Chapter 137: Welcome to Atlantic county
Third person’s POV
Raina approached the seaport with her eyes fixed on the road ahead, but her thoughts had already drifted somewhere else.
Years ago.
Before Ethan. Before Kuro. Before everything had become complicated.
She remembered walking home from the park that evening, her steps slow and heavy as she tried to find some quiet inside her own head.
Her mother had just died.
She had barely begun to understand the loss when another stranger had entered her life, a grandfather she had never known existed, appearing at a time when she was already struggling to keep up with what had happened.
When she reached home, Anna was sitting on the front porch.
The moment Anna saw her, she stood.
"Himari, are you okay?"
The concern in her voice was immediate.
"I’ve been waiting for you. Where did you go?"
Raina stopped at the bottom of the steps.
"I wanted to be alone."
She lowered her eyes.
"I’m sorry if I worried you."
Anna’s expression softened.
"It’s okay."
She came down the steps without pressing her for an explanation and walked beside her until they reached the porch.
Raina sat down. Anna joined her.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Raina turned toward her.
"Anna, why are you here?"
Anna looked at her, genuinely confused.
"What do you mean?"
"Aren’t you supposed to be moving to Scovia with your parents?"
Anna’s expression shifted.
"I thought the move was today."
"Oh."
She looked away briefly before shrugging.
"I’m passing."
Raina frowned.
"You’re what?"
"I’m not going."
"Why?"
Anna gave her a small smile.
"Because I’m not leaving you when you’re this vulnerable."
Raina stared at her.
Anna continued before she could answer.
"Besides, I can stay with my aunt."
"Anna..."
"Himari, it’s settled."
She stood and brushed her hands against her clothes before holding one out to Raina.
"Come on. Let’s go inside."
Raina looked at the offered hand for a moment, then took it.
Anna pulled her gently to her feet.
__
The memory faded as the car turned toward the seaport.
Raina blinked and looked through the window.
"What happened to you, Anna?" she murmured.
The car continued toward the harbor.
When they arrived, the driver went inside to handle the necessary arrangements while Raina remained in the vehicle, watching workers move between the rows of containers.
A few minutes later, one of them returned and directed them toward the container.
Raina followed.
The heavy doors were pulled open.
She stopped.
Empty.
For several seconds, she simply stared into the steel box.
There was no Ethan.
Only the evidence that he had been there.
Empty water bottles lay scattered across the floor. Torn snack wrappers had been pushed into one corner, along with discarded food packaging. The air still carried the stale smell of sweat, old food and confined steel.
Raina stepped inside.
Her eyes moved slowly over the floor.
Ethan had spent days in here.
She could picture him sitting against one of the walls, waiting for someone to find him, wondering whether anyone even knew where he was.
Her jaw tightened.
She turned toward the port security officer.
"Are there cameras here?"
"Yes, but the port manager controls the footage."
"Where can I find him?"
The officer pointed toward the administration building.
Raina nodded.
"Thank you."
An hour later, she stood beside the window of her hotel room, looking out over the Atlantic.
The harbor lights had begun to appear below, scattered between the rows of containers and the dark water beyond them.
She had spent the last hour trying to piece together where Ethan could have gone after the container arrived.
Nothing.
No useful footage yet.
No confirmed sighting.
Nothing she could put her hands on.
Her phone rang.
She ignored it.
It rang again.
On the third ring, she looked down.
Unknown number.
She answered.
"Anna?"
A laugh came through the speaker.
"I’m surprised you could tell it was me."
"Where is Ethan?"
"Seriously?"
Anna sounded almost offended.
"I don’t even get a hello? How have you been, Anna? Are you okay, Anna? Where have you been, Anna?"
Raina closed her eyes.
"Quit your yapping and tell me --what did you do to him?."
"Oh, nothing yet, darling."
Anna’s voice carried that familiar playfulness, the same tone she had used countless times when she wanted to irritate Raina.
"But I don’t have unlimited patience, you know."
"Tell me where you are. I’ll come to you."
"Hmm."
Anna let the silence linger.
"Not yet, Himari."
Raina’s fingers tightened around the phone.
"What do you mean, not yet? Isn’t that why I’m here?"
"No."
The answer came cheerfully.
"You’ve got it wrong, darling. I’m not going to make this easy for you. You know me better than that."
Raina stared through the window at the dark ocean.
"What do you want?"
"A little game."
Raina said nothing.
Anna laughed softly.
"How about Marco Polo?"
"You mean hide-and-seek."
"Sure."
"Anna."
"I’m going to give you the details later, but for now..."
Her voice brightened.
"Welcome to Atlantic County, beautiful."
The call ended.
Raina pulled the phone away from her ear.
"Anna?"
Silence.
"Anna!"
Nothing.
She stared at the screen, her expression hardening.
"Damn it."
She lowered the phone and looked back through the window.
The ocean stretched beyond the harbor, dark and endless.
Somewhere in Atlantic County, Ethan was still out there.
The next morning, Raina woke to the vibration of her phone against the bedside table, the sound dragging her reluctantly from sleep. She reached for it with half-closed eyes, expecting another ordinary notification, but the moment she saw the unfamiliar number beneath the message icon, the last traces of sleep disappeared.
She opened the message.
I breathe without lungs.
Iswallow without a mouth.
The deeper I travel, the quieter I become.
A man sleeps withinme,
bound beneath walls that cannot open.
When my breath runs thin, his will follow.
Find me before the silence takes him.
Raina read it slowly, then went back to the beginning and read it again.
Her eyes settled on the fourth line.
A man sleeps within me.
Ethan.
There was no doubt in her mind about that.
The rest was another matter.
She sat up against the headboard, reading the riddle a third time while her thoughts began turning over every possibility. Something that breathed without lungs. Something that swallowed without a mouth. Something that travelled deeper and became quieter. Then there was the warning about the man’s breath running thin.
Was Anna talking about a building?
A vehicle?
A tunnel?
A ship?
Nothing fit cleanly enough to trust.
Raina’s fingers tightened around the phone.
Anna had done this deliberately. She had given her enough to know Ethan was still alive and enough to frighten her, but not enough to tell her where he was. Whatever the answer was, Raina suspected it would lead her through several wrong possibilities before she finally understood what Anna was pointing toward.
She threw the covers aside and reached for her coat.
There was no point wasting time trying to solve it alone.
Zach answered after several rings.
"Lumi?"
"Hi, Zach. I’m sorry, but I’m going to need your help again."
"What do you need?"
"I’m sending you a phone number. I want you to trace it."
There was a pause before Zach sighed.
"I’m afraid I can’t do that. You know it’s illegal for a private individual to trace a phone call. That’s something the authorities have to handle."
"I know."
"Then why are you asking me?"
"Because I don’t have time to wait for the authorities."
Her voice tightened as she looked down at the message again.
"Ethan is still missing, Zach. I have a number that may lead me to him, and I need to know where it came from."
Zach was silent for several seconds.
"Raina..."
"Can you do it or not?"
Another sigh came through the phone, followed by a reluctant pause.
"Of course I can. I never said it was impossible."
Despite everything, the corner of Raina’s mouth moved slightly.
"Thank you."
"Send me the number. I’ll see what I can find and get back to you as soon as possible."
"I will."
She ended the call and immediately forwarded the number.
For a moment, she remained standing beside the bed, staring at the message on her screen. She still didn’t know what Anna’s riddle meant, but that was precisely why it frightened her. Anna had never been careless with her words, and if she had gone to the trouble of sending a riddle, then every line had a purpose.
Raina slipped the phone into her pocket, grabbed her bag and headed for the door.
Whatever Anna had hidden behind those words, she was going to find it.