The rest of the week passed in a blur.
Classes, assignment coffee fueled morning, everything was supposed to have gone back to normal by now but it didn't. Not when I had this strange mark on my hand which seemed to have a pulse of its own.
Ava suggested going to the hospital to have it checked out before it expanded to something even worse but for some reason that didn't seem right with me but just for peace of mind, I agreed.
The doctor said it was just a burn and I shouldn't worry too much about it and then.gave me some medication for it.
Apart from the mark, things also started to feel off around me.
The flickering light in the bathroom hadn't stopped even when the electrician claimed to have fixed it multiple times. My textbook flipped to random pages no matter how hard I tried to correct it. How the air unnaturally becomes still and silent when I was about to fall asleep as if the world itself was holding its breath.
I told myself I was just tired and stressed due to the upcoming exams and because of everything that happened recently.
Still, deep down, I knew better.
I was walking back from class on Thursday when it happened again. I cut through the alley behind the art building—a shortcut I'd taken a dozen times—and midway through, everything shifted.
The light dimmed, even though the sky above was still bright. The sounds of campus—cars, voices, birds—muffled all at once. I stopped walking.
That's when I saw it.
A shadow, just a little too solid, ducked behind a dumpster. I froze, my heart hammering. "Hello?" My voice sounded small.
No answer.
I hesitated for a moment, staring at the spot where the shadow had vanished. My heart pounded in my chest, louder than the silence around me. I told myself it was nothing—just a trick of the light, a cat darting away. But deep down, I knew I couldn't ignore the feeling that crawled along my skin, prickling with the sensation of being watched.
A breeze stirred, carrying the faintest scent of something… earthy, almost floral. It didn't make sense. There was no garden nearby, no flowers or plants to account for it. I glanced around, but no one was in sight. Just the empty campus, the quiet alleyway.
Another flicker of movement caught my eye—this time, from the corner of the building. I barely registered the sound of footsteps before a figure stepped into view.
I froze, my breath catching in my throat.
A man. Tall, his features obscured by the dimming light. His face was too perfect, like a statue carved from marble, but there was something unnatural about the sharpness of his jaw, the intensity of his gaze. Silver eyes glinted in the shadow, locking onto mine. I couldn't look away.
He didn't speak at first. His gaze traveled from my face to my wrist, where the mark still burned faintly beneath my sleeve.
"You're starting to notice," he said, his voice smooth and cold, like the sound of wind through dead leaves. It sent a shiver down my spine.
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. My pulse raced, but I couldn't move.
"Don't be afraid," he continued, though the words held no comfort. "But you're not alone anymore. The bond has been made. There's no escaping it."
I swallowed, the air around me thick and stifling. "Who… what are you?"
He stepped closer, the darkness around him clinging to him like a cloak. "I'm the one who's been watching you," he replied, his eyes gleaming with something I couldn't quite place. "And you're in far more danger than you realize."
I didn't know how to respond. I wanted to turn and run, to escape this strange man and whatever was happening, but my feet felt rooted to the ground, as if the earth itself was holding me here.
"Go home," he said softly, his voice laced with a warning I couldn't ignore. "Things are changing. And you've caught the attention of those who shouldn't know you exist."
Before I could ask him anything else, before I could make sense of his cryptic words, he disappeared into the shadows without a sound.
The world around me snapped back to normal. The sunlight returned, the sounds of the campus resumed, and the alley was empty. But the feeling of unease lingered, heavier now, as if something had just crossed a line I couldn't see.
I stumbled forward, my heart still pounding in my chest, my breath shaky. There was no sign of the man, no trace of him left behind.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever he had said, whatever I had just experienced, wasn't the end.
It was only the beginning.