Nobody

CONTENT WARNING

This book tackles mature themes and contains sensitive content that some may find triggering such as sexual violence and death.

Reading discretion is advised.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

This mystery novel was originally written on Google Docs which resulted in long paragraphs. Several chapters will still be tailored to fit the Wattpad format. Please send me a message if you've read an excerpt that is in need of editing due to natural occurring errors in the transfer of text such as typographical and spacing mistakes.

Thank you for your understanding.

Love, Julles.

* * *

Shoji had been missing for days.

More than twenty-four hours had been sucked into the vaccum ever since Shoji left her home. More than twenty-four possibilities, most were details of a murder scene, helmed the anxious vessel of a mother into a hysterical corkscrew.

Worry was a cancerous tumor in her heart. And instead of peace, her mind was assaulted with hypothetical pictures of what could be happening to her daughter in this very moment.

Yua, a middle-aged housewife and mother, stumbled over her words as she spoke to the police. The wrinkles on her face worsened with the debate between hope and hopelessness, that she may have accepted the ill-fated possibility on autopilot.

At some point, her rational behavior became independent of her quivering body. "Please... Find her. Please find her. She can't be gone this long!"

"We're doing our best." The police retired with the same old line. It was part of their script, of an insubstantial attempt at reassurance.

Behind her, Shoji's brother, Kioshi, stood, listening to the whole thing. He had a destination in mind... and an invitation card from a mysterious sender in his free hand.

"I know where she is." The card read. Associated with the enigmatic invitation was an address.

Nobody knew where Shoji was except her own brother who had been filling in the shoes of a novice level detective in the past few days.

He was determined to confirm the truth behind her disappearance. But before he'd speed away into the horizon, to capture the culprit, he had to rewind what he'd learned about the case. In other words, a game that only predators would play.