The apartment was silent.... too silent. The only sound was the faint drip of water from the ceiling onto the floor, each drop echoing louder than it should. Taye stood frozen near his desk, the pendant still glowing faintly in his hand.
The man....or whatever was left of him, stood in the doorway. His clothes were still the same ones from the night on Ash Street, soaked, torn, stained with ash. His eyes shone gold, hollow yet alive, staring straight at Taye.
"Adamu Kareem," Taye whispered. "You're supposed to be dead."
The figure tilted its head, and when it spoke, its voice sounded like two voices overlapping....one human, one not.
> "Death is just another room in the house you built, Eran."
Taye stepped back slowly, his gun already drawn. "Don't come closer."
The man didn't move, but the air around him shimmered faintly, as though the walls were bending.
> "You took the light once," Adamu said. "You sealed it beneath the river. But now it's waking… and so are they."
"Who are they?" Taye demanded. "What are you talking about?"
> "The ones you betrayed."
The glow in Adamu's eyes brightened until it painted the room in gold. Shadows stretched across the walls like long, twisted fingers. The pendant on Taye's desk began to vibrate softly.
Taye's grip on his gun tightened. "I don't understand any of this."
> "You will," Adamu said. "When the circle closes."
The words came out like a chant. Suddenly, his body jerked violently, unnaturally. His veins turned black, and his skin cracked, light bleeding from beneath it.
"Adamu!" Taye shouted, taking a step forward. "Stop this!"
But it was too late. Adamu's body began to break apart....not into ash this time, but into threads of gold dust swirling around the room. The glow filled Taye's vision, forcing him to shield his eyes.
Then everything went dark.
When he opened them again, he wasn't in his apartment.
He was standing in the middle of a wide, empty plain.....the sky painted in twilight colors, purple and blue bleeding into each other. The air smelled like rain and fire.
"Where…" he murmured, turning around. "…where am I?"
"You're in between," said a voice behind him.
He turned fast. She was there again, the woman in white. Her cloak fluttered in wind that didn't exist.
> "You crossed the Veil," she said softly. "You touched the energy he carried. That's dangerous."
Taye's breath came uneven. "Adamu.... he was dead. How could he be moving? Talking?"
> "He wasn't moving," she said sadly. "He was being used."
"Used by who?"
> "By the ones who want to find you again."
Taye frowned. "You keep saying 'again.' What do you mean? Who am I?"
The woman's expression softened. "You were the guardian of light, Eran Daram. A soul born to protect the bridge between worlds. But you turned away from your duty. You fell."
Taye stared at her. "You're saying I'm not human?"
> "You were," she said. "Until the fire took that from you."
He shook his head. "No. This can't be real. I'm just a detective."
She took a slow step closer. "Then why do you see what others can't? Why does the ash call your name? Why does the mark burn when darkness wakes?"
He wanted to argue, to call her crazy... but he couldn't. Everything she said lined up with what he'd seen, what he'd felt.
"What do you want from me?" he whispered.
> "To remember," she said simply. "Because when the Shadow Lord returns, you're the only one who can stop him."
Taye frowned. "Shadow Lord?"
Before she could answer, the ground beneath them trembled. Cracks formed across the plain, glowing red like lava. The air vibrated, thick and heavy.
> "They've found us," she said, her voice suddenly sharp. "You need to wake up."
The cracks spread quickly, fire spilling out. From the flames, shapes began to crawl... dark figures with golden eyes, whispering in a language Taye didn't understand.
"What are those?" he shouted.
> "Echoes of your past sins," she said. "Now run!"
Taye turned, sprinting across the cracked ground as the creatures followed, their movements quick and soundless. The woman reached out her hand.
> "Taye, listen to me! When you wake up, find the pendant again. It will guide you to the River Gate."
"What's the River Gate?"
> "The place where the light was buried!"
The ground split beneath his feet. He fell.... falling endlessly through darkness, the woman's voice fading into the echo of thunder.
He woke up gasping.
The apartment was dark again, rain slapping the windows hard. His gun was still in his hand, his desk overturned, and the floor covered in glowing ash. The pendant lay a few feet away, pulsing faintly.
He crawled toward it, picked it up, and felt warmth rush into his chest. The mark on his wrist glowed in sync.
The world around him shimmered for a second, then steadied.
He got to his feet, breathing heavily. "The River Gate," he whispered.
The name rolled off his tongue like a memory. He didn't know how he knew it, but he did. Somewhere in Lagos, that place existed and it held the truth.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed on the floor. The screen flashed with a message from Inspector Nnena.
"Taye, you need to come quick. We found another body. This one's… different."
He grabbed his coat and the pendant, shoving both into his pocket. "Different," he muttered. "Of course it is."
As he stepped out into the rain, thunder rolled across the sky, deep and angry. For a moment, lightning lit up the clouds....and in that flash, he saw her again on a rooftop across the street, watching him.
The woman in white, But this time, she wasn't alone, beside her stood a tall, shadowy figure, its eyes burning red.
The storm swallowed the city whole.