Noctis Awakens
430 Words
The school hallway was too quiet.
No alarms. No screaming. Just the flickering of broken lights.
Noctis stood barefoot—his shoes had literally melted off—and stared at the scorched floor.
His hand was bleeding. Again.
The blood didn’t fall. It *floated*.
Glowing like liquid stardust.
He could feel it in his bones—the power waking up. It used to whisper. Now it screamed.
Something had triggered it. Something… or *someone*.
“NOCTIS!”
It was his best friend Zane, shoving through smoke and broken lockers. “Dude, what the hell was that?!”
Noctis looked over his shoulder, too calm for someone who just exploded a classroom.
“Do you feel that?” he asked. “The shift?”
Zane blinked. “What—bro, you just *nuked* geometry.”
Noctis tilted his head. His memory was blurry. He remembered the substitute teacher. The way she stared too long. The weird tension in the air. Then something metallic on her wrist. A flash. A click.
“She wasn’t a teacher,” Noctis muttered. “She was testing me.”
Zane froze. “Testing you for *what*?”
Noctis didn’t answer. He was already walking. His eyes—golden, glowing—were locked on something far away.
---
**Meanwhile, in the getaway car...**
Soleil clutched her knees, still shaking.
“I need to call Noctis,” she said. “He’ll be scared.”
Kade nodded and handed her a burner phone. “Call him now. If he used his power, they’re probably already on him.”
She dialed. One ring. Two.
“Noctis? Are you okay?!”
There was a pause.
Then he said, quiet and strange, “I’m different.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever used my full power before,” he whispered. “But something’s waking up. It’s like… it’s been waiting.”
Soleil's heart thudded in her chest.
“Where are you?”
Another pause.
“In the storm,” he said. “And I think it knows me.”
*Click.*
---
**Back with Noctis...**
He stepped out of the school, smoke rolling behind him like a shadow.
A black van screeched to a stop across the street. Three agents leapt out.
“TARGET LOCKED. INITIATING CONTAINMENT.”
Noctis cracked his neck, eyes now glowing like suns.
His blood lifted from his skin, swirling around him in a dance of sparks.
“You should’ve left me alone,” he said softly.
The blood twisted—sharpened—*became a blade*.
And Noctis ran straight into the chaos.
- Writer
