Whispers of the Turning Seasons (part 27)

Snow hammered the windows of the safehouse like a relentless swarm of white arrows. The storm had arrived in full force—violent, consuming, roaring through the night as if nature itself was preparing for something unimaginable. But inside, Evelyn felt an even fiercer storm brewing underneath her skin.

Dr. Rowan Hale.
The man she once trusted more than anyone besides her mother.
The man who had vanished without explanation…
Only to return as the mastermind behind the ritual designed to claim her.

Liam was pacing, jaw tight, his every step echoing tension into the room. Agents typed rapidly on keyboards, relaying updates, tracing signals, coordinating interception teams. But Evelyn wasn’t hearing any of it.

Her eyes were fixed on the frozen photograph displayed on the screen—
the abandoned hall illuminated by candles, the symbols drawn in perfect alignment, the hooded figure tied to the chair.

Her voice trembled.
“I need air.”

Liam stopped. “Evelyn—”

“I’m not leaving,” she cut in softly. “I just… need a minute.”

Reluctantly, he nodded and followed her to the side corridor—a narrow, dimly lit space with a single frosted window rattling from the wind. Evelyn leaned her forehead against the cold glass, her breath fogging it instantly.

“Why him?” she whispered. “Why is he doing this?”

Liam stepped closer, his voice low.
“We’ll find out. But you’re not facing him alone.”

Evelyn wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe she wasn’t the girl haunted by symbols, diaries, and cryptic recordings left behind by a mother who died protecting secrets she never explained.

But the truth was heavier than belief.
It felt like fate—and she hated it.

She closed her eyes.
A memory surfaced.

Dr. Hale kneeling beside her when she was ten years old, handing her a puzzle.
“Evelyn,” he had said with a warm smile, “your mind is a gift. One day, you’ll see what others can’t.”

Was this what he meant?
Was she meant to “see” this nightmare?

Before she could spiral deeper, an agent rushed toward them.

“Director Marlowe wants you both—now.”

Evelyn straightened herself. Liam moved protectively beside her.

In the briefing room, the energy had shifted.
Urgent. Focused.
Dangerously precise.

Marlowe gestured at the screen.
“We ran thermal scans and ground-penetrating radar on the community hall. What we found confirms the worst.”

He tapped again.

A blueprint appeared—
Under the hall was a chamber. Not old. Not accidental. Constructed.

“Dr. Hale didn’t choose that location randomly,” Marlowe said. “He built beneath it years ago. Likely while he was working with your mother.”

Evelyn’s blood iced.
Her mother had once investigated the same riverbank. Had mentioned "an unfinished foundation" she couldn’t get clearance to enter.

“How did she not know?” Evelyn murmured.

Marlowe sighed. “Maybe she did. Maybe that’s why she vanished for two days. Maybe that’s when she discovered it.”

Evelyn swallowed hard.
Piece by piece, the puzzle her mother left behind was rearranging itself… but the full picture was still hidden in the shadows.

Liam spoke next.
“What’s happening in that chamber tonight?”

Marlowe hesitated before responding.
“A convergence. A reenactment of an event that occurred 18 years ago. On this exact winter night.”

Evelyn’s heart dropped.
Eighteen years.
The year before she was born.

The pieces clicked, violently.

“My mother…” Evelyn whispered. “She wasn’t just investigating them. She was part of it, wasn’t she?”

Silence confirmed it before Marlowe could speak.

“She tried to stop it,” he finally said. “She defected. She tried to destroy them from the inside. But Hale…”
His jaw tightened.
“Hale believed she betrayed a destiny they were both shaping.”

Evelyn felt as if the floor tilted beneath her.

Liam grabbed her hand.
“You’re not bound by whatever they believed.”

Another agent burst in.

“Sir—we have movement at the river. Someone lit the first ring of symbols. The ritual has started.”

The room buzzed into action.

Evelyn stepped forward.
“No more waiting. We go now.”

Marlowe frowned. “Evelyn, you don’t understand the danger—”

“I do,” she snapped. “More than anyone. My mother tried to stop them alone. I won’t repeat her mistake.”

Liam nodded.
“She’s right. We go as a team.”

Weapons were loaded. Gear distributed. Coordinates locked in.

Evelyn took a deep breath, steady but burning with determination.

The storm outside could barely match the storm inside her.

Tonight, she would confront the river that carried her mother’s secrets.
Tonight, she would face the man who twisted destiny into a weapon.
Tonight…

The past would stop running.
And the truth—whatever it was—would finally be forced into the light.