Short Story
There was a knock at Leo’s door shortly after midday.
He looked up from his desk.
That was unusual.
Most clients called first.
The second knock was louder.
Leo sighed and stood.
“Coming.”
He crossed the office and opened the door.
Two police officers stood on the pavement outside.
Leo looked from one to the other.
Then smiled.
“Well, this is either very exciting or I’ve finally done something worth arresting me for.”
Neither officer smiled.
Leo’s expression faded slightly.
“Right. Serious, then.”
The older officer was a broad man in his forties, with a tired expression and the unmistakable posture of someone who had spent far too many years wearing a badge.
The woman beside him was considerably younger.
Late twenties, Leo guessed.
She was short, barely reaching his shoulder, though there was nothing uncertain about the way she held herself. Her blonde hair was cut into a neat bob that framed a narrow, fair-skinned face, and sharp blue eyes studied Leo with an intensity that suggested she had already formed several opinions about him.
She had a small, athletic build and stood with her hands loosely at her sides, perfectly still.
Leo had met enough police officers to recognise the type.
She was trying very hard not to look desperate.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
The blonde officer stepped forward.
“Are you Aurelius Winterhold?”
Leo grimaced.
“Unfortunately.”
Her eyebrow rose.
“Most people call me Leo.”
“I’m Detective Erin Shaw.”
She held out a hand.
Leo shook it.
“Detective.”
“I’ve heard things about you.”
Leo glanced at the older officer.
“Good things, I hope.”
“That depends who you ask.”
“Promising start.”
Erin didn’t smile.
“We’ve been pointed in your direction.”
“By who?”
“Someone who said you have a habit of solving problems other people can’t.”
Leo folded his arms.
“And what kind of problem do you have?”
Erin looked towards the street.
“People are disappearing.”
The humour left Leo’s face.
“Come in.”
The nightclub was called Eclipse.
Leo decided immediately that he didn’t like the name.
It sat on the edge of downtown Seattle, surrounded by restaurants, bars and other clubs that became considerably more active after midnight.
According to Detective Shaw, six people had disappeared over the previous two months.
Different ages.
Different backgrounds.
No apparent connection.
Except for one thing.
They had all visited Eclipse shortly before disappearing.
“The police investigated the club?” Leo asked.
“Several times.”
“And?”
“Nothing.”
Leo sat behind his desk, looking through the files Erin had brought.
“Security cameras?”
“Reviewed.”
“Employees?”
“Questioned.”
“Owner?”
“Cooperative.”
“That’s usually a bad sign.”
Erin gave him a look.
Leo continued reading.
“The latest victim.”
Erin’s expression changed.
“My sister.”
Leo looked up.
She reached into her pocket and placed a photograph on the desk.
The woman in the picture was younger than Erin. Twenty-one or twenty-two, with long blonde hair and a bright smile. Her eyes were the same blue as her sister’s.
“Her name is Sophie.”
“When did she disappear?”
“Three nights ago.”
Leo looked back at the photograph.
“Did she go to Eclipse?”
“With friends.”
“Did anyone see her leave?”
“Yes.”
Erin’s voice tightened.
“That’s the strange part.”
Leo waited.
“She walked out of the club alone. She was seen on three separate cameras.”
“And then?”
“She turned into an alley.”
Leo looked up.
“And vanished.”
“That’s what happened to all of them.”
Leo leaned back.
“Show me.”
Leo spent the next several hours looking through footage.
The police had given him access to the official recordings.
Izzy’s software gave him access to considerably more.
Leo wasn’t entirely sure how his sister would feel about him describing it as hacking.
She would probably insist it was something more sophisticated.
He opened camera feeds from nearby businesses.
Traffic cameras.
Private security systems.
Anything with a view of the streets around Eclipse.
He watched Sophie leave the club.
She walked down the pavement.
Checked her phone.
Then turned into the alley.
Leo switched to another camera.
Nothing.
He rewound the footage.
Watched it again.
Sophie turned the corner.
And disappeared.
No one came out.
Leo frowned.
He pulled up footage of another victim.
The same thing.
A man walked around a corner.
Vanished.
A woman entered a side street.
Vanished.
Leo checked every possible route.
Every doorway.
Every fire escape.
Nothing.
There wasn’t even a vehicle.
Leo sat back.
“That’s impossible.”
Erin stood behind him.
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
Leo shook his head.
“No. Not impossible.”
He looked at the screen.
“Just not normal.”
At midnight, Eclipse was alive.
Music shook the pavement outside.
A queue stretched around the corner, filled with people laughing, shouting and arguing with security about whether they were drunk enough to be refused entry.
Leo joined them.
He wore a dark shirt and jeans.
His katana remained safely at home.
He had learned from experience that carrying a sword into a nightclub raised questions.
The bouncer glanced at him.
Leo smiled.
The man waved him through.
Inside, Leo immediately regretted coming.
The music was deafening.
Lights flashed across a packed dance floor.
Hundreds of people moved beneath them, surrounded by smoke, alcohol and enough body heat to make the entire building feel like a furnace.
Leo pushed his way through the crowd.
“Excuse me.”
Someone bumped into him.
“Sorry.”
Another person spilled a drink down his sleeve.
Leo stared at the wet patch.
“Fantastic.”
He reached the edge of the dance floor and headed towards a corridor marked STAFF ONLY.
A locked door stood at the end.
Leo checked the cameras.
None.
He pulled a small device from his pocket.
Izzy’s latest contribution to his investigative career.
The lock clicked.
Leo smiled.
“Thanks, Iz.”
He slipped inside.
The offices were silent.
The music became a dull vibration through the walls.
Leo moved carefully.
He searched the first room.
Nothing.
The second contained paperwork.
The third was locked.
Leo crouched beside the door.
Then he heard something.
Breathing.
Not from inside.
Behind him.
Leo froze.
A wet sound followed.
He slowly turned.
A man stood at the end of the corridor.
At least, Leo thought it had once been a man.
Its skin was grey and sunken against its bones. Its eyes were milky and unfocused, while its lips had pulled back from teeth stained dark with old blood.
It smiled.
Leo stared at it.
“Oh.”
Another figure stepped from a doorway.
Then another.
Leo’s eyes narrowed.
He recognised them.
The police photographs.
Missing people.
Or people who had once been missing.
Ghouls.
“That’s unfortunate.”
The first ghoul tilted its head.
Leo slowly stepped backwards.
The creatures didn’t attack.
Not yet.
He glanced towards the open doorway beside him.
Then back at them.
“Look, I’m sure we could all discuss this like reasonable adults.”
The ghoul snarled.
Leo disappeared through the doorway and quietly closed it behind him.
A second later, something slammed into the door.
Leo looked around.
Storage room.
No other exit.
“That could have gone better.”
The door shook again.
Leo spotted a vent.
Small.
Very small.
He looked at it.
Then at himself.
“I hate this job.”
He emerged from the ventilation system several minutes later, considerably dirtier and considerably less happy.
But he was alive.
The corridor beyond was different.
Older.
The walls were bare concrete.
Leo followed it deeper beneath the nightclub.
The music was gone now.
So was the laughter.
Only silence remained.
Then he found the door.
Heavy metal.
Three locks.
And something else.
A magical ward.
Leo smiled.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
He placed his hand against the door.
Cold spread across the metal.
The locks froze.
One by one, they cracked.
Leo pushed the door open.
A young woman was tied to a chair inside.
Her head lifted sharply.
Leo immediately recognised her.
Long blonde hair.
Blue eyes.
Sophie’s face was pale and tear-stained, but she was alive.
“Sophie?”
Her eyes widened.
“Who are you?”
“Leo.”
He crossed the room.
“Your sister sent me.”
Erin’s name changed everything.
Sophie’s face crumpled.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s worried.”
Leo began untying the ropes.
“She’s very good at hiding it, though.”
Sophie gave a weak laugh.
Then Leo noticed the books.
Several lay open across a table in the corner.
Dark symbols covered their pages.
He walked closer.
Necromancy.
His expression hardened.
Behind him, Sophie spoke.
“What’s happening?”
Leo looked at the book.
“I think the owner of this club has been conducting some very unethical experiments.”
The lights went out.
Leo slowly turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
He was tall and slender, dressed in an immaculate black suit that seemed absurdly formal for a nightclub. His dark hair was swept neatly back, and his face was handsome in the carefully constructed way of someone who spent a great deal of time looking in mirrors.
His eyes, however, were entirely wrong.
They glowed faintly in the darkness.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Leo stepped in front of Sophie.
“I get told that a lot.”
The man entered the room.
“You’ve caused me a considerable inconvenience.”
Leo looked towards the book.
“Sorry about that.”
“Do you know what you’ve done?”
“Interrupted whatever this is.”
The man’s expression darkened.
“They were going to become something greater.”
Leo glanced towards the door.
“The grey, half-dead things outside?”
“They are evolving.”
“They look like they’ve lost an argument with a lawnmower.”
Sophie made a frightened sound behind him.
Leo held up a hand.
The warlock’s eyes narrowed.
“You find this amusing.”
“No.”
Leo’s smile disappeared.
“I find you amusing.”
The warlock raised his hand.
The room vanished.
Leo blinked.
He was standing in the middle of a forest.
Trees surrounded him.
The ground was covered in snow.
A wolf howled somewhere in the distance.
Leo looked down.
“Really?”
The warlock’s voice echoed around him.
“You think you’re clever because you discovered my illusion.”
Leo turned slowly.
“The cameras.”
The warlock appeared between the trees.
“They see what I allow them to see.”
“That’s how people vanished.”
The warlock smiled.
“Of course.”
Leo nodded.
“You created an illusion of them walking away from the cameras.”
“And once they were out of sight—”
“You took them.”
The warlock smiled.
“Exactly.”
Leo looked around.
The forest was convincing.
Almost perfect.
“Nice trick.”
The warlock’s smile widened.
Leo raised his hand.
" Glacia Blastara.”
Ice exploded through the illusion.
The forest shattered.
They were back in the room.
The warlock’s expression finally changed.
Surprise.
Leo smiled.
“Mine’s real.”
The warlock attacked.
Fire burst from his hands.
Leo pushed Sophie behind a stone pillar as flames crossed the room.
The heat was intense.
Leo raised his arm.
Ice formed before him.
Fire struck it.
Steam filled the air.
The warlock moved through it.
Leo saw him at the last second.
A blast of magic struck Leo in the chest.
He was thrown backwards.
The warlock advanced.
“Who are you?”
Leo climbed to his feet.
“Bad news, apparently.”
The warlock attacked again.
Leo dodged.
His hand struck the ground.
Ice raced across the floor.
The warlock slipped.
Leo was on him immediately.
The warlock threw up a shield.
Leo’s fist struck it.
The barrier shattered.
The warlock stumbled backwards.
He raised both hands.
Dark energy gathered between them.
Leo saw the necromancy book behind him.
Then smiled.
The warlock realised what he was looking at.
“No.”
Leo moved.
"Glacia Blastara!”
Ice shot across the room.
It struck the book.
The ancient pages froze.
Then shattered.
The warlock screamed.
All around the nightclub, something answered.
The ghouls.
Leo felt the magic holding them together disappear.
The creatures began to fall.
The warlock staggered.
“No!”
He reached for another spell.
Leo didn’t give him the chance.
Cold filled the room.
The warlock froze.
From his feet upwards.
Ice covered his legs.
His chest.
His arms.
His terrified face.
For a moment, he stood completely still.
Leo looked at him.
“You should have stuck to running a nightclub.”
The ice shattered.
When it cleared, nothing remained.
Erin arrived with the police shortly afterwards.
Leo was waiting outside.
Sophie saw her first.
“Erin!”
The detective ran.
The two sisters collided in an embrace.
Leo turned away.
He wasn’t particularly good at emotional reunions.
Erin eventually approached him.
Her eyes were red.
“Thank you.”
Leo nodded.
“You’re welcome.”
She looked towards the nightclub.
“What happened in there?”
Leo considered his answer.
Then looked at the other officers gathering nearby.
“You probably don’t want to tell them.”
Erin folded her arms.
“Try me.”
“The owner was capturing people.”
“Why?”
“Experiments.”
Erin stared at him.
“Experiments?”
“Very weird experiments.”
She looked past him towards the building.
“And the missing people?”
Leo’s expression became serious.
“I’m sorry.”
Erin understood.
Sophie was alive.
The others hadn’t been so fortunate.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Erin looked back at him.
“What about the rest of it?”
Leo smiled faintly.
“What rest?”
“The things you found.”
Leo lowered his voice.
“Erin, you’re a police officer. You can explain a murderer to your colleagues.”
She nodded.
“But?”
“Try explaining warlocks and ghouls.”
Erin stared at him.
Leo continued.
“Trust me. Paperwork becomes considerably more complicated.”
To his surprise, she laughed.
A real laugh this time.
Then she shook her head.
“I don’t know what you are, Leo Winterhold.”
Leo began walking back towards his car.
“Neither do I most days.”
That night, Leo returned to his office.
Seattle stretched beyond the window.
Somewhere out there, people were drinking, dancing and going about their lives completely unaware of what had been happening beneath one of the city’s busiest nightclubs.
That was probably for the best.
Leo had always believed that ignorance wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Sometimes people deserved to live without knowing what waited in the dark.
His phone vibrated on the desk.
Leo looked at it.
Another email.
He sighed.
“Of course.”
He opened it.
And somewhere in Seattle, another problem was waiting for him.
