Prologue

EIDOLON

Felix Fisk knew he would need therapy for the rest of his life. Probably several times a week. Maybe every day. If he felt therapy might be helpful before witnessing Ashley Baok's murder... well, he really should be going after the same people who murdered at least two captured him.

His day had been going just fine.

It had been.

Chad Malcolm gave him a few weeks off, saying that he should take some time for himself and not worry about work or his job. He would continue getting the same paychecks he always got and that if he needed more time, to just send Chad an email and to take as long as he needed.

The first few days had been just what Felix needed. He felt he could breathe. He had time to sit with what he had seen, and he ran through that night over and over, searching for clues he might have missed and cursing himself for the gaps in his memory where his brain refused to remember.

But Felix had been steadily getting more and more frustrated.

He went on walks to stretch his legs and make it feel like he had done something. He ordered to-go food from new restaurants and walked to new places in Corville. He tried to get his mind to think about something other than Ashley Baok's murder.

Everything he did, he did with Precinct officers tailing him. With him constantly looking around for cameras to stay within their view. With him having one finger on his phone to call Larson Hotch or Ryzor Oberhofer or someone from the Corville Precinct.

And on this day, Felix had been walking to the Morning Jitters cafe. The streets were relatively empty, but he knew Precinct officers lurked somewhere around him, watching even if Felix couldn't see them right then. Sometimes they were out of sight for him. A handful of people passed by and cars rumbled on the roads.

He had been intending to get a coffee and take a leisurely stroll around the city and perhaps clear his head, but him pausing was what turned his day that maybe would really turn out to be alright into another nightmare.

Felix Fisk stopped at a crosswalk, waiting until a few cars drove past so he could cross the street just one block from the Morning Jitters cafe.

"Walk with me," someone said, voice like gravel, and Felix stumbled into motion, too caught off guard to do anything but follow. "You scream, Freya dies. Make a noise if you wish, I don't really care, but know that all I have to do is hit send on my phone and your sister will be dead before she can even think to call for help. Do you really want to take that risk, Felix Fisk?"

Felix's breath caught in his throat, and when his legs started to freeze, the sharp kiss of a knife at his back forced him back into motion.

Where were the Precinct officers? Where were they?

"N-no," he choked out. "But Larson H-."

"Larson, Asa, Azrael, and the Moonfall Precinct are none of your concern. Neither is Ryzor Oberhofer and the Corville Precinct. They think you are on your merry way to the Morning Jitters, and that is what they will continue to think. Funny what a doppelgänger can do, right? It is in your best interest to walk with me and stay quiet."

The person wrapped their arm around Felix's waist when they reached the end of the block, the street completely empty of people, and they pulled him into the back of a van.

Felix tumbled into the back of the van, the person slid into the driver's seat, and they were off. The van had no windows, offering Felix no view as to where they were headed, and every too-sharp turn had him slamming into the sides of the vehicle. He didn't know how long they drove, and he soon lost track of how many times they had turned, how long they spent going straight, which direction they were headed.

Where are you, Precinct officers? I need you.

xxxx

Maybe the Trinity really would kill Felix.

The thought scared him, although he was so familiar with the feeling that it might as well be his own shadow at this point.

They had locked him in a building in an unknown location that Felix never saw the outside of and the interior offered no clues.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Felix kept his eyes closed as the Trinity came into the room he knelt against the wall of. He didn't have to see them to know they still wore their masks.

Maybe they would think he was asleep. Maybe they would leave him alone. He doubted they would fall for such a basic trick, but one could still hope, he supposed.

Felix kept his head down and tracked the Trinity by sound across the room, a dirty space that he figured was probably a basement. An array of tools hung from the walls, gardening shears, a collection of screwdrivers, hedge trimmers, a wrench, a crowbar. Tools that in a normal person's garage would seem relatively mundane, but that held a terrifying feeling when in the presence of the Trinity. Felix wondered how many of them had seen someone's last moments, and he shuddered.

A cool, icy feeling spread through his body for the thousandth time, and he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.

The Trinity hadn't hurt him yet other than roughing him up every so often and asking questions he never answered, but that didn't mean they wouldn't take it further.

They'd given him food and water, and Felix wondered what the hell they even wanted with him.

Felix had seen them kill Ashley Baok, so what did they plan on doing to him? As much as he hated the thought, he could and would testify against them... so why hadn't they killed him yet?

Perhaps they had something far worse in mind for him. The thought terrified him.

The figure in the peacock mask laughed, footsteps light on the concrete floor. The sound echoed in the room, anything but friendly. Felix cracked open his eyes a sliver.

"They're still looking for him. They just asked on the news for anyone with information to please come forward. Isn't that so sweet?"

The figure in the wolf mask nodded, offering a laugh in reply that was cold, predatory. "It's so sweet. I wonder how long they'll spend chasing their own tails before they realize what happened. How long do you think we have? Another week?"

The figure in the sheep mask tracked a fly across the table in the center of the room, then stabbed it with a switchblade. Felix swallowed thickly at the sound and every muscle locked up as his breath caught in his throat, mouth thinning into a bloodless line. "Perhaps. Depends on how we play our cards. Even if we just sit here and twiddle our thumbs, I bet we've got at least another three days. Long enough to figure out what to do with him."

The figure in the peacock mask sent a knife flying across the room, grazing the mane on the sheep's mask. The blade sunk into the wall, where it stayed. "As I've told you a hundred times, we never do anything without a plan. We know what is happening with him. We knew what was happening with him long before we captured him. Now, follow along and don't get caught."

Footsteps sounded on the staircase that Felix couldn't see but knew was there.

A fourth person.

The same person who led him away just a block away from the Morning Jitters cafe.

For the first time, Felix got a look at them.

Maybe he really would need therapy every day.

Every hair stood on end at the sight of them, and his flesh crawled. He wanted to squirm. Every nerve tensed and fired, telling him something was wrong.

The person's papery skin seemed to be one light breeze from flaking off their bones, and their sharp features and dark circles beneath their eyes gave their face the appearance of a skull. Wispy hair sprouted at every angle in harsh, silvery locks. Their eyes were dark, distant, and cold enough that they looked possessed.

Felix knew they would play the starring role in his nightmares, second only to that night in Silverlight Forest and Ashley Baok's blank stare.

"They still don't think anyone's surviving the infection," the person said. "But here I am!"

The figure in the peacock mask took a step back, then asked: "And did you do what I told you to do?"

"Did I do what-." The person narrowed their eyes, before their expression cleared. "Oh, yeah, totally. You've got nothing to worry about."

The figure in the peacock mask cast a meaningful glance at the tools on the walls. "You know what will happen to those who don't do what we say, right?"

Felix Fisk closed his eyes and took a deep breath in a futile attempt to calm his racing heart.

Larson Hotch was surely searching for him, as was Freya. He knew his sister would never give up, and nor would Larson, if only because of who Felix was.

Felix saw Ashley Baok's murder. He was the witness. He held information no one else did.

He just had to hold out hope that someone would find him. That Larson and Asa and Azrael and everyone else at the Precincts investigating the Trinity would piece together where he went.

And if that wouldn't happen, Felix would have to be his own hero. He knew he could count on Freya, his own flesh and blood, with a calculating gaze and a sharp mind to match that never missed a thing. But Freya wasn't here, and so if Felix truly was on his own, he had to count on himself.

He had to survive.

He had to find a way to live, even if it was just out of spite. Whatever the way he made it out alive, he had to do it. Felix had to keep breathing, because he knew things no one else did. He knew things that only the Trinity did that could be used against them in court to send them to a jail cell forever.

Felix had to be the only person he knew of who witnessed the Trinity commit a murder and later be captured by the same group and survive. He had to keep doing that; keep living, keep surviving each and every day, keep breathing.

Felix had seen the Trinity in person, and currently he had lived to tell the tale. It didn't matter that he had only ever seen them with their masks on. Wouldn't that be helpful? Perhaps he had seen the one little detail that would crack the case wide open.

Felix had to escape and do whatever it took to make the Trinity face justice, even if the only thing keeping him alive was spite and the knowledge that he could help bring justice for Ashley Baok and Alaska Wendell March.

It was the least he could do after witnessing Ashley Baok's murder and not being able to save him. It was the least he could do after being unable to stop the Trinity before they murdered Alaska Wendell March.

To make the Trinity face justice, though, Felix Fisk had to live.

Therapy could come later, but first, Felix Fisk had to survive and escape.