Chains Of Eternity

Chapter Two: Seven chains

Chapter Two — Seven Chains

Elyra’s fingers hovered over her phone, frozen. One new message. Same unknown number.

“Midnight was just the first chain. You have seven.”

The words burned on the screen. Seven chains. What did that even mean? Her breath came faster, her pulse pounding as she sat frozen in the glow of the diner’s fluorescent lights.

Across the street, through the glass, she saw him — the man from the hotel. Silver eyes fixed on her, perfectly still, almost impossibly calm. One hand raised. Around his wrists, fragments of glowing metal shimmered briefly before vanishing again.

Her stomach twisted. Fear, disbelief, and a spark of determination collided inside her. This wasn’t just a game. Someone or something was marking her.

Elyra slid her phone into her satchel and bolted for the door. The cool night air hit her like a slap, sharpening her senses. She didn’t know where to go, but standing still wasn’t an option. Her camera bounced against her hip as she ran, every shadow now a threat, every flicker of movement a warning.

The streets were quieter than usual, the city’s pulse strangely muted. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the silver-eyed man wasn’t alone. Something followed unseen, relentless, waiting for her misstep.

Turning a corner, Elyra ducked into a narrow alley, hoping to lose him, but the shadows seemed to cling, stretching unnaturally toward her. Her breath fogged in the cold night, and the faintest metallic sound; clink… drag… clink… echoed from somewhere behind.

Her camera beeped. She fumbled with it, switching to night mode and snapping a few shots blindly. The flashes illuminated fleeting glimpses of something moving in the darkness: tall, unnatural, shackled hands, vanishing as soon as they appeared.

She pressed herself against the brick wall, trying to steady her ragged breathing. The city had become a cage, and she was the prey.

A sudden shiver ran down her spine. Elyra’s phone vibrated again, a third message lighting up the screen.

“Do not run. Do not hide. Do not touch.”

The words were warnings, threats, or instructions. She didn’t know which, and fear twisted her gut.

And then she saw him again closer this time, emerging from the shadows, every step measured, deliberate. The fragments of chains around his wrists glowed faintly, like embers in the dark.

Elyra raised her camera, hands shaking. “Who are you?” she demanded, voice steadier than she felt.

He tilted his head, silver eyes boring into hers. “I am… what watches over what is broken. You’ve been marked, Elyra Voss. Seven chains, seven trials, and the first has begun.”

Her mind raced. “Marked? Trials? What are you talking about? Why me?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he vanished, not like before, as if fading into thin air, but melting into the shadows, leaving only the faint glimmer of chains where he had stood.

Elyra’s pulse thundered in her ears. The streets were quiet again, almost unbearably so. She looked down at her camera, nothing seemed different, but deep down she knew the city had shifted, and so had her life. The chains weren’t gone. They were coming.

And she had no idea how to stop them.