### Prologue: A Regular Tuesday
The tires hummed a flat, heavy rhythm against the asphalt. Lucian rested his forehead against the cold glass of the back window, watching the gray highway barriers blur past. Next to him, Neo was using his fingernail to scrape a dried sticker off the door panel. Up front, the radio was murmuring some low-volume talk show nobody was listening to.
Their dad glanced up, his eyes meeting Lucian's in the rearview mirror. "Finals next week, right?"
"Yeah," Lucian said.
"You ready for the math section?"
"Sure."
"What does 'sure' mean?" his mother asked, turning around in the passenger seat. Her coat smelled like the damp rain outside. "Did you actually open the textbook this weekend?"
"I said yeah, Mom. I studied."
"Lucian, we're just asking," his dad said, his voice dropping into that calm, annoying lecture tone. "You've been distracted lately. Your grades are slipping, and if you want to get into a decent college—"
"I don't care about college right now," Lucian muttered, looking back out the window.
"Excuse me?" his mother said, her eyebrows drawing together. "What is that supposed to mean? We work hard so you don't have to struggle, Lucian. The least you can do is take your future seriously."
"I am taking it seriously. It's just..." Lucian wiped his palms against his jeans. They felt cold. "Everything feels weird lately. The news, the rumors online. People are saying things are happening in the northern district.
His dad let out a short, dry chuckle. "Don't believe everything you read on internet forums, son. The world isn't ending. You just need to focus on your algebra."
"It's not just forums, Dad. Yesterday at school, two kids in my class just—"
"Lucian, stop," his mother interrupted, her voice firm. "No more horror stories. We are having a normal family dinner when we get home, and you are going to finish your homework. Understood?"
Lucian chewed the inside of his cheek. "Fine."
"Hey, Lucian," Neo whispered, finally getting a piece of the sticker off. "Look. It's a robot wing."
"Cool, Neo. Put it away."
"Is Dad mad?"
"No. Just drop it."
Up front, his dad reached over and adjusted the volume knob on the radio, cutting through the awkward quiet. "Look, we'll talk about it later. Let's just get through the bridge traffic first. Your mother wants to stop by the grocery store for—"
*CRASH.*
The world instantly tilted sideways.
There was no warning , Just a sudden, deafening impact of metal crushing metal from the passenger side.
Lucian's head violently slammed against the door frame. A sharp, white-hot flash of pain blinded him, and the air was instantly knocked out of his lungs. The car spun in a vicious, sickening circle, the tires roaring against the concrete before slamming hard into the guardrail.
Then, everything stopped.
The silence was absolute, heavy, and suffocating. The air inside the cabin instantly turned thick with the acrid smell of burnt hair and deployed gunpowder from the airbags. Smoke curled lazily from the dashboard.
Lucian's vision swam. He blinked through the haze, his ears ringing with a high, piercing whine.
"Dad?" Lucian croaked. His throat felt like it was coated in sand.
No answer. His dad was slumped completely sideways over the center console, his head resting awkwardly against the passenger seat. His arm hung limply into the footwell.
"Mom?" Lucian pushed himself up, his muscles aching, his hands shaking so violently he missed the headrest twice before gripping it. "Mom, wake up. Hey. Look at me."
His mother's head was tilted back against the headrest, her eyes shut tight.
Lucian's heart violently hammered against his ribs. He looked closer, searching for blood, for glass, for anything. There was nothing. No cuts on their skin. No broken bones sticking out. They just looked like they had instantly, deeply fallen asleep mid-sentence.
"Lucian?"
The tiny, cracking voice came from right next to him. Lucian turned his head slowly. Neo was sitting in his booster seat, his face completely pale, tears tracking through the dust on his cheeks. He was clutching his arm, pulling hard at Lucian's shirt.
"Lucian, why are they sleeping? Make them wake up. Please."
"Shut up, Neo!" Lucian snapped. The words popped out high and thin, driven by pure panic. He instantly felt a wave of sickness in his stomach. He didn't wait for Neo to cry louder; he scrambled over the center console, grabbing his dad's leather jacket and pulling hard. "Dad! Stop it! Wake up! Look at me!"
The body was heavy, shifting limply under his hands.
Outside, the rain started to patter against the cracked windshield, and the cooling engine just ticked steadily in the dark.