The sky was not supposed to be that color.
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw through my tiny apartment window was a sky painted in shades of deep crimson, as if someone had spilled blood across the heavens. For a moment, I thought it was sunrise, but then I noticed something worse—the hands on my clock were frozen.
The world wasn't moving.
I sat up too quickly, my head spinning, and almost knocked over the pile of books I had carelessly stacked beside my bed. One of them slid open, and its pages fluttered even though the air was still.
I rubbed my eyes. "Aria, get it together. It's just stress."
That was what I told myself. After all, life had been nothing but stress lately. Dropping out of university, failing every part-time job I tried, ignoring my parents' disappointed calls… My life was a checklist of failures.
But even failure couldn't explain why the city outside my window was frozen mid-step.
The man delivering milk down the street stood motionless, one leg in the air. A bird hovered above the telephone wire, wings outstretched, like someone had pressed pause on the universe. Shadows stretched unnaturally across the wall of neighboring buildings, bending towards the crimson sky as if drawn to it.
And then I saw it.
A faint glow coming from the pile of books at my feet.
I pushed the stack aside and pulled out the source—a leather-bound book I didn't recognize. The cover was smooth and warm, like skin, and etched with strange symbols that shifted whenever I looked too closely.
My chest tightened. "This… isn't mine."
The moment I touched the symbol in the center, the world around me groaned. The walls of my apartment trembled. The crimson sky darkened into shades of black. Every heartbeat thundered in my ears. Could this really be happenings? Was i imagining it all?
And then someone knocked on my door.
Three slow, deliberate knocks.
My legs refused to move. Nobody ever visited me. Not neighbors, not friends. I barely had any to begin with. But the knocking came again, three more times, steady as a heartbeat. Each echo made the air feel heavier, charged with something I didn't understand
I clutched the book to my chest and forced myself to the door. My voice cracked as I whispered, "Who's there?"
No answer.
I hesitated, then unlocked the door.
The hallway outside was flooded in red light, the same shade as the sky. And in the middle of it stood a man I had never seen before.
Tall, dressed in black, with eyes the color of storm clouds. He didn't look surprised to see me. In fact, his gaze was sharp, like he had been waiting. The air around him seemed to hum, heavy and potent, as if the world itself acknowledged his presence.
"You're late," he said.
My throat dried up. "Late… for what?"
He stepped inside as if he owned the place. The air grew heavier with every stride he took. My instincts screamed to run, but my body stayed frozen.
His eyes flicked to the book in my hands. "So you found it."
I clutched it tighter. "This belongs to me. I mean—it was in my room, so—"
"That book doesn't belong to you." His voice was calm, but each word was sharp enough to cut. "It chose you."
I almost laughed. Chose me? Books didn't choose people. Books were just books. But before I could argue, the symbols on the cover began to glow brighter, spreading light across my fingers. My hands shook as if the book itself were alive , warning me, testing me.
The man's gaze softened for the first time. "So it's true. You're the one."
My chest rose and fell too quickly. "The one what?"
He leaned closer, his face only inches from mine. "The one who isn't supposed to exist in this world."
The book pulsed. My window shattered. The crimson sky outside ripped apart, like a curtain being torn down, revealing a darkness deeper than night. Shadows twisted and writhed along with the walls, drawn toward the strange energy radiating from the book.
And before I could scream, the man whispered my name "Aria" like he had known it all along.
The book burst into flames in my hands, and the stranger's voice cut through the roar "you are the one"
✨ End of Chapter 1 ✨