The sun had just begun its descent, casting a golden hue over the city as Detective Mark Halloway drove back to his apartment. The conversation with Dr. Whitaker weighed heavily on his mind. The island’s history was dark—darker than he’d anticipated—and the survivors’ stories were more twisted than they had let on. He needed to unravel this mystery before it consumed him.

That night, Halloway couldn’t sleep. He kept going over the clues in his mind, piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle with too many missing parts. He stared at the photos of the survivors, their faces betraying nothing. Victoria Gray, James Sterling, Nina Wells, and Paul Henderson—each had a secret, and he was determined to uncover it.

By morning, a plan had formed. Halloway decided to revisit the survivors, starting with Nina Wells. She had been the most evasive, and he suspected she knew more than she was letting on. He arrived at her apartment building just as the sun was rising, the city still waking up around him.

Nina opened the door a crack, her eyes narrowing when she saw Halloway standing there.

“Detective, what are you doing here?” she asked, her voice tinged with annoyance.

“I need to talk to you, Nina. It’s important,” Halloway replied, trying to keep his tone calm but firm.

Nina hesitated for a moment before stepping aside to let him in. Her apartment was small and sparsely decorated, with just a few personal touches—a framed photo of a beach, a vase of dried flowers, a stack of books on the coffee table. She motioned for him to sit, but remained standing, arms crossed defensively.

“What is it now, Detective?” she asked, her tone sharp.

“I’ve been looking into the island’s history,” Halloway began, watching her closely for any reaction. “There are records of rituals, curses, and strange occurrences dating back centuries. But you already know that, don’t you?”

Nina’s face paled, and she looked away, her jaw tightening. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You and the others—Victoria, James, Paul—you’re hiding something,” Halloway pressed. “Something that happened on that island. It wasn’t just a shipwreck, was it? You found something there, didn’t you?”

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For a moment, Nina said nothing. Her eyes flickered with fear, and Halloway could see her struggling with the decision to speak. Finally, she let out a shaky breath and sat down across from him.

“We found… something,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “We didn’t mean to, but it was there, buried under the sand. We thought it was just an old artifact, but…”

“But it wasn’t,” Halloway finished for her.

Nina nodded, her hands trembling. “It was a relic, something ancient and powerful. We didn’t know what it was at first, but then strange things started happening. The others… they didn’t believe in curses, but I could feel it. Something was wrong.”

“What did you find, Nina?” Halloway asked gently.

She hesitated again, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, weathered piece of metal. It was a medallion, tarnished and etched with strange symbols. Halloway recognized some of the symbols from the records he’d seen—marks of protection, and others that were darker, more ominous.

“This was in the sand,” Nina said, her voice trembling. “It was part of a larger piece, but we couldn’t find the rest. We didn’t know what to do with it, so we kept it. But after we found it… that’s when people started dying.”

Halloway’s mind raced. The relic, the deaths, the curse—it was all connected. But there was still something missing, something that didn’t add up.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about this?” he asked, trying to keep his frustration in check.

Nina’s eyes filled with tears. “We were scared. We didn’t know what it was, and after the first person died, we were too afraid to say anything. We just wanted to get off that island and forget everything.”

“But you can’t forget, can you?” Halloway said softly. “It’s been haunting you ever since.”

Nina nodded, tears streaming down her face. “I’m scared, Detective. I don’t know what that thing is, but I know it’s dangerous. We shouldn’t have taken it. We shouldn’t have touched it.”

Halloway reached across the table, taking the medallion from her hand. It was cold to the touch, and he felt a shiver run down his spine as he held it. This was more than just an artifact—it was the key to everything that had happened on the island.

“Nina, I need to ask you something,” he said, his voice steady. “Did anyone else know about this? Did you tell anyone?”

Nina shook her head. “No. We didn’t even talk about it among ourselves. It was like… like we were trying to pretend it didn’t exist.”

Halloway pocketed the medallion, his mind made up. “Thank you for telling me this, Nina. I promise I’ll do everything I can to figure out what’s going on.”

As he left Nina’s apartment, Halloway couldn’t shake the feeling that he was getting closer to the truth, but also closer to something far more dangerous. The relic was the missing piece, but it also raised more questions. Who had left it there? Why was it buried on the island? And most importantly—what would happen now that it had been disturbed?

The detective’s instincts told him that the worst was yet to come.