Mystery: Gray Walker

Chapter 1 Stranger Phone Calls

Byron Williams United States

In November, the nights in Oberhafen are cold and damp.

Ring ring— Ring ring—

After the phone rang for seven seconds, someone finally answered.

A figure in a dark coat, who was about to leave, paused, turned back to the table, looked up at the night sky, and saw the moon's outline faintly reflected in the mist, tinged with red.

The man frowned, picked up the receiver, and said calmly, "Hello, this is Green Morris, this is the Morris Investigations Agency."

First, there was a static noise coming from the receiver, followed by a woman's voice, which was somewhat hurried and trembling.

"Mr. Maurice? Oh, thank God... I... I need help, my husband... William, he's been missing for three days!"

"Three days! I've searched everywhere, asked everyone I know... and still no news..."

Green leaned back, his gaze sweeping out the window, and said softly:

"Madam, I am deeply saddened by your husband's disappearance. However, in cases like this, you should first seek assistance from the police. Their resources are far superior to those of a private agency like ours..."

"I've already been there!"

The woman interrupted him urgently.

"I went there first thing yesterday morning! They said they would keep a record and keep an eye out, but... but they haven't found anything yet! They implied that he might just... just not want to go home right now, or..."

Suppressed sobs came through the phone.

"Please forgive my bluntness..." Green said softly, trying to soothe him. He had seen many similar situations: debt, infidelity, or simply a midlife crisis where people wanted to escape their lives.

"In my experience, when an adult man leaves without saying goodbye, it's sometimes...for personal reasons. For example, financial difficulties, or...emotional entanglements? Has your husband been...behaving strangely lately? Or do you suspect he's having an affair...?"

"No! Impossible!"

The woman reacted strongly, "William isn't like that! He loves me, we're very happy! He would never—"

"So, before he disappeared,..."

Green interrupted her, "Is there anything different from usual? For example, his words and actions, his emotions, the people he's been in contact with, or... has he been to any places he doesn't usually go?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line, followed only by the woman's suppressed breathing, as if she was trying to recall something.

"The difference..." she murmured, her voice growing softer and softer.

"He... he's been locking himself in his study lately, muttering to himself to pages with strange patterns that I can't understand... I peeked at one, and the patterns made me dizzy."

The woman's voice paused for a moment, as if she had remembered something:

"By the way, when he talks in his sleep, he always repeats a few strange words, like something like... 'Father God,' 'ritual'... His study drawer is locked, but I accidentally discovered before that there are some... no, I don't know what kind of animal's tongue is in there, and it smells terrible—"

Her narration was suddenly interrupted by another voice coming from the other end of the phone.

It sounded like... the hinges of a door turning? Then, the woman gasped, her voice instantly turning to ecstatic joy:

"Honey?! You're back?! God bless you, I thought something had happened to you!"

Her voice drifted away from the receiver, becoming somewhat muffled, accompanied by the rustling of clothes and hurried footsteps.

He had clearly put the phone receiver on the table in a hurry, making a dull thud.

Green held the receiver, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.

He waited quietly.

The only sound in the office was the occasional crackling of coal popping in the fireplace. However, this brief silence lasted less than five seconds.

Suddenly, a deep, unfamiliar male voice came:

"My family is a shackle on my path to ascension, and God the Father watches over me from beyond the abyss of flesh and blood... I will offer the sweetest sacrifice, so that we may be eternally united in His kingdom—"

"No......"

The woman's voice rang out again, but it was completely different. The previous joy had vanished, leaving only a bone-chilling, twisted fear that pierced the air sharply.

"...Who are you?! Your face...No! You're not William! You're not my husband!!"

"Madam, are you in danger? Please tell me your address," Green said quickly.

However, the other person's voice abruptly stopped. In its place came a violent, chaotic noise.

It's like the receiver being suddenly knocked over, dragged, and violently rubbed against the ground or furniture.

The hissing sound of electricity suddenly increased, interspersed with some kind of... sticky, unsettling sound, as if something was wriggling and dripping.

Then, a short, extremely sharp, heart-wrenching scream suddenly rang out!

"Help, help me!!!"

"Miss?!"

Immediately following was a terrifyingly clear sound of liquid violently splattering.

puff!

All sounds abruptly ceased with a creaking sound.

It sounded like bones being crushed, or like countless tiny mouthparts tearing and sucking at the same time. Then came a low, inhuman sigh of satisfaction.

Dead silence.

beep - beep - beep -

Green Morris remained in the same position as when he answered the phone.

Something's happened. That was his first thought.

He tried to "feed" into the microphone twice, but all he heard was a repeated busy tone.

The phone line had obviously been dropped.

"What is that?" he murmured as he put down the receiver.

This was the first time in the three months since he transmigrated to this world that he had encountered such a bizarre and heart-wrenching event.

The previous requests were either from a lady looking for her lost Siamese cat or from a husband suspecting his wife of having an affair with his child's piano teacher.

Even several so-called "missing persons cases" ultimately pointed to alcohol, debt, or illicit sexual desires.

These were all very ordinary tasks, even comical ones, but they allowed him, a stranger who had taken over someone else's body and memories, to wear the mask of a 'private investigator' and carefully observe and integrate into this unfamiliar world.

He gradually adapted to the life of the original owner, Green Morris, to the office located on a corner of Oak Street, smelling of old leather and tobacco, and to the gray undercurrents surging beneath the city's glamorous surface.

But today's phone call, the woman's screams that went from ecstasy to extreme fear, and the indescribable sounds shattered the understanding he had painstakingly built up.

He took a deep breath, trying to suppress the pounding in his chest. The original owner's memory and experience database contained no similar cases for reference.

Green stood up, walked to the window, and drew back the curtains.

Outside the window, a thick fog enveloped everything, as if it were alive, shrouding the city of Oberhafen.

He took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag.

The woman's husband, William, reported her missing to the police yesterday, but the police have not found any clues. Now it seems that William's disappearance is not just a simple matter; this could very well be a premeditated murder involving ghosts and spirits.

If he can solve this case... then everyone on Oak Street... no, in the entire Oberhafen, will flock to him.

This is not only an opportunity to become famous, but also a solution to the most practical problem—money.

It's not pleasant to live under someone else's roof, even at your aunt's house.

But... the woman didn't tell him her home address, which is a problem.

"Perhaps... we could try asking at the police station."

He hesitated for a moment, then walked to the desk again and opened the top drawer on the right.

Documents, pens, stamps and other miscellaneous items were neatly arranged, but beneath these items, a hard object lay quietly against the bottom of the drawer.

He peeled back the paper and took it out.

That was a revolver.

The gun has a cold, hard design, and the grip is made of some kind of dark hardwood, polished smooth.

This doesn't belong to the original owner, Grin Morris. It's the only physical entity he brought out of the Grey Dream.

In the dream, it lay quietly in a glass cabinet in a dusty room, like a revered artifact. And beneath the dust, there was a line of distorted text, seemingly pieced together from countless tiny shapes—

The Messenger of Silence

The most unusual thing about this revolver is its spinning wheel.

The cylinder is not a standard circle, but an unsettling, rounded polygon that can cause a slight dizziness if you look at it for too long.

Everything that is used must be compensated for...

This was the first thought that flashed through Green's mind when he first encountered it.

"There must be a price to pay?" he chuckled and repeated in a low voice, for in this world he had nothing to begin with.

Just then—

"Meow—Aww!!!"

A piercing, distorted meow suddenly came from behind!

Green froze, then turned around abruptly.

Outside the office's glass window, on the narrow stone balcony, sat a completely black cat.

Elegant yet with a hint of eeriness, its fur was jet black, and its eerie green eyes were staring unblinkingly at him.

The black cat gave Green a bad feeling; it had the kind of gaze unique to intelligent beings, scrutinizing him.

Green calmly confronted it, then slowly raised the 'Silent Messenger' in his hand.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment.

The next second, the black cat's head swung violently into the depths of the thick fog on the right side of the street, its entire body arching and its fur standing on end.

It let out a low growl of extreme fear and warning from its throat, and with a sudden burst of power from its hind legs, it transformed into a black lightning bolt, scrambling off the balcony in a disheveled state and instantly disappearing into the shadows.

The cat seemed to be afraid of something, or rather... something was chasing it.

But why did it look at me like that just now? Am I overthinking it?