Most people in Ironshade wouldn’t look twice at Ethan if he passed them on the street. At eighteen, he is just another college student trying to stay afloat, balancing assignments, mounting expenses, and the responsibility of helping care for his younger sister. Life has not exactly been generous to him over the past few years, and whatever plans he once had for the future have slowly been replaced by more immediate concerns, keeping the lights on, paying bills, and making sure tomorrow is manageable.
So when a well-paying tutoring job in Nighthallow appears out of nowhere, Ethan accepts without much hesitation. It seems like the kind of opportunity people wait for when they have run out of better options.
What he doesn’t realize is that some opportunities come with questions attached to them, questions nobody is eager to answer.
Nighthallow is a city filled with stories. Strange incidents that never receive proper explanations, missing pieces in otherwise ordinary events, rumors that circulate briefly before disappearing as if they were never spoken aloud. Most people dismiss them and move on. Ethan, unfortunately, notices things he probably shouldn’t.
The deeper he digs, the harder it becomes to convince himself that everything has a rational explanation.
Certain encounters feel too deliberate. Coincidences happen a little too often. People who should be strangers seem to know far more about him than they reasonably could, and every answer he manages to uncover only exposes another layer beneath it.
There is something hidden beneath the familiar surface of the world, something that has remained unnoticed for far longer than it should have.
And somehow, Ethan has wandered directly into its path.
Ethan tells himself he can walk away whenever he wants. Focus on college, take the tutoring job, help his sister, and pretend none of it concerns him. Yet every time he tries to return to normal, another strange detail surfaces, another question refuses to stay buried, and another unfamiliar face appears where it shouldn’t. Before long, curiosity is no longer the problem, it’s figuring out why so many people seem interested in him.
What is clear, however, is that turning back may no longer be an option.
Some mysteries stay buried for a reason.
Others have been waiting for someone to find them.
