STATUS: COLD CASE
SUBJECT: Xavier Price — Male, Age 32
LAST SEEN: Davis–Monthan Air Base, Hangar 18 / 02:17 A.M. / Flight Log Entry (Final)
DISPOSITION: Unauthorized Engine Test / Run-Up Activation / Personnel Disappearance
RECLASSIFIED: SIGNAL CODE: FOXTROT-E
The wrench was still warm.
The logbook still open.
The name still signed.
They said he mixed the manifests.
Said fatigue made him wander.
Said the log was forged.
But hangars don’t heat themselves.
And ghosts don’t torque bolts.
The chalk lines marked where a decommissioned aircraft once lived.
Then, before dawn, new rubber scuffs appeared over the dust.
No aircraft assigned.
No flight scheduled.
No man accounted for.
The final notation read—
ENGINE TEST — COMPLETE.
RUN-UP RECORDED. AIRCREW CLEARED.
By morning… Hangar 18 was sealed.
Base command called it maintenance.
No one asked why the floor still smelled like heat.
Ena’s reopened the case.
The base kept the plane.
The plane kept the man.
You shouldn’t have walked the line.
✈️ Listen after midnight.
🗂 Companion file: beacons.ai/twistednighttales