Clear Rivers stood in the center of the dimly lit crash site, her eyes scanning the mangled wreckage. The highway was silent now, sirens long gone, but she knelt down beside the twisted guardrail. Her gloved fingers traced faint markings on the asphalt—symbols she didn’t recognize.

“They’re everywhere,” she muttered, almost to herself.

You and Kimberly stepped cautiously closer. “What is it this time, Clear?” Kimberly asked, voice tense. She had survived the terrifying chain-reaction accident weeks ago, but she wasn’t eager to relive the fear.

Clear didn’t look up. “I don’t know. But these symbols… they’re not random. They’re appearing at every accident I’ve tracked. And it’s not just the premonitions anymore—someone, or something, is leaving them.”

You crouched beside her, squinting at the strange etchings. They were jagged, almost like runes, pressed into asphalt and concrete as if burned there. “Looks like graffiti,” you said skeptically. “Maybe someone’s messing with the accident scenes.”

Clear shook her head. “It’s not just vandalism. Look at the timing. These symbols only appear after a premonition. And every time, someone dies shortly after.”

Kimberly frowned. “So, it’s like… someone’s predicting Death?”

“Or controlling it,” Clear said softly. “I don’t know which is worse.”

You ran a hand through your hair. “Well… if we’re going to figure this out, we need a plan. We can’t just follow symbols around the city all day.”

Clear finally looked up, her eyes sharp and focused. “We need to map them. Document every symbol, every location, every death. Patterns like this… they always have a logic, even if it’s not obvious at first glance.”

Over the next several hours, the three of you walked from site to site, photographing symbols, comparing shapes, tracing their positions. Each one was different but shared certain characteristics: jagged lines, strange spirals, and occasionally something that resembled a number.

“This one,” Clear said, pointing to a symbol scrawled across a guardrail near a collapsed truck, “matches the first accident exactly. Same angles, same curves. Whoever—or whatever—is doing this… it’s sending a message.”

You frowned. “A message? To who?”

Clear’s eyes darkened. “To me. I think… I think it’s communicating through the accidents themselves. Like Death is trying to tell me something I haven’t figured out yet.”

Kimberly shivered. “You mean like… some supernatural code?”

Clear nodded grimly. “Exactly. And if we don’t decode it soon… more people will die.”

You glanced at both of them, feeling the weight of the moment. “Then we do it together. Whatever it takes. No more waiting for premonitions—if these symbols are a map, we’ll follow it.”

Clear’s lips twitched into a small, grateful smile. “Good. I was hoping you’d say that. But… we have to be careful. Whoever left these wants us to see them. That means they’re watching.”

Kimberly gulped. “Watching us? You mean… they’re still out there?”

Clear’s eyes scanned the darkened highway. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s something older. Something… Death itself has marked.”