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The night was thick, the kind of darkness that clings to your skin and seeps into your bones. Bantville was asleep, or at least pretending to be, but I was wide awake, piecing together the final fragments of a puzzle I wished I’d never started. My office was dim, the only light coming from the glowing ember at the end of my cigarette. The smoke curled up into the air, dancing with the ghosts of this town's secrets. But tonight, one secret was about to come into the light.
I stood at the window, watching the rain smear the city into a blur of neon and shadow. The colony of Itsumika was a quiet place, or so they liked to say. But quiet places are where the loudest sins are buried. And this one was buried deep—until someone got careless.
Erika Itsumi. A name that hung in the air like a sour note, a melody gone wrong. She had it all: power, beauty, the kind of charm that could make a sinner repent just to get her attention. And a husband who didn’t know when to keep his fantasies to himself.
I stubbed out my cigarette, the ash crumbling like the facade Erika had worn so well. She was careful, I’ll give her that, but in this line of work, careful isn’t enough. It was the pictures that tipped me off, a trail of breadcrumbs leading straight to her door. Semi-nude, dark-skinned women plastered all over the colony, each one a slap in the face to Erika’s pride. A man like hers couldn’t resist a pretty face, especially one that wasn’t his wife’s. But that wasn’t what got him killed. No, it was something deeper, something twisted.
Jealousy is a cruel mistress, but shame—shame is what drives people to do things they never thought they could. And Erika was drowning in it.
