Eroding Tower [Mystery]

[Architect X Sinister Structural Aesthetics]

[Social Suspense X Psychological Horror]

[A Short Story] [Set in 2009, the turn of the millennium]

Architect Ning Ke discovers a body on the top floor of the completed Eye in the Clouds.

Embedded in the victim's heart is a model of a load-bearing pillar with a coded message.

The bloody code points to the steel cage she designed herself.

Another body plunges down the elevator shaft. Her blueprints bear traces of a rusted pen, overlapping with the cries her mother left behind in the concrete before setting herself on fire.

She dreams of the killer's back, then wakes and sketches frantically. But what she draws is her own profile.

She tears up the paper. "My subconscious is warning me that imitating the killer is dangerous!"

The psychiatrist asks her, "Where did you learn to feel that way when analyzing the killer?"

She freezes. "I... I just want to catch him so badly."

She gives an interview as a victim's family member, trembling as she appeals for justice. Social media is full of sympathy for her.

Someone posts anonymously in the comments: "What a convincing performance."

I'm an innocent detective!

Why do the police keep investigating me?!

Theme: Keep reaching for the light.