It was 3:12 AM when the silence broke.
Alex stood in front of the window, eyes fixed on the rooftop across the street. The figure was still there—motionless, face cloaked in shadow, limbs too long, posture too… wrong.
A human would have blinked. Shivered. Looked away.
This one didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't feel real.
Alex's fingers twitched. A part of him wanted to write it off as sleep-deprived hallucination. Another part, the smarter part—the part that always saw patterns—knew better.
The figure raised its head.
And vanished.
No blur. No leap.
Just... gone.
---
He didn't sleep after that.
The rest of the night dragged by like molasses. He tried lying down. Tried playing music. Even tried solving a math problem for the hell of it. But his thoughts kept circling back to that rooftop.
By morning, the figure was gone.
But the feeling stayed.
---
Later That Day
Ridgegate Academy was a fancy name for a half-crumbling public school trying to look prestigious. Brick walls with ivy. A bell that rang five seconds too early. Teachers that either cared too much or not at all.
Alex walked the halls like a celebrity who had decided to slum it with the commoners. Everyone knew him—either because of his looks, his brain, or his complete refusal to act like either mattered.
Today, though, he was quiet.
Not his usual charismatic quiet. Something sharper. Tense.
---
"Hey, pretty boy," someone called. "You daydreaming or calculating how to take over the world again?"
It was Jordan, football team captain and part-time clown. Tall, broad, good-natured. Alex smirked as they bumped fists.
"Little of both," Alex said. "But I'll start with the vending machines."
"You're weird, man."
"I prefer 'mentally majestic.'"
---
By sunset, clouds rolled in—thick and gray, like bruises across the sky.
Alex stood at the edge of the school lot, backpack slung lazily over one shoulder. Something itched beneath his skin. Like the world was humming in a key only he could hear.
He was supposed to go home.
He didn't.
He walked instead.
---
Into the Trees
The woods behind the school were off-limits. Technically. But that had never stopped Alex—or anyone looking for a thrill.
He stepped between the trees, the smell of earth and pine hitting his senses like a memory he never had. The deeper he went, the quieter the world became. No birds. No wind. Just... breath.
And then he heard it.
A growl.
Low. Wet. Hungry.
He spun, eyes scanning—nothing.
Then he saw it.
Half-shadow, half-flesh. Towering. Eyes like twin moons—white and endless. Fur blacker than the sky. Fangs glinting beneath lips curled in silent fury.
The wolf stepped forward.
Alex couldn't move.
---
It lunged.
He tried to dodge. Too late.
The bite came fast—hot, sharp, real. It tore into his shoulder, sent him sprawling into the dirt. Pain bloomed like fire, wild and endless. His scream never made it out—cut short by something that shattered inside him.
Not bone.
Something deeper.
Something... primal.
---
The wolf stopped.
It stared down at him—not angry. Not triumphant.
Almost… confused.
Then it turned.
And ran.
---
Alex lay there, chest heaving, blood soaking his hoodie. But the pain didn't stay. It changed. Spread. Like lightning threading through his veins. Like a million voices whispering inside him in languages he didn't speak but understood.
His skin burned. His bones cracked. His heartbeat shifted—a rhythm not his own.
Then came the cold.
Not outside. Inside.
His body rebuilding itself.
And for the first time in his life—
He screamed.
---
Far away, in a place no human could reach, a god of war opened one eye.
Elsewhere, a blade once sealed in the heart of a dying star began to tremble.
And deep beneath the veil of the world, something watched Alex's scream echo through the void.