The Vanishing Point

M Mehran

Chapter One: The Bus Stop

It was past midnight when David stepped off the last bus into the quiet outskirts of the city. The streets were empty, the kind of empty that makes your footsteps sound louder than they should.

The bus pulled away, leaving him alone at the stop. That’s when he noticed the poster taped to the streetlight.

Missing: Claire Bennett. Last seen two weeks ago near this very bus stop.

David’s chest tightened. Claire wasn’t just a name on a poster—she was his younger sister.


---

Chapter Two: The Stranger

As David stared at the poster, a man appeared from the shadows. He wore a long coat and carried a battered briefcase. His eyes flicked toward David and then the poster.

“You’re too late,” the man muttered.

David’s heart jumped. “What do you mean? Do you know her?”

The stranger didn’t answer. He simply slid a folded piece of paper into David’s hand and walked away. By the time David opened it, the man was gone.

On the paper was a single phrase: The answers lie at the Vanishing Point.


---

Chapter Three: The Vanishing Point

David knew the name. Locals whispered about it—a decaying warehouse district by the river where people claimed strange things happened. Some said you could hear voices in the fog. Others swore people disappeared there without a trace.

Clutching the note, David made his way to the river. The warehouses loomed like skeletons, their windows black and hollow. A thick fog curled along the ground, muffling every sound.

That’s when he heard it: a faint cry.

“David…”

It was Claire’s voice.


---

Chapter Four: The Echoes

He followed the sound into an abandoned warehouse. Inside, old machinery cast eerie shadows. The air was cold enough to sting.

“Claire?” he called. His voice echoed, then twisted—as if the walls themselves were mocking him.

From the corner of the room, something shifted. Not a person, but a shape—thin, tall, and moving wrong, like a shadow detached from its owner.

David’s pulse raced. He stumbled backward, but his shoe struck something metallic. A necklace lay on the ground—Claire’s.


---

Chapter Five: The Truth

Suddenly, the stranger reappeared, stepping into the warehouse light.

“You shouldn’t have come,” he said flatly.

“Where is she?” David demanded.

The man sighed. “The Vanishing Point takes what it wants. Your sister found this place, and now it has her.”

David shook his head. “That’s insane. Places don’t take people.”

The man pointed to the shadows slithering along the walls. “Then tell me, what do you call that?”


---

Chapter Six: The Choice

The shadows stretched toward David, whispering his name, curling like smoke around his ankles. He felt them pulling—not just at his body, but at his mind, as if they wanted to drain him into their darkness.

The stranger pressed something into his palm: a key, old and rusted.

“This is the only way to trade,” the man said. “A life for a life. If you open the door, you can bring her back—but you will take her place.”

David froze, every muscle trembling. Claire’s necklace glimmered at his feet.

He thought of her laugh, the way she always called him her protector. His decision was already made.


---

Chapter Seven: The Vanishing

David shoved the key into the rusted lock of a heavy iron door at the back of the warehouse. The shadows roared as it creaked open, revealing nothing but blackness.

He whispered, “I’m coming, Claire,” and stepped through.

The door slammed shut behind him. The shadows dissolved.

Moments later, Claire stumbled out from the darkness, gasping for air, clutching her necklace. She looked around the empty warehouse, tears streaming down her face.

David was gone.

Only the whisper of his name lingered in the fog, carried away by the Vanishing Point.