Episode 5:THE Wolf and the Whispering Door
599 Words
Episode 5: The Wolf and the Whispering Door
Kai didn’t sleep that night. Not because of the market’s haunting visions. Not because Nox kept playing ghost-chess with himself and losing. But because of what Lira had said:
> “You might have to choose… between the world of monsters… and me.”
By sunrise, he’d made up his mind to find answers. And Nightmoor Academy had one place where answers hid best: The Restricted Wing of the library.
Unfortunately, it was guarded by a three-headed crow named Dennis.
“I’m not allowed to let anyone through,” squawked one head.
“Unless you bribe us,” chirped another.
“Or trick us,” croaked the third, “which is basically the same but more fun.”
Nox tried to sweet-talk them with stale ghost cookies. Kai simply waited for them to start arguing among themselves and tiptoed past while they fought over what counted as a bribe.
The Restricted Wing was dark, dust-choked, and humming with power. Books chained to shelves writhed. Candles lit themselves in sassy bursts. Kai searched until he found an ancient tome titled:
> “Moonblooded: The Hybrid Curse”
He flipped it open.
> There are those born under the twin moons—creatures of both day and night. They are rare. Feared. Watched. Loved by some, hunted by others. And one will end the age of darkness… or doom it.
Kai froze. His hands trembled.
“Moonblooded?” he whispered. “Me?”
Behind him, a breath stirred the air. Lira stood in the doorway.
“You weren’t supposed to find that.”
Kai turned, heart racing. “What am I?”
She stepped closer. “Not just human. Not just anything. You're… between.”
A long silence stretched.
Then she said, softer, “I felt it the first time I saw you. Your scent—it wasn’t prey. It was… pack.”
Kai's voice broke. “What does that even mean?”
“It means,” she said, eyes suddenly glowing amber, “you might be one of us.”
That night, under a crescent moon, Lira led Kai deep into the woods behind Nightmoor. The trees creaked with wind and whispers. Shadows slithered across the dirt.
Finally, they reached an ancient, rotting archway made of black stone—The Whispering Door.
“This is where we come,” she said, “when we’re ready to meet what we really are.”
Kai stared. The door pulsed. A voice whispered his name in a hundred different tongues.
“Go through it,” Lira said, “if you want the truth.”
Kai stepped forward. The wind stopped.
He placed a hand on the stone.
The door opened.
Inside, he was not in the forest.
He was in himself.
A vast, echoing plain of memory and magic. Voices called out. Wolves circled. A version of him stood in the center—taller, silver-eyed, cloaked in moonlight.
“You are born of both,” the double said. “But to become more… you must break.”
Kai screamed as pain lanced through his chest—searing, shattering. Something ancient stirred in his blood. Something wild.
And then…
He howled.
He collapsed outside the door, gasping, transformed.
Lira knelt beside him, watching with awe.
Kai’s eyes glowed like the moon. His voice was deeper, steadier. “What... did I become?”
Lira smiled, for real this time.
“One of us.”
And far away, in the sky above, a shadowed figure watched them.
“They’ve begun,” it murmured. “The prophecy unfolds.”
- Writer
