https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/categories/chapter-12--baptism-by-fire/Recent content in Chapter 12 — Baptism by Fire on Chicago ChroniclesHugoen-usMon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/posts/baptism-by-fire/Mon, 31 Dec 1990 21:00:00 +0000https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/posts/baptism-by-fire/<p><em><a href="https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/locations/modius-mansion/">Modius&rsquo;s Mansion</a> / Gary Streets / Outbound toward Chicago</em> <em>Gary, Indiana</em></p> <hr> <p>The mansion wanted to pretend it still belonged to a prince.</p> <p>The chandeliers helped. So did the suits, the dresses, the crystal, the old wood trying to remember a century when money had been more patient and less embarrassed by Indiana. But every room carried the truth underneath the theater: Gary was too small for this much hierarchy, too poor for this much ceremony, and everyone present knew it except the mortals who had been brought in to clap at midnight and not remember any of it in the morning.</p>https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/posts/the-archive/Tue, 18 Dec 1990 00:00:00 +0000https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/posts/the-archive/<p><em><a href="https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/locations/telton-cemetery/">Telton Cemetery</a> / West-Side Haven</em> <em>Gary, Indiana</em></p> <hr> <p>The cemetery made every sound feel contractual.</p> <p>Snow hadn&rsquo;t come yet, but the ground had the iron hardness of a place already promised to winter. <a href="https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/darius-cole/">Darius</a> left the Cutlass by the gate, hands in the coat pockets, and walked between markers whose names had been abandoned by everyone except stone and whatever kept records below language.</p> <p><a href="https://chicago-by-night.pages.dev/npcs/alexander-danov/">Danov</a> appeared beside an angel missing its face.</p>