The night air in Virelia City was thick with fog. The moon hung like a spectral eye in the sky, watching over the flickering streetlights and narrow alleys. The city had a pulse, a rhythm that was felt in the hum of the neon lights and the distant thrum of the underground clubs. But for all its vibrancy, there was a strange unease lingering in the air tonight, as if something ancient and unseen was about to stir.
In the heart of the city stood a dilapidated building that was once a hub of commerce—a relic of a forgotten time. Now, it was nothing more than a shelter for the lost and the broken, a place where the city's discarded souls came to drown their sorrows in cheap liquor and broken dreams. Among them was Kade, a boy whose eyes were too tired for his age and whose fists had been made to punch through walls of regret.
Kade wasn't much. At least, that's what he thought of himself.
He was eighteen, a lowly orphan living on the streets, drifting from one place to the next, with no purpose beyond surviving. His clothes were worn and tattered, and his dark brown hair fell messily over his forehead. His green eyes were always searching, always scanning the shadows as if waiting for something to jump out and end it all.
But tonight felt different.
As Kade slumped against the bar, nursing his drink, he noticed a figure standing at the edge of the room—a woman. She was draped in a hooded cloak, her face partially obscured, but there was something about her that pulled at the edges of his senses. Her aura, her presence—it wasn't right. It wasn't normal.
Kade's breath hitched in his chest.
She walked toward him with an unsettling grace, her footsteps soundless on the cracked floor. The people around them seemed to ignore her, as if she wasn't there, but Kade couldn't take his eyes off her.
"You feel it too," she said softly, her voice like a whisper carried on the wind.
Kade didn't respond immediately. His instincts screamed at him to stand up and leave, but his curiosity rooted him to the spot.
"Feel what?" he finally managed to say, his voice rough from the years of neglect.
The woman didn't smile. She tilted her head, as if she were studying him. "The Veil is burning, Kade."
Kade's heart skipped a beat. No one knew his name here—not in this city, not in this life.
"How do you know my name?" he asked, his hand instinctively tightening around the glass in front of him. "Who are you?"
The woman's gaze seemed to pierce him, as though she could see through the layers of lies he'd built around himself. "I know more about you than you realize. You've been marked, Kade. You're not just another orphan, another lost soul. You're part of something far bigger than yourself."
He stood up abruptly, knocking over his drink. His palms were clammy as he tried to force the words out. "You're crazy. I'm just a kid trying to survive."
She didn't flinch. "The Veil is crumbling, and you're about to be swept into it. The bloodline you carry is the key to everything. To the end of this world... or the beginning of a new one."
Kade's head was spinning. The world outside the building, the chaos he'd grown used to, seemed to be closing in on him. "What are you talking about? Bloodline? What the hell is the Veil?"
The woman's eyes flashed with something dangerous, something ancient. "The Veil separates the realms—the world of the living and the forgotten world that lies beyond. Your bloodline is tied to the Forgotten Ones, Kade. And now, the Veil is weakening. There's a war coming, and you have a role to play."
He took a step back, his mind reeling. "No, this—this is insane. I don't know who you are or what you want, but I'm not—"
"You already are," she interrupted, her voice rising, a hint of power underlying her words. "You just don't know it yet."
Before Kade could respond, the ground shook. The lights flickered. The building groaned as if it were coming to life, its foundation cracking under the weight of something unseen. Kade stumbled forward, bracing himself against the bar.
Then, there was a sound—a screeching, high-pitched wail that seemed to tear through the air itself. It was a cry that shook him to his very core, a sound that was both familiar and alien, a warning that sent chills down his spine.
The woman grabbed his arm, her grip like iron. "Get out of here. Now."
But before Kade could react, the walls around them cracked open, revealing a rift in the air. It was as though the world itself had torn, a gash in the fabric of reality.
A shadowy figure stepped through the rift, its form shifting in and out of focus, like a nightmare made flesh. Its eyes burned with an otherworldly fire, and its presence sent a wave of dread crashing over Kade. It was coming for him.
The woman's eyes narrowed, and she pulled Kade toward the exit. "Move, damn it!"
They ran through the corridors of the building, but the creature was already behind them. With every step, Kade could feel the weight of his destiny crashing down on him, a burden he had never asked for, yet one he couldn't escape.
"You can't outrun this," the woman said, glancing over her shoulder. "You need to unlock your power. You need to understand the Veil before it consumes you."
"I don't know how!" Kade shouted, panic rising in his chest.
"You will," she said. "Or everything will burn."
The creature lunged, and everything went black.
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End of Chapter 1