Victor didn't speak for a moment. His eyes, stormy and unreadable, were fixed on Eliza
—not with pity, but with something fiercer. A rare glint of empathy shimmered behind his stoic mask. The firelight danced along the hard lines of his jaw as he finally leaned forward, voice low and firm.
"I'm sorry," he said. Not out of obligation—but like the words had been dragged out from somewhere deep. "I didn't know about your sister."
Eliza blinked, as if surprised by the softness in his tone.
He continued, his fingers tapping once against the table. "But I know what it's like… to lose someone and never get the truth. And I don't stop until I find it."
Lorenzo glanced between the two of them, sensing something unsaid hanging heavy in the air.
Victor's eyes darkened. "If what's happening now is connected to what happened to her… then this case isn't just about murders anymore. It's personal—for both of us."
He pulled out the photograph of the Latin phrase again, sliding it across the table. "So tell me, Eliza. You've spent years digging into folklore, myths, the occult—things most people scoff at. What do you know that we don't?"
Eliza stared at the image.Her eyes narrowed as if pulling a thread from somewhere far, far back in her memory. The flames from the nearby lamp flickered across her face, casting it in gold and shadow.
"I remember a story," she said slowly. "Something my grandma used to whisper when I was little—usually after scaring me with bedtime ghost tales."
Victor watched her closely, his posture still, alert.
"She told me there were people in this town… bad people. Not just criminals or whatever. The kind who didn't worship God but something else entirely. Something darker."
Lorenzo shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"She called it pure evil," Eliza went on, voice lowering. "Said these people—this group—they believed in some demon, or a spirit. And one night, they tried to bring its child into this world."
Victor's brow furrowed. "A summoning ritual?"
Eliza nodded, almost absently. "Yeah. It was in the graveyard. Always the graveyard. They thought if they summoned the demon's child, people would be so terrified, they'd fall in line. Join them in the occult."
She paused for a breath. "But the next day, all of them—everyone who performed the ritual—just… vanished. No traces. No bodies. Nothing. Like the earth swallowed them whole."
Lorenzo whistled under his breath. "Okay, nope. I hate this town."
Eliza glanced up, her voice suddenly firmer. "I didn't think much of it back then. Thought it was just one of Grandma's creepy stories. But now…"
She leaned in.
"Now I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't just a story after all."