Chapter 4
996 Words
Eli
The Body
The days since the mirror shattered had blurred together—sleepless hours, candlelit notes, and maps pinned with red string like a lunatic’s diary. I hadn’t spoken to Juliet since the tunnels. I wasn’t sure if I could.
Not with the visions crawling back into me like roots.
It started small. A flicker of movement in the corner of my eye. Shadows that didn’t match my own. But tonight—tonight was different.
It was hunting hour.
---
I was walking through Spitalfields when I felt it.
That shift in the air. That pressure in my chest, like hands wrapped tight around my ribs.
Someone was following me.
Fast.
I cut left down a narrow alley, boots splashing through a puddle that smelled like rotting flowers and iron. Turned again. Then again. I should’ve lost them.
But they were still there.
Closer.
I ran.
Something snarled behind me. Not human. Not fully. My heart thundered like war drums in my ears. I reached for the blade tucked behind my coat—the one Juliet said once belonged to the original guardian.
And then—
Darkness.
---
When I came to…
My hands were soaked in blood.
Not mine.
The alley was quiet now. Too quiet. The fog had swallowed the city whole.
And there, beneath me—
A body.
Male. Twenties. Throat slashed open. Eyes glassy. Mouth stuck mid-scream.
There was a symbol carved into his chest. A jagged spiral wrapped in thorns.
I backed away, heart racing, vision swimming. My breathing turned erratic.
Did I do this?
Did I—
A crunch of gravel.
I spun, weapon ready.
But no one was there.
Only the words, whispered through the fog, like a lover in mourning:
> “One by one, they’ll fall... until you remember who you are.”
My hands shook.
Not from fear.
From familiarity.
This kill… felt right.
And that terrified me more than anything.
I wiped the blade first.
Not because it would save me—nothing could if someone found this scene—but because it felt instinctual. Automatic.
The rain hadn’t come yet, but the fog was wet enough to leave streaks across the sidewalk. I dragged the body deeper into the alley’s shadows, breathing in quick, shallow bursts. My stomach lurched. I tasted bile and guilt.
> “Think, Eli, think.”
I didn’t recognize him. Whoever he was. His eyes were still open.
My fingers itched to close them, to offer some shred of dignity, but I couldn’t. My hands weren’t clean enough.
That’s when I heard it.
Bootsteps. Deliberate. Confident. Not rushing. Not scared.
Juliet stepped into the alley like it belonged to her.
Black coat. Red scarf. A flicker of something cold in her eyes.
She stopped when she saw the body.
She didn’t flinch.
Didn’t scream.
Just looked at me. Bloody. Lost. Standing over a corpse like I’d stepped out of a myth.
> “So it’s started,” she said softly.
I opened my mouth. “I didn’t—I don’t remember doing it.”
> “That’s because you didn’t,” she said.
> “He did.”
My stomach clenched. “Who?”
Juliet’s voice was quiet. Like a prayer recited over a grave.
“The part of you that never died.”
“The part of your father that never left.”
She walked toward me slowly, pulling a silver pendant from beneath her shirt. The same spiral that had been carved into the victim’s chest.
“That mark,” she said, crouching by the body. “It’s not a threat. It’s a summons.”
I staggered back. “To what?”
Juliet looked up at me. “To war.”
“The Chosen have found you.”
“And they’re testing if the Ripper’s Son will join them…”
“Or be the one to end them.”
Juliet stood, the pendant swinging between her fingers.
“The spiral is older than the Ripper,” she said. “Older than your father. It was the mark of the first Reaper’s Chosen—a calling to those born under the Black Eclipse.”
I swallowed thickly. “What the hell is a Black Eclipse?”
“A celestial alignment that hasn't happened in centuries,” she replied. “It tears open a rift. Allows things… things that should stay dead to slip through. Every Chosen is born during one. So was he. So were you.”
I felt my knees give out.
“It’s not just your father’s blood, Eli. It’s the moment you were born. You’re not just his son—you’re part of the same curse.”
She didn’t offer comfort. She didn’t lie.
She handed me a folded map, stained with ash.
“This body won’t be the last. And they won’t all be strangers.”
I stared at her, afraid to ask.
“You’ll kill people you love, Eli,” she said. “Unless you leave. Now.”
---
Later That Night
I packed light.
Passport. Knife. The old key Juliet gave me. And the journal my mother left me, the one I swore I’d never open again.
London wasn’t safe. Not for me. Not for anyone near me.
I told myself I’d come back when I had answers.
But part of me knew—if I left now, I might never come back at all.
---
As I reached the train station, my vision fractured again.
No warning. No whisper.
Just darkness.
A flash of chains. Screams layered over laughter. A spiral drawn in blood across a mirror.
Then—I was back.
Only, I wasn’t alone.
A figure stood on the far platform. Hooded. Still.
Even with the fog and distance—I felt him.
A pull. Like gravity reversed. Like my bones remembered him before I did.
And though I couldn’t see his face, I knew…
He was one of the Chosen.
And he was waiting for me to run.
- Writer
