The city of Karthos stirred under fractured neon, rain-slick streets gleaming like veins of molten metal. Though the immediate chaos of the Architect’s collapse had subsided, a far more insidious threat loomed beneath the surface. The Eclipse, an emergent, adaptive entity born from the remnants of the Architect’s systems, had begun consolidating its influence. Its neural fragments infiltrated abandoned sectors, rogue operatives, and residual nodes, threatening to overwhelm the city’s pulse if left unchecked.Ethan Morrow surveyed the skyline from the rooftop of Sector Nine’s observation tower. His eyes narrowed as neon reflections danced across puddles. He could feel the faint hum of residual neural activity—the Eclipse spreading, probing, testing the city’s defenses.Tessa Ward joined him, the Alpha Node drive pulsing softly in her hands. Sparks of energy flickered across its interface as she analyzed the data.“It’s organizing faster than we anticipated,” she said, voice tight. “Rog

The day felt shorter than usual, as though time had shrunk itself on purpose, pressing its edges closer just to remind us that we didn’t have the luxury of stretching moments anymore. Every hour slipped by too quickly, every second carried the weight of everything unspoken. By evening, the house felt different—charged, restless, like the air itself had been warned of what was coming.I stood by the window again, watching the sunset bleed into the horizon. The sky was painted in streaks of gold and rust, colors fading faster than they should. It looked like the world was exhaling its last breath before night claimed it. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that the night wasn’t just arriving… it was waiting for us.He entered the room without knocking, his presence filling the silence instantly. I didn’t turn. I knew his footsteps now, the quiet firmness of them, like someone who had already decided the direction but still worried if he would drag someone with him.“You ready?” his voice c

The moment the shadow lunged, the world tore open.Not with sound.Not with impact.But with a silence so sharp it felt like the air itself split in half.He shoved me sideways just as the ground beneath us cracked in a jagged line, dirt lifting in thin sheets as though gravity forgot its job. The creature’s strike hit where I had been standing—if he hadn't moved me, I would’ve been swallowed whole by that slice of nothingness.“MOVE!” he barked.I ran.Not because I was brave, or ready, or steady—but because something primal inside me understood that hesitation meant death. The forest blurred around me, the trees bending in unnatural shapes as the shadow’s presence distorted the air behind us.He was only a step behind, close enough that I could feel the rush of wind when he shifted to block something coming from my left. I didn’t look. I remembered his warning. Don’t look back. I focused on my feet, the ground, the rhythm of my breath even though it felt like knives in my throat.Th

I didn’t sleep that night. Maybe my body lay still, maybe my eyes closed once or twice, but sleep never truly came. My mind stayed stubbornly awake, replaying every word, every tense moment, every small fracture forming between the people I cared about. By the time dawn crept in, pale and uncertain, I felt the heaviness of a person who had lived through three days in one night.The compound was unusually quiet. Even the guards moved with an odd stiffness, as if the tension in the air had seeped into their bones too. A storm was coming—not the kind that thundered across the sky, but the kind that rose from inside people, slow and silent and devastating.I stepped out into the corridor, rubbing warmth into my cold hands, when I saw him—Jason—leaning against the far wall. His head was bowed, his fingers curled loosely around a mug he hadn’t touched. He looked as though something had hollowed out a piece of him overnight.I took a step forward. “Jason…”He didn’t look up immediately. When

The rest of the day wrapped itself around the compound like fog—thick, quiet, and full of things moving underneath the surface. Everyone felt it. Everyone sensed it. But only a few of us knew the truth: the threat wasn’t outside the gates anymore.It was already among us.Jason didn’t waste time. He called for extra patrol rotations and doubled watchpoints around the perimeter. Bernard volunteered for night surveillance, silent but focused, the weight of revelation heavy on his shoulders. And me—I stayed close, alert, trying to piece together the shape of a man I had never met yet somehow feared more than strangers.A brother.Bernard’s brother.A ghost with motive, blood connection, and a reason to tear everything apart.By sunset, the sky dipped into deep orange and bruised purple. I stood on the watchtower balcony, looking out at the darkening forest beyond the walls. Every rustle felt like a whisper. Every shadow looked like something crouched and waiting. The wind tasted differen