The One Who Woke It
Cuco's heartbeat thundered in his ears as he stepped into the candlelit room. Shadows clung to the stone walls, stretching and twisting with every flicker of flame. The air was thick—not just with heat, but with something else.
Something ancient.
Something watching.
Behind him, Tariq eased the hidden door shut. The faint click echoed like a verdict.
"You're not alone anymore," said the girl with black hair. Her voice was calm—too calm—but her ember-bright eyes told a different story. Eyes that had seen things. Survived things.
"My name is Nox. And we've all been marked."
Cuco glanced around. A tall boy with round glasses gave a small nod. Beside him, a short girl in a faded hoodie lifted a hand in wary greeting.
They weren't just strangers.
They felt... heavy. Like each of them carried something buried under their skin. A secret. A curse.
Nox gestured to the center of the room.
There, on a stone pedestal, lay a leather-bound book—battered, ancient, cracked open like it had been waiting.
"The dreams. The mark. The creature. They're all part of something older than us," Nox said. "An ancient chain. A cycle. And every time it returns…"
Her voice dropped.
"It ends the same way."
Cuco took a shaky step closer.
"What is the Beast? Why me? Why now?"
The boy with glasses spoke, soft but steady.
"It's not just a beast. It's a breaker. A guardian of thresholds. It stirs when the veil between worlds starts to tear."
The girl in the hoodie added, barely above a whisper,
"And you saw it first. That means the crack is widening. You're the Key."
Cuco blinked.
"The... Key?"
Nox nodded, stepping closer.
"Which also means... they'll come looking for you."
"They?" Cuco's voice rasped in his throat.
Tariq's tone turned grim.
"The Hollow Ones. Not beast, not human. Shadows draped in stolen skin. They're already here. In the town."
Suddenly—
BANG.
A loud crash echoed beyond the hidden wall.
Everyone froze.
Footsteps.
Slow. Heavy. Deliberate. Just outside.
Nox spun toward Cuco.
"Did someone follow you?"
"No— I came straight from class, I swear—"
The candle flames flared, hissing as a cold draft swept through the room like a whisper. The lights buzzed.
And then—
Knock. Knock.
Two slow raps on the hidden door.
Silence.
Then a voice.
Crooked. Wrong. Like a puppet trying to sound human.
"Cuuu-coooo…"
Cuco's blood turned to ice.
"You weren't meant to remember, little spark," the voice hissed.
"But now… you've seen too much."
The wall shuddered.
Nox's eyes widened.
She pointed to the far corner.
"We have to go. Now. There's another exit—through the tunnels."
Tariq grabbed Cuco's arm.
"Come on. We don't have time."
Cuco hesitated.
Just long enough to hear one final whisper through the wall:
"You can't run forever, Key.
We'll find you…
even in your dreams."
Then they ran—
fleeing into the dark below.