THE VANISHING HOUR

THE VANISHING HOUR

jide3465 · Ongoing · 41.7k Words

1.2k
Hot
1.2k
Views
0
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

At exactly 3:07 a.m., an entire city block plunges into darkness — and someone disappears. No evidence, no bodies, no return. Detective Mara Ellison is assigned to investigate what begins as a string of vanishings in Crescent Heights. But when the blackouts spread across the city, Mara uncovers a chilling truth: the phenomenon is tied to a long-buried Cold War experiment that opened doors never meant to be touched.

Each night, the disappearances grow bolder. Each victim leaves behind fragments of a pattern pointing to something older than science, something alive in the dark. As the hours tick away, Mara must confront the impossible: the vanished are not gone… they are somewhere else. And that place is bleeding into her world.

The deeper she goes, the more she realizes she isn’t just chasing a mystery — she’s racing against time to stop the final blackout, when not just a block but the entire city may vanish forever.

Chapter 1

They told me you never forget your first case. That’s not true. You forget plenty of them—the robberies, the domestic calls, the drunks screaming in the alleys at three in the morning. They blur together, file numbers fading until they’re just paper stacked in drawers no one opens again.

But you never forget the first time someone simply… vanishes.

My name is Detective Mara Ellison, and Gravenloch is the kind of city that remembers everything except the truth.

It was a Tuesday when the call came in. A missing person. That was nothing new—people disappeared here all the time. Runaways, addicts, debts unpaid. But there was something in the dispatcher’s voice that made me take it personally. A kind of hesitation. Fear bleeding through the professional mask.

The girl’s name was Leah Winters. Twenty-two. Lived on the east side, in a decaying apartment block that smelled like mildew and gas leaks. I arrived just after midnight, rain dripping down the cracked stairwell as I climbed to the third floor.

Her roommate met me at the door—a pale, shaking thing in oversized pajamas. She kept glancing behind her as if the shadows were listening.

“She was here,” she told me. “We were watching TV. She got up to make tea. She never came back.”

“Never came back?” I repeated.

She nodded. Her lips trembled. “I checked the kitchen. Empty. No sound, no door. She was just… gone.”

I searched the apartment myself. Small space, one exit, no forced entry. Windows latched from the inside. No signs of struggle. No blood, no overturned furniture, nothing missing except the girl.

It should’ve been impossible.

But when I stepped into the kitchen, I saw something I couldn’t ignore. On the table, beside the chipped mug Leah had set out for tea, lay a wristwatch. The second hand ticked erratically, jerking forward and back like it couldn’t decide which moment it belonged to.

I leaned closer. The air around it felt… wrong. Thicker somehow. Heavy, like standing too close to a power line.

“Did this belong to her?” I asked.

The roommate shook her head. “I’ve never seen it before.”

I slipped on gloves and bagged the watch. Even then, I swear I felt its pulse against my palm, faint and steady, like a heartbeat.

That was the first time I realized this wasn’t just another missing person.

---

By morning, Leah’s case file was already stacked on my desk, thin and unsatisfying. I hate thin files. They feel like lies pretending to be work.

I opened my notebook and scribbled:

Leah Winters. Age 22. Disappearance: 12:07 a.m. Last seen: apartment kitchen. No exit. No struggle. Object left behind: watch (erratic movement).

The watch sat on my desk in an evidence bag. I couldn’t stop glancing at it.

“Ellison.”

I looked up. Captain Doyle loomed in my doorway, tie crooked, face carved by sleeplessness and cigarettes. “You working the Winters case?”

“Yeah,” I said.

He hesitated before stepping inside. “Be careful with this one.”

That made me pause. Doyle wasn’t the kind of man who said things like that. His warnings usually came in the form of budget memos or threats about overtime.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He rubbed his temple. “Just… don’t get too deep. Missing persons in Gravenloch have a way of staying missing.”

He left before I could press him.

---

By noon, I was walking the east side, canvassing neighbors. A woman across the hall swore she’d heard Leah humming an old lullaby through the walls—right up until the moment she disappeared. Then silence.

A janitor swore the hallway lights flickered at the exact same time, buzzing like a swarm of bees.

Another tenant, eyes glazed with lack of sleep, muttered only one phrase before shutting his door: “The hour took her.”

I wrote it down. The hour.

Gravenloch was full of whispers like that. Folklore woven into cracked pavement.

---

Back at the precinct, I pulled Leah’s file again. She had no history with drugs. No outstanding debts. A quiet life. A job at a bookstore downtown.

Normal.

Too normal.

It was while I was staring at her photo—a girl with a shy smile and sharp eyes—that my phone buzzed. An anonymous number.

I answered. “Detective Ellison.”

A man’s voice crackled through static. “You’re looking in the wrong place.”

“Who is this?”

“Leah Winters isn’t missing,” the voice said. “She’s been taken.”

My grip on the phone tightened. “Taken by who?”

The line hissed with distortion, but through it I caught fragments—“the project”… “the hour”… “don’t trust the priest.”

Then silence.

I sat frozen, the phone still pressed to my ear, heart hammering.

“Don’t trust the priest.”

I thought of Father Elias Marlowe. Everyone in Gravenloch knew him. A gentle man who ran the St. Jude Shelter, feeding the homeless, offering beds to runaways. Why would anyone warn me about him?

I didn’t know yet. But I wrote it down.

---

That night, I returned to Leah’s apartment alone. The roommate had left to stay with her parents. The place was silent, shadows stretching across peeling wallpaper.

I stood in the kitchen where Leah had last been seen. The watch ticked in my bag, though I hadn’t wound it.

12:07 a.m. That was the time Leah disappeared.

I stayed. Waiting.

The clock on the stove blinked 12:05.

12:06.

12:07.

The lights flickered.

My chest tightened. The air grew thick, vibrating with a low hum that I felt more than heard. My breath frosted in front of me.

Then, in the corner of the kitchen, the shadows moved. Not stretched, not shifted—moved.

I froze.

The darkness bent inward, like a hole opening in the air. The hum grew louder. And for a heartbeat, I saw her.

Leah Winters. Standing in the doorway. Eyes wide. Mouth open in a silent scream.

And then—gone.

The hum died. The shadows smoothed back into place.

Only the watch remained, ticking madly.

I staggered back, hand gripping the counter, my pulse racing.

Leah wasn’t missing. She wasn’t dead. She was… somewhere else.

And the worst part?

As the silence settled over me, I realized I’d seen another face in the shadows.

A man. Watching.

And I knew him.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

The Prison Project

The Prison Project

713.2k Views · Ongoing · Bethany Donaghy
The government's newest experiment in criminal rehabilitation - sending thousands of young women to live alongside some of the most dangerous men held behind bars...

Can love tame the untouchable? Or will it only fuel the fire and cause chaos amongst the inmates?

Fresh out of high school and suffocating in her dead-end hometown, Margot longs for her escape. Her reckless best friend, Cara, thinks she's found the perfect way out for them both - The Prisoner Project - a controversial program offering a life-changing sum of money in exchange for time spent with maximum-security inmates.

Without hesitation, Cara rushes to sign them up.

Their reward? A one-way ticket into the depths of a prison ruled by gang leaders, mob bosses, and men the guards wouldn't even dare to cross...

At the centre of it all, meets Coban Santorelli - a man colder than ice, darker than midnight, and as deadly as the fire that fuels his inner rage. He knows that the project may very well be his only ticket to freedom - his only ticket to revenge on the one who managed to lock him up and so he must prove that he can learn to love…

Will Margot be the lucky one chosen to help reform him?

Will Coban be capable of bringing something to the table other than just sex?

What starts off as denial may very well grow in to obsession which could then fester in to becoming true love…

A temperamental romance novel.
I Slapped My Fiancé—Then Married His Billionaire Nemesis

I Slapped My Fiancé—Then Married His Billionaire Nemesis

315k Views · Completed · Jessica C. Dolan
Being second best is practically in my DNA. My sister got the love, the attention, the spotlight. And now, even her damn fiancé.
Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now—billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn’t mind. I’d crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one?
Wrong.
One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That’s when it hit me—he didn’t love me. He didn’t even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn’t even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup.
So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster—my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise.
Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol.
Enter him.
Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I’d met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes.
It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised.
But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life.
And, as it turned out, the best decision I’d ever made.
Because my one-night stand isn’t just some random guy. He’s richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with.
And now, he’s not letting me go.
Badass in Disguise

Badass in Disguise

409.6k Views · Completed · Sherry
"Everyone out," I commanded through gritted teeth. "Now."
"Jade, I need to check your—" the nurse began.
"OUT!" I snarled with enough force that both women backed toward the door.
Once feared by Shadow Organization that drugged me to replicate my abilities into a more controllable version, I had escaped my restraints and detonated their entire facility, ready to die alongside my captors.
Instead, I woke up in a school infirmary with women arguing around me, their voices piercing my skull. My outburst froze them in shock—clearly they hadn't expected such a reaction. One woman threatened as she left, "We'll discuss this attitude when you get home."
The bitter truth? I've been reborn into the body of an overweight, weak, and supposedly dim-witted high school girl. Her life is filled with bullies and tormentors who've made her existence miserable.
But they have no idea who they're dealing with now.
I didn't survive as the world's deadliest assassin by allowing anyone to push me around. And I certainly won't start now.
The mafia princess return

The mafia princess return

531.5k Views · Completed · Tonje Unosen
Talia have been living with her mother, stepsister and Stepfather for years. One day she finally get away from them. Suddenly she learn she have more family out there and she have many people that actually love her, something she have never felt before! At least not as she can remember. She have to learn to trust others, get her new brothers to accept her for who she is!
My Possessive Alpha Twins For Mate

My Possessive Alpha Twins For Mate

747.9k Views · Completed · Veejay
"No... You can't do this to me..." I almost squeezed the words through my teeth, my voice trembling.
My drunk stepfather remained indifferent, his weight suffocating, making it hard to breathe as my heart raced.
Suddenly, the door slammed open, and two figures burst in.
"Get off her!" a deafening roar echoed.
I didn't expect the twin brothers who'd bullied me at school to come charging in like gods to save me.
After my grandmother passed, I had to move in with my mom and stepdad, who treated me like a servant. I prayed every day for my 18th birthday to come, so l could leave and escape this broken home.
However, on my first day at my new school, l encountered the legendary twins everyone feared.
To make matters worse, the Moon Goddess revealed they were both my mates!
After helping me out with my stepdad, my twin mate cornered me, played with my hair, and whispered possessively, "You belong to us, our little mate..."
Omega Bound

Omega Bound

736.5k Views · Completed · Veronica White
Ayla Frost is a beautiful, rare omega. Kidnapped, tortured, and trafficked to rogue clans and corrupt alphas to do with as they pleased.  Kept alive in her cage, broken and abandoned by her wolf, she becomes mute and has given up on hope for a better life until one explosion changes everything. 

Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life. 

Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
Mr. Ryan

Mr. Ryan

273.2k Views · Completed · Mary D. Sant
"What things are not under your control tonight?" I gave my best smile, leaning against the wall.
He came closer with a dark and hungry expression,
so close,
his hands reached for my face, and he pressed his body against mine.
His mouth took mine eagerly, a little rudely.
His tongue left me breathless.
“If you don't go with me, I'll fuck you right here.” He whispered.


Katherine kept her virginity for years even after she turned 18. But one day, she met an extremely sexual man Nathan Ryan in the club. He had the most seductive blue eyes she has ever seen, a well-defined chin, almost golden blonde hair, full lips, perfectly drawn, and the most amazing smile, with perfect teeth and those damn dimples. Incredibly sexy.

She and he had a beautiful and hot one-night stand...
Katherine thought she might not meet the man again.
But fate has another plan

Katherine is about to take on the job of assistant to a billionaire who owns one of the biggest companies in the country and is known to be a conquering, authoritative and completely irresistible man. He is Nathan Ryan!

Will Kate be able to resist the charms of this attractive, powerful and seductive man?
Read to know a relationship torn between anger and the uncontrollable desire for pleasure.

Warning: R18+, Only for mature readers.
Alpha Nicholas's Little Mate

Alpha Nicholas's Little Mate

192.5k Views · Ongoing · Becky j
"Mate is here!"
What? No—wait… oh Moon Goddess, no.
Please tell me you're joking, Lex.
But she's not. I can feel her excitement bubbling under my skin, while all I feel is dread.
We turn the corner, and the scent hits me like a punch to the chest—cinnamon and something impossibly warm. My eyes scan the room until they land on him. Tall. Commanding. Beautiful.
And then, just as quickly… he sees me.
His expression twists.
"Fuck no."
He turns—and runs.
My mate sees me and runs.
Bonnie has spent her entire life being broken down and abused by the people closest to her including her very own twin sister. Alongside her best friend Lilly who also lives a life of hell, they plan to run away while attending the biggest ball of the year while it's being hosted by another pack, only things don't quite go to plan leaving both girls feeling lost and unsure about their futures.
Alpha Nicholas is 28, mateless, and has no plans to change that. It's his turn to host the annual Blue Moon Ball this year and the last thing he expects is to find his mate. What he expects even less is for his mate to be 10 years younger than him and how his body reacts to her. While he tries to refuse to acknowledge that he has met his mate his world is turned upside down after guards catch two she-wolves running through his lands.
Once they are brought to him he finds himself once again facing his mate and discovers that she's hiding secrets that will make him want to kill more than one person.
Can he overcome his feelings towards having a mate and one that is so much younger than him? Will his mate want him after already feeling the sting of his unofficial rejection? Can they both work on letting go of the past and moving forward together or will fate have different plans and keep them apart?
The Son of Red Fang

The Son of Red Fang

182.8k Views · Completed · Diana Sockriter
Alpha werewolves should be cruel and merciless with unquestionable strength and authority, at least that’s what Alpha Charles Redmen believes and he doesn’t hesitate to raise his kids to be the same way.
Alpha Cole Redmen is the youngest of six born to Alpha Charles and Luna Sara Mae, leaders of the Red Fang pack. Born prematurely, Alpha Charles rejected him without hesitation as weak and undeserving of his very life. He is reminded daily of his father’s hatred for him paving the way for the rest of his family to become the same.
By adulthood, his father’s hatred and abuse towards him has spilled over into the rest of the pack making him the scapegoat for those with the sadistic need to see him suffer. The rest are simply too afraid to even look his way leaving him little in the way of friends or family to turn to.
Alpha Demetri Black is the leader of a sanctuary pack known as Crimson Dawn. It’s been years since a wolf has made their way to his pack via the warrior’s prospect program but that doesn’t mean he’s not looking for the tell tale signs of a wolf in need of help.
Malnourished and injured upon his arrival, Cole’s anxious and overly submissive demeanor lands him in the very situation he’s desperate to avoid, in the attention of an unknown alpha.
Yet somehow through the darkness of severe illness and injury he runs into the very person he’s been desperate to find since he turned eighteen, his Luna. His one way ticket out of the hell he’s been born into.
Will Cole find the courage needed to leave his pack once and for all, to seek the love and acceptance he’s never had?

Content Warning: This story contains descriptions of mental, physical and sexual abuse that may trigger sensitive readers. This book is intended for adult readers only.
The Alpha Of The Shadow Pack And His Mute Luna

The Alpha Of The Shadow Pack And His Mute Luna

73.7k Views · Ongoing · Beatrice Putnam
She was born cursed and silenced. He was born cursed and destined to lose everything.

Vanessa, the mute runt of a cursed litter, has only ever known cruelty and abuse. Her voice stolen by a witch’s spell, her freedom crushed by a brutal father, she’s been promised to a monster she doesn’t want. But fate intervenes when she’s left for dead—bleeding, broken, and bound—only to be rescued by Alpha Alfred of the Shadow Pack.
Alfred, fighting against a generational curse that has doomed his brothers to remain wolves forever, never expected his fated mate to be a fragile girl on the brink of death. But the moment he breathes in her scent, everything changes.
Together, they must confront the past, survive betrayal, and uncover the true key to breaking the curses that bind them. Will their bond be strong enough to save them both?
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother

569.2k Views · Ongoing · Harper Rivers
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother.

"What is wrong with me?

Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?

It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.

He’s my boyfirend’s brother.

This is Tyler’s family.

I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.

**

As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.

Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.

When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.

I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.

**

I hate girls like her.

Entitled.

Delicate.

And still—

Still.

The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.

Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.

I shouldn’t care.

I don’t care.

It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.

It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.

I’m not here to rescue anyone.

Especially not her.

Especially not someone like her.

She’s not my problem.

And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.

But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
Mated by Contract to the Alpha

Mated by Contract to the Alpha

319.3k Views · Completed · CalebWhite
My perfect life shattered in a single heartbeat.
William—my devastatingly handsome, wealthy werewolf fiancé destined to become Delta—was supposed to be mine forever. After five years together, I was ready to walk down the aisle and claim my happily ever after.
Instead, I found him with her. And their son.
Betrayed, jobless, and drowning in my father's medical bills, I hit rock bottom harder than I ever imagined possible. Just when I thought I'd lost everything, salvation came in the form of the most dangerous man I'd ever encountered.
Damien Sterling—future Alpha of the Silver Moon Shadow Pack and ruthless CEO of Sterling Group—slid a contract across his desk with predatory grace.
“Sign this, little doe, and I'll give you everything your heart desires. Wealth. Power. Revenge. But understand this—the moment you put pen to paper, you become mine. Body, soul, and everything in between.”
I should have run. Instead, I signed my name and sealed my fate.
Now I belong to the Alpha. And he's about to show me just how wild love can be.