Prologue: The Day The Sky Opened

The sky didn’t fall that day —
It opened.
And from it, monsters poured.

They weren’t made of flesh.
They were made of smoke, steel, and screams.
And they didn’t knock — they tore the gates open like paper.

The wall had stood for 114 years.
It was supposed to protect them.
But in under 20 minutes, the East district was nothing but rubble and red.

Ezrah saw it all.
From the rooftop, barefoot and breathless, he watched the world end.
His little brother still inside the bakery.
His mother buried under flame.

He didn’t cry.
He couldn’t.
Because crying meant stopping — and if he stopped, he’d never get up again.

They called them “The Hollowborn.”
Creatures with no eyes, no mouths, just endless hunger and the echo of what used to be human.

Ezrah ran for 3 days before he was found by the Scorch Corps — the only humans left who could kill Hollowborn.
Not with guns.
But with scars — and fire written into their skin.

They branded him.
Taught him how to fight.
Told him to forget everything.

But Ezrah remembered.

And one day, he swore he’d make the sky bleed for what it took from him

A red moon — the first in six years — climbed over the horizon.


Shino tightened her grip. "They move faster during a Red Moon."


Renzo looked at Aira. "What happens to you?"


"I don't know. I've never survived one."


Hollowborn pouring from every edge of the wall.


Chapter 8 - chapter 8:The Red Moon Rises