The morning the portals appeared started like any other—warm sunlight, noisy street vendors, the smell of roasted yam drifting through traffic jams, and students dragging their feet toward school. Nobody expected the sky to break.
Aiden Cross didn't either.
He stood at the rusted school gate, backpack slung over one shoulder, watching the same routine pass by. Same cracked walkway. Same flickering notice board. Same students pushing through the entrance like they were being chased. Nothing felt different. Nothing warned him.
But the birds knew.
He heard them before anyone else did—hundreds of wings beating frantically, scattering out of the trees behind the school. A dark cloud of feathers rushed across the sky, heading west like something invisible had lunged at them.
Aiden frowned.
He wasn't the paranoid type, but there was something wrong in the air. A strange sharpness. A sting, almost metallic.
He brushed it off as though it was nothing, and stepped into the hallway where his friend, Marcus, was arguing with their homeroom teacher again.
"You're late," Mr. Kalu barked without looking up from his attendance sheet.
Marcus spread his arms. "Sir, the sun was too hot. My body rejected movement."
"Your mouth has never rejected movement," Mr. Kalu muttered.
A few students laughed. Aiden smirked but kept walking. He was halfway to his classroom door when everything changed.
The world… hummed.
A low, vibrating sound rolled through the air—deep, and bone-shaking. The windows rattled. The fluorescent lights flickered in a dying stutter. Papers fluttered from the notice board.
All the students went still.
The humming grew louder and louder.
Until suddenly—
Crack.
Aiden's heart jumped.
The sound wasn't from inside the building.
It came from above.
Students rushed out of the hallway and into the courtyard, craning their necks toward the sky. Aiden followed, pushing through the cluster of bodies until he reached the front.
He froze.
There, directly above the school's tallest block, the sky had split open.
A long, jagged tear glowed like molten silver, stretching wider as if invisible hands were pulling it apart. Wind whipped outward, fierce and cold, carrying dust and leaves upward into the rip.
Marcus whispered, "What… is that?"
Someone screamed from the ground.
Aiden looked down just in time to see the school security guard fall to his knees, clutching his face. His skin bubbled and twisted, dark veins crawling beneath the surface like worms.
The guard's mouth stretched unnaturally wide. He wasn't screaming anymore — He was growling.
Students backed away in panic. Some ran. Some tripped over themselves. Aiden staggered backward, adrenaline punching into his chest.
"Move!" Mr. Kalu shouted. "Everybody get inside the class! NOW!"
The mutated guard snapped his head toward the nearest student and lunged. His nails had sharpened into black claws.
Chaos exploded.
Two students dragged a girl away from the creature's swipe. Another boy fell, scrambled up, and bolted through the doorway. Panic spread faster than flame.
Aiden didn't move. He couldn't.
The sky rip widened again.
Something began crawling out.
A long, bone-white limb stretched through the tear. Then another. Then a head—wrongly shaped, elongated, with four glowing red eyes blinking out of sync. Its body dragged after it, a combination of exposed ribs and sinewy muscle, like the remains of several animals crammed together.
Marcus whispered hoarsely, "Aiden, run."
But Aiden couldn't feel his legs.
The creature from the sky landed heavily on the roof, let out a screech so sharp it sliced through Aiden's skull, and then dropped into the courtyard.
Half the students fainted. The rest screamed.
The mutated guard roared back at the new arrival, as if challenging it—but the creature didn't even look at him. Instead, its eyes locked directly onto Aiden.
A shiver climbed down Aiden's spine.
The creature tilted its head, as if studying him. Its breaths were ragged and hungry, yet curious.
Marcus tugged Aiden's sleeve. "Bro. Move. We're going to die."
Aiden stepped back slowly.
The creature mirrored the movement.
Students were shoving through doors behind him, but Aiden felt pinned in place by those four glowing eyes.
The creature's jaw trembled. Then it lunged.
Aiden's world blurred into noise.
Claws slashed toward him, he tried to jump but fell down instantly. Luckily, a hand grabbed his wrist and yanked him aside—
The creature's claws struck the wall instead, tearing concrete away.
Aiden gasped painfully. Marcus had pulled him into a classroom doorway, but the creature was already turning toward them, snarling.
"This thing is following you," Marcus said, breath shaking. "Why the heck is it following YOU?"
Aiden wanted to respond but he had no idea why.
The creature charged.
Marcus shoved Aiden into the classroom. The door slammed. A few students held it shut from inside.
The claws hit immediately.
The wood splintered and the door bent inward. Screams filled the small room.
Aiden pressed his hand against the wall to steady himself, trying to breathe, trying not to collapse.
The humming from the sky grew louder again.
No— it was not humming.
Instead, his heartbeat.
And something else too.
A faint burning spread through his shoulder. A sharp sting, then a ripple of heat. He didn't realize he had been cut until he felt something wet trickle down his arm.
The creature outside roared.
It slammed the door again.
The wood cracked.
Aiden felt the burn spread like fire under his skin. His vision swayed. The world dimmed at the edges.
Someone cried, "It's breaking through!"
A student curled under a desk. Another covered their ears and rocked back and forth.
Aiden pressed his palm harder against the wall, gasping.
Something was wrong with him.
His blood felt hot. Too hot that it felt as though it was almost glowing. His veins pulsed like they were carrying lightning instead of blood.
Outside, the creature's claws tore deeper into the door.
Aiden's knees buckled.
"Aiden!" Marcus grabbed him. "Stay with me, man—don't faint. Don't—"
Aiden didn't faint.
He was burning.
A sudden shock ran through his whole body—like an electric pulse that froze him in place. His breath caught. His vision flashed white.
Then the burning eased.
Completely.
A cold calm washed over him, deep and unnatural.
He blinked slowly.
The noise around him faded.
The fear vanished.
Everything felt… clearer.
He looked at his trembling hand.
The cut on his shoulder was gone. Completely like it wasn't there in the first place.
Marcus stared at him. "How—how did you just…?"
Before Aiden could answer, the door exploded inward.
The creature leaped through the splintered frame—
—and then it stopped.