"Transaction accepted. Payment… delivered."
The figure slowly raised its head again.
Against every instinct, Danny glanced up—just for a second.
His breath caught.
In those swirling voids where eyes should have been… he saw something.
A reflection of himself… standing at the foot of a noose. Smiling. Waiting.
He stumbled back, choking on his own breath.
The figure's voice echoed once more in his mind.
"Your next listing will arrive shortly, Agent Wong. Welcome to the true marketplace."
The alleyway darkened suddenly.
When Danny turned around, the entrance to the alley was gone.
The walls had closed in.
He spun in panic, but the figure had vanished.
The only thing left behind was a faint whisper in the air—
"Smile, Agent Wong. Your fate is smiling back…"
He staggered forward blindly, and with a sudden lurch, the world tilted.
He tumbled through a curtain of freezing air—and landed hard on the pavement outside his apartment building.
His phone buzzed again.
📧 FROM: Fate Exchange
"Congratulations, Agent Wong. Payment has been made: +$250,000. Please check for… physical side effects."
He touched his cheek, his lips still locked in that horrific grin.
And then he noticed it.
A faint, swirling black mark had appeared beneath his left eye… shaped exactly like a small, grinning mouth.
[End of Chapter 6]