Late Afternoon – Rooftop Hangout Spot
The sun dipped lower, casting a warm, fading glow over the rooftops of the neighborhood. But warmth didn't mean safety anymore.
The rooftop was their escape—a place of dumb jokes, old snacks, and fake debates about which anime protagonist would survive in their world. But today, the silence between them felt louder than anything they could say.
Rudran, Zayn, Arin, and Hiro sat in their usual circle, legs stretched out, backs against the weather-stained parapet. The sounds of the neighborhood below—honking rickshaws, distant temple bells, a vendor's fading call—flickered in and out like background noise from another lifetime.
Zayn scrolled through his beat-up tablet, fingers swiping with practiced boredom. But his voice was tight when he finally spoke.
"Seventeen more cracks confirmed," he said. "Brazil. Kenya. Japan. And…" He paused, squinting at the screen. "Some of the Awakened are kids."
"Kids?" Arin echoed, eyebrows rising.
"Yeah. Like eight or nine. A girl in Delhi lit up like a star. Burned straight through a wall."
"Stars aren't supposed to burn through walls," Hiro muttered, arms folded, eyes on the sky.
"They'll use them," he added after a moment. "Mark them. Train them. Turn them into weapons."
"Not us," Arin said sharply, kicking an empty soda can. "If we awaken… we stay us. No collars. No orders. No one telling us what to be."
Zayn didn't respond. He just nodded and looked away.
Rudran sat quietly, fingers curled around a lukewarm soda bottle, his gaze locked on the golden clouds unraveling above them. He wasn't listening to the conversation anymore—he was listening to the stillness inside him. The pulse beneath his skin that didn't feel like his own.
Zayn turned to him. "You alright?"
Rudran hesitated, then nodded. "If it comes for us… this change… we'll stay together, right?"
"Of course we will," Arin said instantly, bumping shoulders with him.
"We protect each other," Hiro added, voice firm. "That's the rule."
Rudran smiled faintly. It was the kind of smile you wear like armor—thin, temporary, and full of weight.
> I can't risk them.
Not with this thing inside me.
If I lose control… I could hurt them. I could destroy everything.
The sun dropped lower. Shadows stretched across the rooftop, but Rudran's was longer than it should've been—darker, flickering at the edges like it didn't belong entirely in this world.
But no one noticed.
---
That Night – Edge of the Forest, Outside the City
The noise of the city fell away like a fading dream. Streetlights gave way to trees, and trees gave way to silence.
Rudran's hoodie was pulled up, hands in his pockets, head low as he walked the worn path into the forest. Each step felt heavier than the last, but not with fear—with responsibility. With something deeper.
He reached the clearing. The one that had changed everything. It looked the same—wild, empty, forgotten. But to him, it was a threshold.
This was where he'd heard the voice. Where the shadow had stirred. Where the truth had started to bleed through the seams of his reality.
He sat on the cold earth, legs crossed, palms resting on his knees. His breath slowed. His eyes closed.
> "I'm not here to fight you," he whispered. "I'm here to understand."
For a moment, there was nothing. Then… movement.
From his back, shadows began to rise—four of them, silent and ethereal, curling upward like smoke mixed with starlight. They didn't attack. They didn't even threaten. They watched.
They were him.
Each moved with intent, like extensions of a thought he hadn't fully formed yet.
One of them pointed—toward the deeper forest. Toward the dark.
Rudran followed its gesture with his eyes. He didn't know what waited there. A memory? A power? A piece of himself?
He didn't care.
> If I don't control this… someone I love will pay the price.
He stood slowly, brushing dirt from his palms. His hoodie shifted, and the shadows responded—hovering just behind him, like guardians. Or chains.
> "You're not just a curse," he said to them. "You're part of me. And if I'm going to protect them… I need to master you."
The wind whispered through the branches. The shadows rippled in reply.
And Rudran took a step forward—into the dark.
Not to run from it.
But to own it.
---