The portals shimmered into existence like slashes across reality, clean, precise, and unnatural.
Two more Awakened.
I didn't need to be told.
The air bent around them with that unmistakable weight, the kind that made your skin crawl and your instincts scream.
They didn't even hesitate.
No dramatic declarations, no glances back.
Just the smooth flick of a wrist and the ripple of dimensional energy.
The rest of us?
We watched with wide eyes and starving hope.
Some people rushed toward them, desperation turning to begging.
Men and women both, faces streaked with dirt and fear, pleaded to be taken with them.
Their voices cracked with the rawness of hope, a kind that should never be crushed.
"Please! Let us through!"
"Take my daughter! Please, just her!"
"Don't leave us here! Please!"
The first man didn't even blink.
The way she ignored them, she might as well have been deaf.
But the second one… he laughed.
A sharp, mocking sound that cut deeper than any blade.
