Prologue
807 Words
The night the storm came, the world split open.
Thunder did not roll—it roared, as though something vast and furious clawed against the sky, desperate to break through. Lightning tore across the heavens in jagged veins of white and crimson, illuminating a land that no longer felt entirely… alive.
Deep within a hidden chamber, far from prying eyes and sacred laws, a child was born.
A child who was never meant to exist.
Her cries pierced the storm—sharp, defiant, wrong. Not the fragile wail of a newborn, but something heavier, something that seemed to echo beyond the walls, beyond the forest… beyond this world itself.
Her mother lay trembling, drenched in blood and fading strength, her fingers barely strong enough to hold the tiny, trembling life against her chest. Tears streamed down her pale face as she stared at the child—at what she had done, at what she had brought into existence.
“Forgive me…” she whispered, her voice breaking like brittle glass.
The baby’s eyes flickered open.
For a moment, just a moment… they did not look human.
The air shifted.
A low hum filled the room, growing louder, deeper, until the very ground beneath them trembled. Then—
It appeared.
A tear in reality.
A bridge between worlds.
Darkness spilled from it like smoke, thick and crawling, swallowing the light whole. The storm outside surged in response, as if bowing to its presence. The boundary between life and death… between this world and something far older… had been broken.
The mother gasped, her body going rigid as the last of her strength slipped away. With shaking hands, she clutched the child closer, desperate, terrified.
“You must live…” she breathed.
And then—
Silence.
Her hand fell limp.
The storm did not stop.
Far from that chamber, beneath the same raging sky, another fate was unfolding.
The Luna ran.
Branches tore at her skin, roots clawed at her feet, but she did not slow. In her arms, her two-year-old son clung to her, his small fingers gripping her clothes as his frightened eyes darted through the shadows.
Behind them, the pack was falling.
The howls—once strong, proud—had turned into screams.
“Stay quiet,” she whispered urgently, dropping to her knees as she reached a hollow beneath an ancient tree. Her hands trembled as she gently pushed the boy inside, brushing his hair back with desperate tenderness. “No matter what you hear… no matter what happens… you do not come out.”
The child’s lip quivered, but he nodded.
He trusted her.
That trust nearly broke her.
“I will come back for you,” she promised, though her voice betrayed her.
Then she stood.
And ran back into the storm.
The wind howled louder, wilder, as though mourning what was to come.
Back at the broken veil between worlds, the darkness deepened.
The bridge widened.
And from it… they came.
Figures cloaked in decay and shadow stepped through the massive gate that had torn itself into existence—a towering arch of blackened stone pulsing with something ancient and wrong. The undead walked the earth once more, their hollow eyes glowing faintly as they spread into the night.
Then, everything stilled.
A presence emerged.
He stepped forward slowly, untouched by the chaos around him. Power clung to him like a second skin, heavy and undeniable. Around his neck rested a pendant—deep blue, its stone glowing faintly against the darkness.
His gaze fell upon the child.
The crying stopped.
As if she recognized him.
He crouched, lifting her effortlessly into his arms. For a long moment, he simply stared at her… studying, understanding.
“Interesting…” he murmured softly.
His hand came up, brushing gently over her head—a gesture almost… tender.
The storm began to quiet.
The thunder softened. The wind slowed. The raging sky calmed as though obeying his will.
In his arms, the child drifted to sleep.
And with the coming dawn, the gate began to fade.
The bridge between worlds… closed.
As if it had never been there at all.
Morning broke over a blood-soaked land.
Silence replaced the screams.
Smoke lingered where life once thrived.
From his hiding place beneath the tree, the boy crawled out.
The world felt… wrong.
Too quiet.
“Mother?” he called softly, his small voice trembling.
No answer.
He took a step forward. Then another.
And another.
Until he saw it.
Her body lay among the fallen, torn and lifeless, her eyes staring at nothing.
The Luna was dead.
The boy did not scream.
He simply stood there, too young to understand, yet old enough to feel the weight of what had been taken from him.
Above him, the storm had passed.
But something far worse had begun.
- Writer
