The Scent Of Silence

Chapter -1

The night air in the dense forest was cold and damp. Bright yellow police tape hung between the dark trees, keeping the area closed off.

Captain Lu waited near the edge of the clearing. He was an older S-Class Alpha, and his senses were sharp, usually too sharp. At a typical murder scene, an Alpha could smell the victim's fear from a mile away.

But tonight, he smelled almost nothing.

He walked over to where the halogen lights were set up. The victim was a young Omega, looking no older than twenty, lying completely naked on a bed of wet leaves. Despite the dirt and damp earth surrounding him, his pale skin was immaculately clean, almost polished. He looked like he was merely sleeping. There were no bruises, no defense wounds, and no signs of a fight anywhere on his body.

"Captain Lu," said Dr. Ming, the lead forensic expert, kneeling beside the body in a white protective suit. He looked up, his face serious. "You need to take a look at this."

Lu crouched down next to him. "What do we have?"

"No blood at the scene," Dr. Ming said, gently turning the young man's head to the side. "And none on the body either."
Dr. Ming pointed to the side of the Omega's neck.

Lu's breath hitched slightly. Where the young Omega's scent gland should have been, the small, sensitive area of skin that held his unique smell, there was only a neat, empty hole. The skin around the edges was dark, seared, and completely sealed.

"Look at the edges of the cut," Dr. Ming explained. "This wasn't a wild attack or an Alpha biting out of control. It's a perfect, clean circle. Whoever did this used a scalpel with surgical precision, and then immediately cauterized the wound. They sealed the tissue so fast that hardly a drop of blood escaped, and they did it while he was still alive."

Lu took a slow breath, but there was no scent in the air at all. An Omega's scent gland was their identity. Taking it away meant erasing who they were.

"They washed the entire body with chemical agents to destroy any left-over pheromones and traces of smell," Dr. Ming added. "They took the gland, sealed the cut, and left nothing behind."

Lu stood up, a sudden coldness settling deep in his chest. His S-Class Alpha instincts recoiled, not just from the horror in front of him, but from the terrifying wave of recognition.

A naked, scrubbed body. A surgically harvested scent gland. A cauterized cut.

He had seen this exact same scene before. Ten years ago.
The case that had nearly broken him had just walked back out of the dark woods.

________________

Author's Note

I'm honestly a complete scaredy-cat, but for some reason, my favorite thing to listen to when I can't sleep is true crime documentaries ( just to scare myself even more). 😅😂

So I wanted to try writing something completely different... and, of course, make it an Omegaverse ABO Desire fanfic.

I have the entire plot brewing in my head, but I haven't written much of it yet. I'm also still torn about one very important thing...

Should it be LangTu or YongTu? 👀

So tell me honestly, would you guys actually read a dark mystery/ crime thriller like this, or should I just keep this plot to myself?

I've put up a poll, so please do vote!
And if you don't want this story, don't worry, just vote No. ( I'll just keep this one in my drafts. ❤️)