Shadows of Vengeance (Patreon)

Rain drizzled through the narrow alleyway, its sound muffled by the suffocating silence that clung to the night. A single streetlight flickered in the distance, casting dim halos over the slick cobblestones. Slumped against the cold brick wall, her breath shallow and labored, was Evelyn Cross.

Once a decorated detective in the city's organized crime unit, Evelyn had been chasing a lead too close to the truth. Corruption ran deep through the veins of the force and Evelyn had made the fatal mistake of trusting the wrong person. The informant she had met just hours ago was a ghost now, a planted trap meant to lure her into this dead-end alley.

The knife in her chest pulsed with every heartbeat, blood soaking through her pale tank top and dripping onto the ground in slow, rhythmic beats. Her leather jacket hung loosely around her shoulders, a final shred of defiance against the cold and betrayal.

But Evelyn wasn't finished. Even as her vision blurred and her limbs weakened, her mind clung to one thing: a face, a name, the truth behind the mask of justice. Somewhere in the darkness, the man who ordered this was still watching, believing she would die with the answers buried inside her.

He underestimated her.

As her hand slowly moved to the inside of her coat, fingers brushing against the recorder she had hidden there, a faint smile crossed her lips. The tape was rolling. Everything was on it. Names. Locations. Crimes.

Even if she didn’t make it out of this alley, Evelyn Cross had already won.

Justice wasn’t clean. It wasn’t pretty. But it was coming.