The morning arrived quietly, but nothing felt ordinary. I still carried the weight of the previous night's presence, the strange sensation of having been observed, and at the same time, touched by something I couldn't explain. The necklace weighed on my neck, cold, yet pulsing in a way that seemed to follow my heartbeat.
On the way to the lab, I noticed details that had previously gone unnoticed. Every glance from the people around me seemed to carry a subtle emotion, even when they said nothing. And suddenly, I realized something more: even before Pedri approached me to ask if I had brought the notes, I already knew exactly what he would say, his tone, the pause before the word "notes." My body moved before him, handing over the notebook with the answer before he even asked. I froze for a moment, confused, as if my own brain had betrayed me.
At the lab, Zade was there again. He walked among the interns calmly, but something about him carried a dense energy, compressing the air around him. And beside him, a teenage boy shifted with a sullen expression. There was something unsettling about the boy; he resembled Zade, a younger version, but his gaze carried the same intensity, the same nearly tangible coldness. It made no sense, yet the feeling I had when I looked at him was immediate alertness—an instinct I couldn't name.
Meanwhile, I tried to focus on the samples, but everything felt distorted. I noticed Pedri's thoughts before he spoke them. I could see an aura of light, simple intentions, an almost transparent outline of his emotions. I experienced a strange clarity: small intentions, future gestures, even a smile he would give. But when I looked at Zade or the boy, I could not penetrate. Something in them was too closed off, blocked, impossible to decipher. It left me uneasy, as if I had stumbled onto something larger than my understanding.
The day passed slowly, and when I finally went for a walk in the city, I sought fresh air to organize my thoughts. I wandered aimlessly through streets I knew by heart, until fate—or something that seemed to guide me—led me to the central square.
There she was again. She sat on a bench, reading a book. The late afternoon light illuminated her hair, and every gesture seemed perfectly natural. Noticing my approach, she lifted her eyes and looked at me. This time, her pause lasted longer. Something in her presence paralyzed me, and without realizing it, I moved closer, sitting a few meters away, trying to disguise my curiosity.
When she finally spoke, her voice was low, almost musical:
"You seem lost."
"No… just distracted," I replied, swallowing hard, unable to look away.
There was something about her that held me, not by appearance, but by the silent energy that seemed to expand toward me. No matter how hard I tried to maintain composure, my heart raced, my thoughts jumbled. Every gesture of hers, the tilt of her body, the way she looked at me… it was as if my body reacted before my mind could process it.
"I'm Luna," she said, extending her hand this time, almost like a silent invitation.
My stomach twisted. The mere mention of her name, the closeness, the natural way she introduced herself, left me speechless. I took her hand, feeling something vibrant, almost electric. A shiver ran through my arm, and for a moment, I felt that I could understand a bit of what she conveyed without words.
"Ana," I finally said, almost whispering, the sound of my own name strange in my ears.
We stayed like that for a few moments, simply breathing the same air, until something changed. A shadow began to form in the square. Initially faint, then taking shape. It was not human, yet moved with real weight, its feet gliding over the ground without touching it. The energy it radiated was cold and dense, as if it were sucking the warmth from around it.
Luna noticed it before I did and instinctively stepped back, pulling me behind her. My entire body trembled. I looked at the figure—tall, dark, with an aura that seemed to corrode the light around it. It whispered my name, but this time it did not sound like a real voice. It echoed directly in my mind, cold, threatening:
"Ana… come to me…"
I felt my heart almost stop. The necklace vibrated intensely, as if reacting to the presence of the shadow. A scream ripped from Pedri's throat in the distance, and I looked at Zade, who stood in the square, watching without moving a muscle. Beside him, the teenage boy—suddenly, his name surfaced in my mind—Jace—twisted, but his eyes were completely empty, reflecting only the advancing shadow.
Luna held my hand tightly, pulling me behind a tree. I took a deep breath, trying to organize my thoughts, but the sense of danger was palpable. The shadow advanced, and for a moment, the world seemed reduced to the cold, the weight of darkness, and her presence: Luna, standing firm, as if protecting me from something I still could not understand.
When I finally regained enough composure to look again, the shadow vanished in a snap of cold air, leaving something behind: the air felt heavier, the ground damp, and a sense of warning, of imminent threat, hung over us.
I gripped the necklace, feeling its vibration travel through every nerve in my body. I looked at Luna, still standing there, eyes fixed on me, and understood—without words—that something greater had begun.