**Chapter One: The New World**
The sky was wrong.
That was Mike's first thought as he stumbled out of the school gates, his backpack dangling from one limp hand. The clouds didn't drift—they *churned*, a slow, sick whirlpool of crimson and bruise-purple, as if the heavens themselves were rotting. The air smelled like burnt copper, thick and metallic, coating his tongue with every shallow breath.
Around him, the city pulsed with uneasy life. People glanced upward, murmuring. A street vendor paused mid-transaction, his fingers tightening around a customer's change. Somewhere, a dog howled.
Then—
A sound.
Not a scream. Not thunder.
Something *deeper*. A vibration, a subsonic hum that rattled Mike's teeth in his skull. His stomach lurched. The sidewalk trembled under his sneakers.
And then the screaming started.
Mike spun, his heart hammering. Down the block, a woman pointed at the sky, her mouth stretched wide in silent terror. Others followed her gaze—and froze.
The clouds *parted*.
A hand—no, a *thing*—reached through.
Fingers like skyscrapers, skin the color of storm-smoothed stone, cracked and shifting like tectonic plates grinding against each other. It blotted out the light, its shadow swallowing the street whole.
Mike's breath hitched. His legs locked.
*Move. MOVE.*
His mother's voice cut through the haze. **"Mike!"**
She sprinted toward him, her work heels abandoned, her blouse flapping like a flag. Her arms stretched out—not for an embrace, but to *push him away*, to shove him behind her.
Too late.
The giant's palm crashed down.
The world exploded.
Concrete erupted like geysers. Cars flipped like toys. A shockwave hurled Mike backward, his skull cracking against asphalt. White stars burst behind his eyelids.
When his vision cleared, his mother was gone.
The street where she'd stood was a crater.
Mike didn't scream. Didn't cry. His body moved without him, scrambling onto all fours, then lurching upright. His ears rang. His knees shook.
A hand grabbed his wrist—warm, familiar.
**Mena.**
Her dark hair was matted with dust, her uniform torn at the shoulder. Blood trickled from her nose, but her grip was iron. **"Mike. *Run.*"**
He didn't argue.
They sprinted, weaving through panicked crowds, ducking into alleys where the shadows writhed like living things. The earth groaned beneath them, fissures spiderwebbing across the pavement. Behind them, the giant *breathed*—a sound like a collapsing mine, wet and grinding.
Mena yanked him behind a overturned bus. **"We need to get underground,"** she gasped. **"The subway—"**
A metallic screech drowned her out.
The giant's fingers curled around a office tower. Glass rained down like jagged hail.
Mike's lungs burned. His pulse roared in his ears.
Mena tugged him forward again, her nails biting into his skin. **"Don't look back. *Don't stop.*"**
They ran.
Past burning cars. Past bodies half-buried in rubble. Past a toddler wailing beside a shattered stroller.
Mike's vision blurred. His mother's face flickered in his mind—her smile, the way she'd ruffled his hair that morning.
Gone.
*Gone.*
A blue light flashed at the edge of his sight.
Then—
***Pain.***
The world upended. Mike's body left the ground, hurled skyward by an impact he never saw coming. The giant's palm closed around him, cold and impossibly vast.
Darkness swallowed him.
---
**Consciousness returned in fragments.**
Cool concrete against his cheek. The taste of blood. Mena's voice, ragged with sobs.
**"Mike…? Mike! *Wake up!*"**
He groaned. His ribs screamed. His fingers twitched, brushing against something wet—his own blood, pooling beneath him.
Above him, the giant loomed.
But it wasn't attacking.
It was… *waiting.*
Mike's vision swam. For a heartbeat, the world sharpened—the blue glow seared behind his eyes again, the number **ONE** flashing like a neon sign in his skull.
Then it vanished.
Mena's grip on his shoulders tightened. **"Mike, please—"**
Her voice cut off.
Mike blinked up at her. Saw the exact moment her fear twisted into something worse.
*Recognition.*
*Horror.*
Her hands jerked away as if burned.
**"I… I can't,"** she whispered.
And then she ran.
Mike lay there, broken and alone, as the giant's shadow stretched over him.
Somewhere in the ruins, a clocktower chimed.
The giant smiled.
Mike's fists clenched. The ghost of blue light flickered at the edges of his vision.
**ONE.**
The world held its breath.
Mike stood up looking at the giant and said
"Ha, haha ,HAHAHAH, mena as he looked ate the sky meeeeee ..... Na
To Be Continued…