He stared at his hands.
They were shaking.
He didn't want to go back.
But…
Something told him he might not have a choice.
Not for long.
---
Kade dragged himself out of bed, drenched in sweat. The nightmare clung to his skin like oil—thick, heavy, choking. His sheets were twisted around his legs like restraints, and his lungs felt too small to hold the air he was gasping in.
His feet hit the floor with a dull thud.
And for a minute, he just sat there—elbows on knees, head in his hands, eyes still burning from whatever the hell he'd seen in his dreams. But it wasn't just a dream. He knew that. Felt it in his bones. That thing in the alley, the one with too many eyes and that broken static voice, it wasn't going away just because the sun came up.
He blinked down at his wrist.
Still there.
That thing. The artifact.
No matter how much he pulled, twisted, clawed at it, the damn thing wouldn't come off. Wasn't even a bracelet, really. No seams, no latch. Just a smooth, black band clinging to his skin like it'd been there since birth.
It pulsed. Again.
Soft. Slow. Like a second heartbeat that didn't belong to him.
"Great," he muttered under his breath, rubbing the crust from his eyes. "Permanent freak status."
He stood up on legs that barely felt like his and made his way to the mirror. What stared back looked more like a ghost than a person. Pale skin, dark circles under both eyes, hair sticking up like it'd lost a fight with a tornado. He leaned in closer, searching for some kind of answer in his reflection. All he got was that same dazed expression people get when the world flips sideways and nothing feels real anymore.
Outside, the city was alive.
Dogs barking, traffic humming, some guy yelling at a honking car that didn't care about his rage. People sipping lattes, scrolling phones, laughing like monsters didn't crawl out of the dark.
Kade?
He couldn't stop hearing the sound of flesh tearing. Couldn't stop hearing Ren's voice echoing in his skull.
It chose you.
He shook his head hard. "No. Not my fight," he whispered again, like saying it enough times might make it true. Like the universe might take pity on him and rewind the tape a few days.
He threw on a hoodie, shoved his hands deep in the pockets, and stepped outside. Maybe some fresh air would shake the memory loose. Maybe a walk would help him pretend, even for a minute, that this was still his life.
---
The streets felt...off.
He didn't know how else to describe it. The air had weight, like breathing through wet cloth. People moved around him, sure, but they felt like shadows. Their faces were tight. Eyes darting. Nobody smiling. No birds chirping overhead. No breeze.
Just a stillness that pressed into his ears and sat heavy on his chest.
He wandered with no real direction, just letting his feet carry him through the noise and silence, through blocks he used to know and corners that looked different now. And then—
The alley.
Of course it would be the same one.
He stopped a few feet away, pulse thudding like a warning drum in his chest. His eyes scanned the spot where it happened. Where that monster bled out smoke. Where the artifact had rolled across the cracked pavement like it had been waiting for him. Like it knew.
Kade swallowed hard, jaw clenched. His body tensed on instinct, like it remembered everything he was trying not to.
A chill slid down his spine like a finger tracing bone.
He turned.
Nothing.
But the feeling didn't go away.
He walked faster, cutting through the alley past dumpsters and torn posters, past the flickering light overhead that buzzed like it was trying to say something.
Then—
A hiss.
Low. Wet. Wrong.
Kade stopped cold.
Spun around.
And there it was.
Smaller than the last one, but stitched together with the same nightmare logic. Like a corpse someone tried to fix with a hammer and a blindfold. Bone jutted out in the wrong places. Skin hung loose, twitching like it was trying to crawl away from the thing it covered.
It stepped forward.
Scraping one claw across the brick wall.
Sparks flew.
Kade's heart jumped straight into his throat. "You've gotta be kidding me…"
No weapon.
No backup.
Just a half-dead kid with a hoodie and a blood-pressure problem.
The thing lunged.
Kade dove left, hit the pavement hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Pain stabbed through his shoulder, but he was moving before he even thought about it—rolling, scrambling to his feet, scanning the alley.
The Hollowborn tilted its head, that awful hiss rattling out again like broken glass in a blender.
Kade grabbed the first thing he saw—a rusted pipe leaning against a trash bin—and swung as the creature charged.
CLANG.
The pipe struck its ribs. Barely did a damn thing.
The metal bent.
The Hollowborn swiped at him. Kade ducked low, felt claws miss his face by inches. He swung again, this time low—crack against the legs. The thing stumbled.
And then—
The artifact pulsed.
Hard.
Like lightning through his veins.
The world stuttered. Slowed.
He could feel it now. The creature. Not with his eyes or ears, but deeper. Like his body understood what it was going to do before it did it. Like instinct got downloaded straight into his bones.
It swiped.
He moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
Breathing evened out. Hands steadied. The pipe felt right in his grip now.
He slammed it across the thing's jaw.
Crunch.
The Hollowborn reeled back.
And then—
Smoke.
Gone.
Kade stood in the alley alone, heart punching against his ribs. His hands trembled around the dented pipe. Every nerve was buzzing. He felt electric. Raw.
"What the hell…" he breathed.
The artifact gave one last soft thump against his wrist, then went still.
He looked around.
Empty.
Dead quiet.
He dropped the pipe and stumbled out of the alley, his breath ragged, his shirt sticking to his back with sweat. Blood on his sleeve. Dirt on his jeans.
Didn't matter who saw.
Didn't matter if they stared.
He wasn't running anymore.
He needed answers.
He needed the truth.
And there was only one place that had it.
The warehouse.
He was going back.
---
To be continued...