The First Dreamer
Cuco's vision blurred. The forest flickered like a faulty reel of film—trees stretching, twisting, morphing into towers made of bone and memory. The ground pulsed beneath him, beating in sync with the mark on his hand, which now throbbed like a second heart.
The creature—the First Dreamer—hovered just beyond the veil, watching.
It had no face.
But Cuco felt its gaze like a hand pressed against his soul.
Then, from somewhere deep within his mind, a voice emerged.
Not spoken.
Remembered.
> "I was the first to dream too deeply.
I opened the door between thought and truth.
And when I woke… I was no longer alone."
Cuco's body convulsed as another vision surged through him like a flood:
A child—not much older than he was now—sat cross-legged beneath a tree older than time itself. Eyes shut. Skin glowing faintly from within.
And as the child dreamed… the world shifted.
Mountains rose. Oceans split. Skies bled light.
It was beautiful.
Until the dream cracked.
And from the fracture, a creature crawled out.
Then another.
Then thousands.
> "The Hollow Ones were born from my sleep," the voice whispered. "They feed on what I could not control.
They still do."
Cuco collapsed, choking on air that suddenly felt too thin. Nox and Tariq rushed toward him, trying to pull him back.
But Isabela stepped between them.
"He has to see," she said, calm but firm. "Or he'll never understand what he's becoming."
Cuco writhed on the ground, the mark on his palm glowing bright gold—and bleeding shadow.
> "You were meant to be the Key," the voice continued.
"But keys do not choose doors.
They fit them."
Then the vision receded.
The light faded.
Cuco sat up with a jolt, trembling, eyes wide. Sweat clung to him like rain on glass.
Nox knelt beside him. "What did you see?"
He didn't answer.
He was staring at his hand.
Where once there had been a single glowing mark…
There were now two.
One gold.
One black.
Tariq saw it too. His voice faltered. "That's not supposed to happen…"
Cuco finally spoke—quiet, hollow.
"It's not just that I can become the gate…"
He looked up, eyes haunted.
"It's already opening inside me."