Prologue — “The Fall”

The night was quiet, but not peaceful.

Dante Reid crouched atop the rusted beams of the abandoned warehouse, wind whipping through broken windows. Every step he’d taken tonight had led him here: the edge, the shadows, the recklessness of youth.

LD was beside him, laughter echoing off the concrete like it belonged to another world. “You sure about this, big man?”

Dante glanced down at the open space below. One misstep, one careless move… and it would be over. He had done this before, climbing, running, surviving. But tonight, the stakes felt different.

A shout rang out. The metal under his hands groaned. In a heartbeat, it happened—a slip, a scream, a body falling.

Dante reached—but he didn’t catch him.

Silence.

Cold.

Guilt settled like a weight in Dante’s chest, heavier than any punch he’d ever taken. The sound of LD’s laughter, now gone, haunted him, reminding him of all he could never fix.

Years later, that fall would still define him, shaping the man who would step into the chaos of...

St. Peter’s Inferno.