Theo always loved the stars. They made him feel small. Safe, even.
Until the night he found the signal.
He was an amateur radio astronomer, scanning deep space frequencies for fun. It was supposed to be a quiet night. Instead, his computer lit up with a repeating pattern—seven tones, played backward, followed by a deep static hum.
He replayed it.
The hum vibrated in his chest.
And in his ears, he heard a whisper:
"You're looking the wrong way."
---
He laughed it off.
Posted it online.
No replies.
Not even a single view.
His internet stopped working the next day.
Then came the dreams.
Black skies. No stars. Just one enormous eye, hanging in the void, bigger than galaxies, blinking slowly—watching him.
In every dream, the same whisper:
"We see the watchers."
---
Days passed. Theo stopped sleeping. But the dreams didn't stop. They followed him into waking life. Reflections shimmered wrong. The shadows in his room moved like they were breathing.
Then, one night, he looked through his telescope…
And the stars were gone.
No constellations. Just blackness.
And something moving in it. A shape so vast, it took minutes just to realize it was turning its gaze toward Earth.
His telescope cracked. His computer exploded into static.
On the wall, letters appeared, scorched into the plaster:
"NOW YOU SEE US."
---
Theo tried to warn people. But no one believed him.
Until they saw the sky change.
The stars began to flicker out—one by one.
Like something enormous was blotting them out.
NASA denied it. Governments lied.
But we all saw it.
Now, every night, a little less of the sky remains.
And every dream ends the same:
That eye, closer.
Closer.
Watching.
Waiting.
---
Final Transmission (Recovered from Theo's Radio Station):
> *"We stared into the cosmos and begged for something to answer.
Something did.
And it was already on its way."*