When nothing goes right, turn left

The Name behind the curtain

Vee's breath was shallow as they stepped through the worn wooden doors of the Chapel, the dim light barely illuminating the space.

This was where it had all started.

The message. The silence. The warning.

And the person waiting in the shadows.

"You came."

The voice was low, almost amused.

Vee's pulse hammered as the figure emerged—someone they had never expected, someone who shouldn't have been here.

Cage.

The information broker. The one who always knew more than he said.

The one Veronica and Alex had only just met, but who had clearly been watching them for much, much longer.

Vee's fists curled. "You sent the messages?"

Cage smirked, stepping closer, hands deep in his coat pockets.

"Not all of them."

Vee swallowed hard. "Then who else?"

Cage tilted his head slightly, studying them.

"Someone who wants the same thing you do."

The air shifted, heavy with tension, with realization.

The messages. The leads. The way Vee had been guided, instead of warned.

This wasn't just about exposing secrets.

It was about finishing something that had been started long ago.

And suddenly, Vee knew—they weren't just chasing the truth.

They were being used to reveal it.

The only question was—by whom?

Vee's fists clenched, breath tight, the weight of everything settling into their chest like a vice.

"Enough." Their voice was sharp, slicing through the thick, stagnant air of the chapel.

Cage smirked slightly, but he didn't step back. Didn't flinch.

"You want to know who set this in motion?" he murmured, gaze steady.

"No more riddles." Vee exhaled sharply. "Who's been feeding me these messages?"

For the first time, Cage hesitated.

Not in fear.

In calculation.

Then—he sighed, slipping a worn slip of paper from his coat pocket, sliding it across the old wooden pew between them.

Vee grabbed it fast, scanning the name at the bottom.

And their pulse stalled.

Not a stranger.

Not an anonymous player.

Someone deeply, intimately tangled in their past.

Someone who should have been gone.

"No," they whispered, voice unsteady.

Cage's smirk faded.

"Yes."

And suddenly, Vee knew—this wasn't just about revealing the truth.

This was about facing a ghost they thought they had buried years ago.