Rain hammered the road in silver sheets.
Each drop struck hard enough to bounce, turning the street into a shifting mirror of distorted light. Headlights stretched across the wet surface, blurring into long streaks as cars rushed past.
The world felt loud.
Too loud.
Kael ran.
His shoes splashed through shallow water, slipping slightly with each step as he pushed forward harder than his body wanted to go. His breath came sharp and uneven, burning his throat as cold air rushed in too fast.
People shouted behind him.
Car horns blared.
But all of it faded.
Because of her.
Up ahead, through the storm and chaos, a little girl stood frozen in the middle of the street.
She wasn't moving.
Wasn't crying.
Wasn't even looking around.
Just standing there.
A horn screamed.
Closer.
Louder.
Too close.
"MOVE!" someone shouted.
She didn't.
Kael didn't think.
He didn't calculate.
He didn't hesitate.
He ran.
Faster.
For one brief second, everything slowed.
The rain.
The lights.
The sound.
The world narrowed to a single moment.
His hand reaching out.
The girl's wide eyes finally shifting toward him.
The blinding white of headlights swallowing everything.
Then—
Impact.
And then—
Nothing.
…
The first thing he felt was heat.
Not warmth.
Heat.
Dry.
Suffocating.
The second—
Ash.
It clung to his skin.
His clothes.
His lungs.
Kael's eyes snapped open.
The sky above him wasn't gray.
Wasn't dark.
It was red.
Not sunset red.
Not natural.
A deep, endless red that stretched across the sky like something had painted it there and forgotten to fix it.
Smoke drifted through the air in slow, curling waves. The wind carried embers across the ground, tiny sparks that refused to die.
Kael pushed himself up.
Pain hit immediately.
Sharp.
Everywhere.
"What…?"
His voice sounded wrong.
Younger.
Lighter.
He looked down.
His hands—
Smaller.
"…no."
The ground around him was blackened and broken.
Burned structures collapsed in on themselves.
Carts lay overturned.
Weapons scattered like they had been dropped mid-fight.
Bodies.
Too many.
Kael's chest tightened.
This wasn't an accident.
This was destruction.
Memories slammed into him.
Rain.
Headlights.
Pain.
Then—
A river.
A wooden house.
Warm sunlight.
A voice calling his name.
Kael.
His head throbbed as both lives collided, overlapping in jagged fragments.
He wasn't just remembering.
He was becoming.
Two existences folding into one.
"…this isn't real."
A growl echoed through the smoke.
Low.
Heavy.
Wrong.
Kael froze.
The sound didn't just reach his ears.
It settled in his chest.
Something stepped forward.
It looked like a wolf.
But it wasn't.
Its body was stretched too long, its limbs too thin. Cracks ran across its skin, glowing faintly red like something inside it was burning through. One eye socket was empty.
The other burned.
It locked onto him.
Kael's stomach dropped.
"…you've got to be kidding me."
The creature lunged.
Kael threw himself to the side.
Claws tore into the ground where he had been, sending ash and stone flying. Heat brushed his face as he rolled, scrambling backward.
His hand found something.
A broken spear.
"Okay… okay…"
The creature stalked forward.
Slow.
Confident.
Like it already knew how this would end.
Kael's heart pounded.
Too fast.
Too loud.
The beast moved again.
Kael swung.
The spear shattered instantly.
"…of course it did."
The creature crashed into him.
Pain exploded through his body as he hit the ground hard. The impact knocked the air from his lungs, leaving him gasping as claws pinned him in place.
Hot breath washed over his face.
Its jaws lowered.
This was it.
"…not like this…"
A voice answered.
Devour.
Kael's eyes widened.
"…what?"
Devour… or be devoured.
Something inside him broke.
Pain surged through his body as black veins spread across his arm and neck, crawling like cracks through glass. The air around his hand twisted, pulling inward like it was collapsing into itself.
The creature hesitated.
For the first time—
It felt something different.
Kael didn't understand.
Didn't think.
He grabbed it.
Silence.
The world stopped.
The creature convulsed violently.
The red glow inside it twisted—
Pulled—
Ripped free.
Its body collapsed into ash, drawn into Kael's hand in spiraling strands of heat and darkness.
Hunger flooded him.
Not normal hunger.
Something deeper.
Something ancient.
The creature let out one final, broken sound.
Then—
It was gone.
Kael fell onto his side, coughing.
His hand trembled.
Black smoke curled from his fingers.
"…what did I just do?"
A bell rang in the distance.
Kael looked up.
Through the smoke—
A settlement carved into stone.
And behind him—
Footsteps.
He turned.
A boy stood on a ridge above him.
Silver eyes.
Blade in hand.
Cloak shifting in the wind.
"You're alive," the boy said.
Kael swallowed.
"…yeah."
More figures appeared behind him.
Watching.
Judging.
The boy's gaze dropped to Kael's hand.
Then back to his face.
"There's a survivor," he called.
Then quieter—
"…and maybe a problem."
Inside Kael—
The voice whispered again.
Hungry.