The back door swings open at last, and the knock becomes a person. A gaunt figure stands in the frame, leather satchel clenched hard to their ribs, eyes fixed on the blood darkening the floorboards.
The shelves answer with a low, wooden groan. Shadows gather flatter along the baseboards, as if the room leans in to listen.
The Journalist's Partner
No... no, this is his place. This is where he came.
Jeannette Fortune stands in the back room, tall and still, red sweater dim in the weak light. The threshold, the stain, the satchel, all of it lines up into a terrible answer.
The Journalist's Partner
Where is he? What did you do to him?
The library’s hush presses tighter. The back door lock remains still, but the shape in the shadows along the floor seems to stretch toward the newcomer, patient and hungry.
The Journalist's Partner
He sent me here for proof, or a body. I found both.
✓ Quest Accepted
Silence the journalist's partner
“"How many people are going to intrude on my property tonight?" Jeannette reaches for the partner's throat, to strangle to death.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Grappling, rolled +1)
Jeannette Fortune
How many people are going to intrude on my property tonight?
Jeannette Fortune closes the distance in one smooth step, her hand snapping up to the partner’s throat before the satchel can swing free.
The partner’s breath catches on a broken sound. Their back hits the doorframe, and the hallway behind them seems to recede into a black, listening throat.
Jeannette’s grip tightens. The bloodstain on the floorboards gleams dully under the weak light, as if it remembers every promise made in this room.
The Journalist's Partner
No, no, no... not here.
Their satchel slips from numb fingers and thuds against the threshold. One shoulder jerks once, then stills under her hand.
The shadows along the baseboards draw in tighter, and the library’s hush deepens around the collapsed body as the door hangs open to the dark beyond.
Quest Complete
Silence the journalist's partner
New Gift: Master of Whispers
