𝗣 𝗬 𝗥 𝗢 𝗠 𝗔 𝗡 𝗜 𝗔 | BOOK THREE

S E V E N

[graham eaton]

I stand at my locker in the the Fire Department, nauseated by the news report from last night. I was there when Thomas died. I was out in the hallway when he flatlined after going through three forty-minute sessions of resuscitation when he went into v-fib. I was there when his mother was ushered into the room to say goodbye to the hairless, skinless, charred remnant of her seventeen-year-old son. I was there, watching her world fall apart. Her husband arrived just minutes later, took her into his arms and they left the room. Her eyes trailed to me where a scream of a sob escaped her mouth. I failed her. I allowed her only son to die even after I promised that he would make it. I had ended her world.

"What is this?" Chief Williams asks, staring down at something in his hand.

I raise an eyebrow, watching as he approaches a senior Fighter.

"What the Hell is this?" He asks. "We get a lot of interesting mail but nothing like this. What is it?"

I approach him, staring at the piece of Ivory colored paper, folded neatly with perfectly pressed creases.

"You ever seen anything like this, Graham?" He asks, handing the paper to me.

I raise an eyebrow and stare down at it. It's a mixture of letters and symbols—all written out in beautiful, perfect penmanship. I raise my eyes and look at him, nodding.

"It's a coded message. We have to crack it to get the rest of the code." I say.

I approach the main desk, laying it out. I grab a pen and notepad, writing out the beginning of the cryptogram.

"Can you call Atticus over? He can help." I state.

He nods, running to the back break room. I place the end of the pen in between my teeth, looking down at the short letter. Whatever this letter is, it isn't the last. This letter will be the first of many. I can tell. Atticus walks over, an eyebrow raised.

"Holy Shit," He says. "Is that a Cryptogram?"

He sits down beside me, taking a look at the letter over my shoulder.

"That's an 'e'," He says, pointing at a highly repetitive symbol on the paper. "And those are 't's.'"

I nod, scribbling out the letters we've deciphered so far.

"How the Hell are you two so good at these?" Chief Williams asks. "Do you do the morning paper daily or are you two both super geniuses?"

I chuckle and look up at him.

"Nah, we aren't that special." I say. "Just learned early, I guess."

He raises an eyebrow and stares at Atticus who examines the letter closely.

"How? This isn't something you just casually learn unless you religiously follow the newspaper puzzles." He says.

My smile drops and I look at Atticus.

"We've had a lot of practice deciphering these kinds of codes." I say. "It's just one of a few skills we possess."

Chief Williams leans down, looking at the paper.

"What kind of practice are we talking about here?" He asks.

I chew down on my lip and exhale.

"Our dad got a lot of these when we were kids. We grew up watching him and our mother sit at the dining room table and decipher these. Eventually, Atticus, our younger sister, and I all learned how to decipher a code like this." I say.

Chief William's dark hazel eyes got wide, making the dark shade of his eyes look even darker compared to the white of his eyes.

"What do these kinds of codes usually possess?" He asks.

I twist my lips into a frown and exhale.

"Well, no normal person would spend this kind of time to write a letter like this to thank us for our dedicated service. In my Father's case, they usually possessed death threats or secret messages harboring information the author cannot or would not say out-right." I say.

Atticus exhales and hands me the letter and pen and paper.

"We got everything else but I cannot figure this word out." He says, pointing to a five letter word at the end of the letter.

I raise an eyebrow and examine it. It's a signing. The author signed the letter. I lean down and think. Five letters starting with a not so obvious first letter, ending with a t. I gasp sharply and fill in the blank.

"Got it," I state, my voice weak.

Chief Williams nods to me.

"Well, tell us what it says." He says, placing his hands on his hips.

I lift the letter and read it aloud for everyone else in the room.

"You've cracked my code--congratulations. But, I recommend you hurry though, if you want to reach my next letter in time. The location of the next letter might mean nothing to some of you, but to others, it might change the way you see everything. Get dressed and hurry boys. My next letter waits for you on the corner of Third Street and Pine Avenue. Signed--'Ghost'."

Chief Williams's face drops and he looks at everyone.

"Sound the alarm. Get the police out there now. He's struck again." He says.

We run to get changed and run to the trucks. The alarm blares, bouncing back and forth through the concrete building back into my ears. The location might change the way you see everything. What the Hell does that mean? I pull on my jacket and climb in. We speed to the location where I discover exactly what they meant.