Mayor Vǐn Ðeťťa straightened his tan suit jacket and stared at his reflection in the window of his office. His orange goggles glowed in the dim light. Sharp teeth stretched into a grin. Headstone belonged to him now—every shadow, every deal, every secret. But his real victory wasn't the power. It was staying invisible. No human in this dusty Texas town knew what he really was. He planned to keep it that way while he built his empire from the dark. The town hall stood at the center of everything. Its weathered wood creaked in the wind. Rusted iron hinges held heavy doors that most people never questioned. But behind his locked office, past the dusty file cabinets, a trapdoor waited in the floor. Vǐn pulled it open and stepped down into the tunnel. Cool air rushed up from below. Down here, his network spread beneath every street. His people moved through the darkness, running operations the surface world would never see. This was where he truly ruled—in the spaces between, where monsters could work without masks. Vǐn walked back upstairs and locked the trapdoor behind him. He crossed to the ornate bar globe in the corner. His clawed fingers twisted the brass equator ring. The top hemisphere lifted away. Inside sat bottles of glowing liquor in strange colors—and beneath them, a modified CB radio. He flipped the switch. Static crackled. This was how he stayed connected to his people below without drawing attention. No phone lines to trace. No digital records to find. Just radio waves bouncing through the tunnels. He pressed the transmitter button and spoke in his real voice—the one humans never heard. His orders went out into the underground. The empire was growing, one secret deal at a time. But the town hall was just the start. Vǐn needed a place on the surface where deals could happen in plain sight. Somewhere humans would come without questions. The Cobra Club would be perfect—a bar where money changed hands and secrets stayed buried. He'd run it as a legitimate business while using it to control everything that mattered. The tunnels gave him power in the shadows. The Club would give him power in the light. Together, they'd make Headstone his completely. No one would ever suspect the smiling mayor in the tan suit. And his people would stay hidden forever, safe beneath the desert sand.