CHAPTER 1}
The night was unusually still.
Even the wind that often whispered through the palm trees seemed to hold its breath. Amanda stood outside her home, arms folded tightly against the chill, staring up into the sky.
At first, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.
But no two stars burned brighter than all the rest.
Not just bright, but alive pulsing, as though they carried a heartbeat. They flickered in unison: thump… thump… thump.
Her chest tightened. She remembered her late mother's words from years ago words Amanda had dismissed as rambling nonsense:
"When the stars double, run, Amanda. Don't look back. They will come for you."
A low rumble rolled across the heavens, and then the sky split open.
Dark clouds churned into spirals, swallowing the moon. Lightning clawed across the horizon. The earth shivered beneath her bare feet, and the calm night dissolved into chaos.
Then she saw it.
Outside her home, just beyond the fence, strange marks seared themselves into the ground. The smell of burnt earth stung her nose. The lines weren't random they formed a pattern, almost like a sigil. Amanda's blood froze. She had seen that symbol before… sketched faintly on the last page of her mother's old diary. Or is it a mare illusion.
She staggered back, her pulse pounding.
From the corner of her eye, she caught movement.
Her breath caught in her throat.
A man stood at the far end of the road.
Tall. Motionless. Draped in a black cloat that seemed to bleed into the night. His face was hidden beneath the hood, but Amanda felt his gaze pressing against her skin. The shadows stretched unnaturally around him, like they bowed to his presence.
He did not move. He only watched.
Amanda's voice failed her. She wanted to scream, to run inside and lock the doors, but her legs felt nailed and heavy on the earth.
The stars above pulsed harder. Thump. Thump. Thump.
The cloaked man tilted his head slightly as though acknowledging her.
Then… he gave a devilish smile
A slow, unnatural curve of lips beneath the hood.
The storm erupted in full. Rain hammered the ground, lightning split the sky, and the marks outside her home glowed faintly like embers. Amanda stumbled back inside, slammed the door shut, and pressed her back against it with Fear
Her heart thundered.
Her mother's diary lay on the old wooden shelf. She hadn't opened it in years, not since the funeral. But now… now she knew she had no choice.
The words on the cover were faded, but her mother's handwriting was unmistakable. Her hands trembled as she turned the final page the one she remembered but had tried to forget.
Scrawled in hurried ink, almost as if written in fear, were the same symbols now glowing outside her home. And beneath them, in shaky letters:
"When the stars divide, the shadow will return. And he will find you, Amanda."
Thunder cracked.
Amanda dropped the book.
Because she could hear it now faint, beneath the roar of the storm. A whisper.
Someone or something was calling.
Amanda's stomach churned. "That's just a story a superstition perhaps.
Chioma shook her head. "Stories don't burn signs into the ground, Amanda. People saw it. Right outside your house."
Amanda froze. Her voice cracked. "They… saw?"
"Yes," Chioma whispered urgently. "And some of them believe it means you've been marked. That the shadow is She broke off, her eyes darting with heavy tears.
Amanda turned slowly.
The same cloaked man stood at the edge of the square. Motionless. Watching. His hood still hid his face, but Amanda felt the same suffocating weight of his gaze.
The market seemed to grow quieter, as though the air thickened around him.
One child dropped a basket of oranges, and no one picked them up.
Amanda's hands trembled. She whispered to Chioma, "Do you see him?"
Chioma frowned. "See who?"
Amanda's blood ran cold.
The cloaked man remained fixed in place, staring directly at her. And yet Chioma saw nothing. The villagers continued their whispers, their eyes fixed on Amanda, not on the man.
The world tilted. Amanda clutched her friend's hand for balance.
Chioma squeezed her fingers. "Whatever's happening, don't tell anyone. Not even me. The less they know, the safer you'll be. Please, Amanda. Promise me."
Amanda tried to nod, but her gaze was still locked on the shadow at the square's edge. He hadn't moved, hadn't blinked.
And then like smoke dissolving into air he was gone.
A shiver crawled down her spine.
As Amanda turned back toward her home, she noticed something scratched into the wall of the bakery nearby. Words written in a hurried, jagged hand:
"The stars have chosen. The chosen will not survive."
Her legs nearly gave out.
The whispers in the market swelled around her like buzzing flies.
She hurried home, clutching her mother's diary against her chest, her thoughts screaming:
Why me? Why now?
But deep inside, Amanda already knew the answer.
The stars had pulsed for her.
And the shadow was never going to stop.
{CHAPTER 3} The Diary's Warning
Amanda locked her door the moment she returned home. The whispers from the marketplace still rang in her ears, but it was the man the cloaked figure only she could see that haunted her most.
The house smelled faintly of damp wood and dust. Her late mother's belongings had been left mostly untouched since the funeral years ago. Amanda had always avoided them. Some things, she believed, were better left buried.
But now she had no choice.
She placed the diary on the table, lit a lantern, and opened it carefully. The pages felt brittle beneath her trembling fingers. Most of the writings were faded notes recipes, old songs, even little drawings from Amanda's childhood. But deeper into the book, the handwriting shifted.
The lines grew shaky, frantic. As if written in fear.
Amanda began to read.
"If you are reading this, it means the stars have divided again. Amanda, you must listen. The Keepers of the Second Light will search for you. They will not stop. They are bound to the stars, just as the shadow is bound to us."
Amanda's breath caught. The Keepers of the Second Light. She had never heard the name before, but something about it sent a chill through her bones.
She read on, her hands shaking.
"I tried to escape them, but no one escapes the stars. Your father tried to protect us. He failed. I fear I will fail too. If the shadow returns, it will find me first. But you, Amanda you are the true mark. The chosen. Run, if you can. Hide, if you must. But never trust the Keepers. They come with promises, but behind their eyes lives hunger."
Amanda's throat tightened. She closed the diary quickly, her eyes stinging with tears. Her father had died when she was very young she had been told it was sickness. But now… now it sounded like something else entirely.
A sudden knock at her door snapped her head up.
The lantern flickered.
Her heart hammered.
Slowly, she crept toward the door, pressing her ear against the wood.
"Who is it?" she whispered.
Silence.
Then three slow knocks.
Deliberate. Heavy.
Her skin prickled. "Chioma?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Still no answer.
The knocking stopped… but a new sound followed. A low scrape, like something being dragged across the door from the outside. The lantern sputtered violently, plunging the room in and out of shadow.
Amanda stumbled back, clutching the diary.
And then she heard it faint, almost like a hiss against the wood.
A voice.
"Amanda…"
Her blood froze. It was the same whisper she had heard during the storm.
She covered her ears, her eyes squeezed shut. "Go away… go away!" she choked.
When she dared to look again, the lantern steadied. The scraping was gone.
But the door bore a fresh mark burned into the wood as though by fire.
The same sigil from the ground outside her home.
Amanda staggered back, her breath shallow. The diary slipped from her trembling hands and fell open on the floor.
This time, a loose page fluttered free. She picked it up and froze.
On the page was a sketch. A figure in a cloak, face hidden, surrounded by two blazing stars.
And beneath it, her mother's handwriting:
"Do not look into his smile. It means he has chosen you."
{CHAPTER 4} – The Strange Mark°
Amanda barely slept. Every time her eyes closed, she saw the cloaked man's smile, faint and poisonous like a shadow curling at the edge of her thoughts.
The storm had left the village damp and heavy. Roosters crowed, children shouted in the distance, but Amanda lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Something was wrong. Her body felt hot, her skin burning from the inside out.
She sat up quickly. That's when she saw it.
Her arm.
A mark burned into her flesh, as if branded during her sleep. Jagged lines twisted into the exact sigil from the diary, from the ground outside, from her door. The skin was raw, glowing faintly as though embers lived beneath it.
Amanda clutched her arm, panic clawing at her throat. She wrapped it quickly in cloth, but even then she felt it pulse with each beat of her heartthump… thump… thump just like the two stars.
She couldn't hide it forever.
By midday, Amanda ventured out, her shawl pulled tight to cover her arm. The villagers were gathered in clusters, whispering louder now. They weren't even pretending to hide it anymore.
"There she is."
"The storm brought her curse."
"Marked by the stars…"
Amanda kept her eyes down, moving quickly. But her pace faltered when she noticed something strange.
A man she had never seen before stood at the well, drinking water. His clothes were travel-worn, his boots caked with dust. His eyes, sharp and piercing, lingered on Amanda far longer than a stranger's curiosity should allow.
When she passed, he spoke quietly so only she could hear.
"You shouldn't try to hide it. The mark only grows stronger when denied."
Amanda froze. Slowly, she turned. "What did you say?"
The man smiled faintly, but it wasn't cruel it was weary, as though he carried heavy knowledge. He set down the gourd of water and stepped closer.
"I know what you are," he whispered. "I know what hunts you."
Amanda's pulse hammered. "Who are you?"
His eyes flickered toward the villagers watching them with suspicion. He lowered his voice further.
"Not here. They wouldn't understand. Meet me at the edge of the forest, by the fallen palm. Sunset. If you value your life."
Before Amanda could respond, he slipped away into the crowd and was gone.
Her knees weakened. She hurried home, clutching her shawl tighter, her mind spiraling.
Who was he? How did he know about the mark? Could he be one of the Keepers her mother had warned about? Or something worse?
She entered her house and dropped the shawl. The mark on her arm had grown darker, throbbing now as though alive. She pressed her palm against it, biting back tears.
Then she heard it.
The whisper again. Only louder this time. Not outside—inside.
Her walls seemed to breathe with it.
"Amanda…"
She spun around. Her lantern flickered violently. The shadow of the cloaked man stretched across her wall though no one stood there.
And then two sharp knocks rattled her window.
Amanda's breath caught. She turned slowly, dread tightening around her like chains.
Through the glass, in the pouring sunlight, the cloaked man Still stood motionless closer than ever before. His face still hidden. His hand lifted, pressing flat a gainst the window.
The mark on Amanda's arm seared like fire in response.
And then… he smiled again
{Chapter 5)– The House of Silence
The stranger's words haunted Amanda all day.
"I know what you are. I know what hunts you."
Everywhere she turned, she felt eyes on her. The villagers' whispers had grown into open suspicion. Some crossed the street when she walked past; others muttered prayers under their breath. Amanda no longer felt like part of the village she was an intruder in her own home.
That night, unable to rest, Amanda found herself standing at the edge of her late mother's abandoned Room.
No one had entered it since her death. People claimed it was cursed, that strange lights flickered inside at night, and whispers echoed from its empty rooms. The door was rotting, the windows clouded with dust, but Amanda's gut told her the answers she needed lay within.
She pushed the door open.
The air inside was stale, thick with the scent of mold and old wood. Cobwebs draped from the ceiling like torn veils. Each step creaked beneath her weight, as though the house resented her intrusion.
Her lantern cast trembling light across the walls. That's when she saw it.
Carvings.
Symbols etched deep into the wooden planks, circling the room. Some matched the mark on her arm, others were more complex interlocking stars, spirals, jagged lines that made her skin crawl.
Amanda reached out, fingers brushing one of the carvings.
The house exhaled.
A sudden cold rushed through her, and she staggered back. Voices whispered in the dark, too many to count, overlapping in a chilling chorus.
"…Amanda…"
"…you cannot hide…"
"…your mother knew…"
Her lantern flickered violently, shadows stretching unnaturally across the room. For an instant, Amanda thought she saw her mother's figure standing at the end of the hall.
"Mother?" her voice cracked.
The figure raised its head slowly, revealing a pale face streaked with tears… then opened its mouth in a scream Amanda couldn't hear.
The lantern died.
Amanda froze in suffocating blackness of Derealization. Her pulse thundered in her ears. The whispers grew louder, now a storm around her. She dropped to her knees, clutching her ears, choking back sobs.
Then silence.
The lantern sputtered back to life on its own.
Amanda gasped. She was no longer in the same room. The house had… shifted.
The walls were darker, as though charred. The carvings glowed faintly, and at the far corner, she saw something etched larger than the rest.
A circle. Inside it, the cloaked man's figure, drawn in rough, desperate strokes.
Beneath it, her mother's writing scratched into the wood:
"I could not escape him. Amanda must not trust the Keepers. If she sees his smile it is already too late."
Amanda's knees went weak. Tears blurred her vision.
A sudden noise cracked behind her footsteps on the rotting floorboards. Slow. Heavy. Coming closer.
Amanda spun, lantern trembling in her hand.
The hall was empty.
But in the glass of the lantern, reflected faintly, was a smile.
Not hers.
(Chapter 6) The mysterious Vanishing
The house of silence clung to Amanda long after she left it.
Even in the safety of her own room, she still felt the whisper of voices in her ears, still saw the faint reflection of that smile flickering in the lantern glass.
But the next morning, the village woke to something far worse.
Chioma was gone.
Amanda heard it before she even stepped outside. A rising panic in the air shouts, wails, the frantic calling of a name. She pushed through the crowd gathering in the square, her chest tightening as she saw Chioma's mother on her knees, sobbing, clutching her headscarf.
"She never came house ," the woman wailed. "She was here last night and now she's gone!"
Amanda's heart sank. Her best friend. The only one who believed her.
Villagers spoke over one another in frantic tones:
"The curse has begun."
"The stars took her."
"No it's her."
Dozens of eyes shifted toward Amanda.
Her throat went dry. She stepped back, but the crowd pressed closer. Fear had hardened into suspicion, and suspicion into anger.
"She brings the shadow upon us!" someone shouted.
"First the marks, now this!" another spat.
Amanda shook her head violently. "No! I would never Chioma is my friend! I had nothing to do with this!"
But her words fell into a sea of distrust ears.
Then, from the back of the crowd, a voice cut through the chaos.
It was the stranger the travel-worn man who had spoken to her at the well. He raised his hands calmly.
"Blaming her will not bring the girl back," he said firmly. "You fools are too blind to see the truth. This is not her doing it is the one who follows her. The one bound to the stars."
The villagers murmured, unsettled. Some drew back, whispering about outsiders meddling. Others sneered. But the tension thinned just enough for Amanda to slip away.
Her breath came in ragged gasps as she ran, the cloth around her arm damp with sweat. The mark pulsed harder, as though mocking her.
She stumbled to the edge of the forest, collapsing against a tree. Tears blurred her vision.
"Chioma," she whispered. "Where are you?"
A rustle.
Amanda's head snapped up.
Through the trees, she saw him.
The cloaked man again
Closer than ever. He stood between the trunks, unmoving, his face hidden. But this time, Amanda swore she saw something something clutched in his hand. Fabric.
A scarf.
Chioma's scarf.
Amanda's scream tore through the forest, but no sound escaped her lips.
The world seemed to hold its breath. The man tilted his head slowly, then stepped back into the shadows and vanished, leaving only silence.
Amanda fell to her knees, clutching her burning arm.
She knew now.
This wasn't coincidence.
The shadow was taking them her loved ones one by one.
And she was next.
(CHAPTER 7) – Into the Forest
Amanda didn't sleep.
Chioma's absence gnawed at her, with a heavy tears on her face.the image of the cloaked man holding that scarf replayed again and again in her mind.
By dawn, she knew what she had to do. She couldn't wait for answers anymore.
She had to follow him.
The forest was forbidden. Everyone in the village knew that. Hunters who went too deep never returned. Strange sounds echoed at night, and lights that weren't lanterns flickered between the trees.
But Amanda pushed forward, her lantern swinging in one hand, her mother's diary clutched in the other. Each step into the forest felt heavier, like the ground itself wanted her to turn back.
The deeper she went, the quieter it became. No birds, no insects, not even the rustle of wind in the leaves. Only her breathing, shallow and uneven.
Then she heard it.
Footsteps. Ahead of her. Slow. Deliberate.
Her chest tightened. She raised the lantern
And there he was.
The cloaked man.
He stood between two twisted trees, his form taller than she remembered, his presence heavier. For the first time, Amanda noticed the air around him shimmered faintly, as though the very world bent toward him.
Her arm seared with pain, the mark glowing faintly beneath the cloth.
"Wait!" she cried, though her voice trembled. "Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?"
He didn't answer. He never did. He only lifted his hand and pointed deeper into the forest.
Amanda's pulse hammered. Against every instinct screaming at her to run, she followed.
The trees bent unnaturally as though forming a path. The ground grew damp, roots twisting like veins beneath her feet. Her lantern flickered, struggling to stay alive.
Then, suddenly, the forest opened into a clearing.
At its center stood an altar.
Carved from black stone, slick with moss, and older than anything Amanda had ever seen. Symbols covered it the same ones from her mother's diary, the same ones carved into her mother's House
The cloaked man stood beside it, motionless. Waiting.
Amanda's knees weakened. She staggered closer, her lantern casting weak light over the altar. And there dried stains. Dark, rust-colored. She didn't want to admit what they were, but deep inside she already knew.
Blood.
The diary slipped from her trembling hands. It fell open at random, and Amanda gasped.
There it was drawn in her mother's hand the same altar. And beneath the sketch, words scrawled in desperation:
"This is where it begins. This is where it ends. The Second Light must never awaken."
Amanda's breath caught. Second Light. She whispered the words aloud.
The cloaked man turned his hood toward her. Slowly.
And for the first time, Amanda felt it. A voice inside her head not spoken aloud, but pressing, heavy, undeniable.
"You are the Second Light."
Her lantern shattered. Darkness swallowed the clearing.
And in that darkness, Amanda saw eyes.
Dozens. Watching from the trees.
She wasn't alone.
{Chapter 8} – Blood Moon
The night sky bled red.
Every villager gathered in the square, their faces pale under the crimson glow. Half knelt in trembling worship, the other half clutched charms and amulets, muttering desperate prayers.
Amanda stood at the edge, her arm burning like fire beneath the cloth. The mark glowed through the fabric now, pulsing with the rhythm of the twin stars overhead. Each thump felt like it was syncing with her heartbeat.
Elias an unknown guardian who knew more about the prophecy was beside her, his face grim. "It's begun," he whispered. "The Blood Moon calls the Shadow."
And then Amanda heard it deep and resonant. A sound like hundreds of voices speaking in unison, rising from the earth itself. The villagers gasped as shadows lengthened unnaturally, stretching toward the altar outside the village.
The cloaked man appeared.
Not walking. Not emerging. Simply there. One moment the square was empty then his form towered before them, hood low, cloak rippling without wind. The villagers fell silent, some bowing, others screaming.
The mark on Amanda's arm flared so hot she screamed. Her knees buckled, and Elias caught her.
The cloaked man lifted his head slowly. For the first time, he spoke not with a voice, but inside Amanda's mind.
"The Second Light… awakens."
The villagers wailed. Some shouted that Amanda was chosen. Others cursed her as the curse itself. In the chaos, the cloaked man raised a hand, and every torch in the square extinguished at once.
Darkness swallowed them all.
(Chapter 9 )– The Betrayal
Amanda and Elias barely escaped the square, fleeing into the forest. Her body felt heavy, as though the mark was dragging her toward the altar.
But worse awaited.
As they reached a clearing, figures stepped out from the shadows. Hooded, robed, torches burning red. The Keepers of the Second Light.
Amanda's stomach dropped. Their leader stepped forward, lowering his hood. Amanda's breath froze.
It was someone she trusteda villager, one who had always smiled kindly at her, one who had even comforted her after her mother's death. Now his face was sharp with cold devotion.
"You were never meant to run, Amanda," he said softly. "You were meant to fulfill what your mother could not."
Elias drew his blade, but the Keepers outnumbered them. Amanda was seized, dragged toward the altar deep in the forest. She screamed Elias's name, but he was struck down, vanishing in the chaos.
The cloaked man waited at the altar, silent, smiling.
The leader of the Keepers leaned to Amanda's ear. "Do you know why your mother died? Because she defied him. You cannot."
Amanda's tears blurred the world as the ritual began.
(Chapter 10) – The Second Light
The Blood Moon reached its peak. The two stars pulsed faster, their light flooding the altar.
Amanda's body convulsed as the mark spread across her skin like fire, twisting into new shapes, consuming her. She screamed as her veins glowed.
The cloaked man raised his hands, shadows coiling around him like serpents. The Keepers chanted, their voices one with the stars.
Elias appeared suddenly, bloodied but alive, cutting down two of the cultists. He fought his way to Amanda, shouting: "Fight it! You are not theirs! The stars don't choose you do!!!!
Amanda's vision blurred. She saw her mother in flashes crying, carving the warnings, writing in fear. Her voice echoed faintly: "Amanda… forgive me…"
A Shadow's voice thundered in her skull: "Accept me. Become the Second Light, and the world bends to you."
The altar shook, the sky cracked, and Amanda stood between two destinies become the vessel, or resist and risk
{The Resolution.}
The altar trembled, splitting down the middle as the stars burned like fire above. Amanda's body glowed, her veins lit with the mark, her screams piercing through the cultists' chants.
The cloaked man towered, shadows twisting around him like endless wings. His hollow voice roared inside her head:
"You are mine. Chosen. Vessel of the Second Light!"
Amanda staggered, torn between collapse and surrender. Then Elias's voice cut through the storm.
"Amanda! Your mother didn't die for you to kneelshe died to give you a chance to stand!"
The words struck deeper than any blade. In a blinding flash, Amanda saw her mother's face not broken and afraid, but standing strong, holding the same burning mark before it consumed her. She whispered:
"Finish what I could not."
Amanda's scream became a roar.
The mark surged, not as a chain, but as a weapon. Light erupted from her arm, flooding her body, blasting away the shadows that tried to consume her. The cloaked man reeled back, his formless face twisting, his endless eyes shrinking in fear.
"No…" he hissed. "You cannot resist me. I am eternal."
Amanda raised her hand, light blazing like a second sun under the Blood Moon.
"You are eternal only if I choose you."
And then she chose.
With a final cry, Amanda unleashed all the power of the Second Light not into surrender, but into destruction. The altar shattered, the cultists screamed as the shadows burst apart, and the cloaked man shrieked as his form dissolved into nothingness.
The red stars pulsed one last time then blinked out.
Silence.
Amanda collapsed into Elias's arms. The mark on her arm slowly faded, leaving only a scar. The night sky cleared, the moon silver again. For the first time in generations, no whispers followed the wind.
The curse was broken.
But the price was written in blood. Dozens were lost, the village forever scarred, and Amanda would never again look at the stars without remembering what they once demanded.
Yet she survived. She had ended the cycle her mother could not.
The Second Light was no longer a curse it was a choice.
Epilogue
Years later, Amanda stood on the hill where it all began. She looked up at the sky.
Only one star shone where once there had been two.
Elias stepped beside her. "Think it's over?" he asked.
Amanda's lips trembled into a faint smile.
"Yes. Because if it isn't… I'll be ready."
The wind whispered through the trees, not with fear, but with freedom from the Curse.
The End.
Author_ {Dãmié Bøy}🧸✍️♥️📿