2025-12-01 23:41:54The symbols on the ground glowed faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat. Spencer stumbled backward as the message dissolved into dust. “Lira… what does it mean? Awakening too fast? How fast is too fast?”
Lira didn’t answer. She didn’t breathe. She stared at the dust as if it were something alive. “Lira?” Spencer whispered. “Talk to me.”
Finally, she spoke, soft, strained, terrified. “It means your remnant isn’t dormant anymore. It’s… accelerating.”
“Isn’t that good?” Spencer asked desperately. “Doesn’t that mean I’m getting stronger?”
“No,” Lira said sharply. “Awakening doesn’t mean strength. It means instability.”
“Lira”
She grabbed his wrist. “Spencer, listen to me carefully. If the remnant wakes too fast, it won’t merge with you.”
“Then what does it do?”
“It replaces you.”
Spencer’s breath froze. “You’re joking.”
“I wish I were.”
He stepped away from her, chest tightening. “No, no, this can’t be happening. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want any of this!”
Lira followed him slowly. “No one ever does.”
A sudden throb echoed inside Spencer’s ribcage, a pulse too heavy, too deep, too ancient. He clutched his chest. “Lira… something’s wrong.”
“What do you feel?”
“Like, like my heart is skipping beats.”
“Describe it.”
“It’s beating slow…” He gasped. “Too slow.”
“How slow?”
He swallowed hard. “Once every three seconds.”
Lira’s eyes widened. “That’s not your heart anymore.”
“My WHAT?!”
“That’s the remnant’s heart,” she whispered. “It’s starting to override yours.”
“Lira, fix it!” Spencer cried. “Please, fix it!”
She shook her head. “I can’t fix your awakening. I can only delay it.”
“Then delay it!”
“I need time. I need tools. I need a safe place. But we don’t have any of that now.”
Spencer’s breathing quickened. “So what do we do?”
“We move,” she said. “Now.”
They hurried through the underpass. Spencer staggered, his steps uneven, his breath thick. “Lira, my legs feel heavy.”
“Ignore it. Don’t listen to your body.”
“Easy for you to say,” Spencer snapped.
“Good,” Lira said.
“Anger helps. Fear feeds the remnant.”
Spencer stumbled again. “Why is my vision… flickering?”
“Because the remnant is starting to look through your eyes.”
Spencer froze. “What?”
“Keep walking,” Lira ordered.
“No, no, Lira, tell me what that means!”
“It means it’s getting curious.”
Spencer grabbed her arm. “Curious about what?”
“You,” she said. “Your world. Your body. Your weakness.”
They emerged from the underpass and into a dead service road. Fog coiled across the ground. The moon hung low, swollen and ghostly.
Spencer hugged himself, shivering. “Lira… is this fog normal?”
“For a night like this? No.”
“Then what is it?”
“A veil,” she said.
“He’s close.”
“Who? The warlock?!”
“No,” she answered.
A shadow stretched across the road, long, distorted, reaching toward them. Spencer whispered, “Then who”
“Don’t speak,” Lira hissed.
“And don’t look behind you.”
Spencer almost disobeyed. Almost turned. But the voice inside him growled: “Do not turn.”
Spencer’s spine stiffened. “Lira, it, it spoke again.”
“Good,” she whispered. “That means he’s watching too.”
“Why is that good?!”
“Because if the remnant feels threatened, it won’t let anything near you.”
Spencer blinked. “So it can protect me?”
“No,” Lira said. “It can protect itself.”
The shadow behind Spencer stretched closer. Longer. Hungrier. “Lira…” Spencer breathed, “what is behind me?”
“Something that doesn’t recognize you as human.”
Spencer shook. “So if I turn”
“It’ll see the remnant inside you,” Lira said. “And it’ll attack.”
Spencer’s hands trembled. “Lira… I can’t do this. I can’t just stand here.”
“You have to.”
The shadow crept nearer, the air growing colder. Spencer whispered, “Lira, it’s touching my feet.”
“That’s not it touching you,” Lira said.
“That’s your fear projecting it.”
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
“Not helpful!”
Lira stepped in front of him. “Spencer, look at me. Stay with me. Breathe like I’m breathing.”
“I don’t, I don’t know if I can.”
“Yes, you can. Because if you run, it’ll chase you.”
“And if I fight?”
“You’ll die.”
Spencer’s panic exploded. “So my only option is to freeze?!”
“Yes.”
“This is insane.”
“Welcome to awakening.”
Spencer closed his eyes tightly and tried to inhale slowly. One breath. Two breaths. On the third breath, something whispered right beside his ear: “Found you.”
Spencer’s heart stopped. “Lira—IT SPOKE, IT SPOKE!”
“Spencer, do NOT turn around!”
He couldn’t help it. He couldn’t stop his body, His head jerked slightly to the side, And the remnant inside him roared: “MORTAL. LEAVE.”
A shockwave blasted outward. Wind exploded across the road, scattering fog like ash. Spencer’s vision flashed white.
Something behind him shrieked, a raw, inhuman sound, and then silence. Pure silence. Spencer collapsed to his knees. “What… what was that?”
“A wraith,” Lira said shakily.
“And you just scared it away.”
“No,” Spencer whispered. “I didn’t.”
He pressed a shaking hand to his chest. “That thing inside me did.”
And it didn’t feel like protection. It felt like dominance. Lira knelt beside him. “Spencer… we need to reach the safehouse before sunrise.”
“Why sunrise?”
“Because that’s when awakenings accelerate.”
Spencer stared at the ground. “What does it want, Lira?”
“The remnant?”
“Yes. What does it WANT?”
Lira hesitated. Spencer grabbed her arm. “Tell me.”
“It wants to be free.”
“How?”
“By replacing you.”
Spencer’s stomach twisted. “Lira… am I dying?”
“No,” she said.
“You’re transforming.”
“That’s the same thing!”
“No,” she said again.
“It’s worse.”
Spencer went still. “Lira… what is worse than dying?”
“Being alive,” she whispered, “but not being you anymore.”
They reached the edge of the service road when a sudden vibration hit Spencer’s chest, not pain not fear something else. A message. He froze.
“Lira…”
“What now?”
“My heartbeat changed.”
“How?”
“It’s… talking.”
Lira’s eyes widened. “Talking? What do you mean”
Spencer placed a trembling hand on his chest. “It’s not beating randomly. It’s beating in a pattern.”
“A pattern… like a code?”
“No.”
His voice shook. “It’s spelling something.”
Lira stepped closer. “What is it saying?”
Spencer looked up, horror swallowing his throat. “It’s saying…”
He swallowed hard. “…He is here.”
Lira’s blood ran cold. “Who?”
Spencer’s voice barely escaped his lips. “The warlock.”
A shadow materialized at the far end of the road, tall hooded silent. Lira grabbed Spencer’s wrist. “Run.”
But it was already too late. The shadow spoke, Not aloud but inside Spencer’s skull: “You cannot outrun me when you carry what is mine.”
Spencer’s vision darkened. Something inside him, something ancient, opened its eyes.
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CHAPTER 10 — THE BODY THAT DID NOT WAKE ALONE
Spencer slammed back into his body like someone dropped him from the stratosphere. He gasped, air stabbing into his lungs, vision spinning, Concrete above him.Moonlight. The cold loading dock. He was back. But something was wrong. “…Lira?” he croaked.Silence. He blinked hard. The world was unfocused, edges bending like heatwaves. He pushed himself up, trembling.His hands shook violently, silver light flickering under his skin like trapped lightning. “Lira… where are you?”Still nothing. His stomach dropped. She wasn’t here. “LIRA!” he shouted, louder, desperate.A faint echo responded, like his voice bounced off the wrong angles of the building. But no Lira. No shadow. No warlock. Just silence.Spencer whispered, “No. No, nononono, she wouldn’t leave me.”A cold voice answered from behind him: “You’re half-right.”Spencer spun, Lira stumbled out of the darkness. But she didn’t look like herself. Her face was pale. Eyes unfocused. Breaths shallow. Like she’d run for miles through ni
CHAPTER 9 — THE MEMORY THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
Falling wasn’t the right word. Spencer wasn’t falling. He was dropping through himself.Blackness tore apart into shards of blinding white, flashing like broken mirrors, each reflecting pieces of him he didn’t recognize.A voice echoed, layered and ancient: “Remember.”Spencer shouted into the void, “No! I don’t want to remember anything!”Another voice, his own, whispered directly behind his ear: “You don’t have a choice.”He spun, His shadow stood inches from him in the empty void, more solid than before—bone structure forming beneath the darkness, faint muscles shaping. “Stay away from me,” Spencer breathed.The shadow stepped closer. “You called me.”“I DID NOT!”“You awakened. That is a call.”Spencer clenched his fists. “Where am I? What did you do to me?”“This is inside your remnant. Inside us.”Spencer’s heartbeat thundered. Inside them. Inside a past he didn’t want. Inside a truth he wasn’t ready for. “Let me out,” he said. “Now.”The shadow smiled slightly. “Escape requires
CHAPTER 8 — THE SHADOW THAT BREATHES
Darkness wasn’t absence. It was presence. It pressed against Spencer’s skin, cold, aware, predatory. A voice echoed in the void: “Breathe, vessel.”Spencer flinched. “Stop calling me that!”“Then stop behaving like one.”Light ripped open the darkness, He stumbled backward into a half-collapsed rooftop, heart hammering.Lira stood across from him, blade drawn, panting, eyes wild with panic. “Spencer, DON’T MOVE!”He froze. “What, what happened? Where’s the warlock?”“Forget him!” She pointed past Spencer.“Look behind you.”Slowly, dreading it, Spencer turned. His shadow was still there. Standing upright. Detached from his feet. Breathing in slow, unnatural rises. “Spencer,” Lira whispered, “it followed you through the shift.”Spencer backed away. “How?! Shadows don’t teleport!”“That’s not your shadow. That’s your remnant’s… shape.”The shadow tilted its head, perfectly matching the motion Spencer had just made. Except… slower. More deliberate. Hungrier. “Stop copying me!” Spencer sn
CHAPTER 7 — WHEN THE VESSEL OPENS ITS EYES
Spencer woke to the taste of metal. Blood? Power? Both?The world was a blur, shattered concrete, twisting fog, the faint echo of his own heartbeat returning in slow, brutal thumps. Lira’s voice cut through the haze: “Spencer, answer me. Spencer!”He groaned. “D-did I… die again?”“No. But something inside you woke up in your place.”“That’s… terrible news.”“Yes,” she said quickly. “That’s why we need to move, NOW.”But Spencer couldn’t move. His limbs trembled like electricity was still crawling through them. “What happened to the warlock?” he whispered.Lira stiffened. “I don’t know. You, your remnant, repelled him. Violently.”“Repelled him how?”She swallowed. “It screamed.”“That’s… disturbing.”“You’re telling me.”Spencer tried to sit up. “We need to check if he’s gone.”Lira grabbed his arm instantly. “No. Absolutely not.”“Why?”“Because if he’s still conscious, he’ll finish the extraction.”“And if he’s NOT conscious”“Then that’s even worse.”Spencer blinked. “…Why worse?”
CHAPTER 6 — THE WARLOCK WHO SPEAKS WITHOUT SPEAKING
The shadow at the end of the ruined road didn’t move. It didn’t breathe. It didn’t even sway in the wind. But Spencer felt it, in his bones, in the back of his skull, in the thing pulsing inside his chest.Lira whispered, “Spencer… don’t blink.”“I’m not even breathing,” Spencer whispered back.“Good. Don’t. Any movement might”The warlock’s voice suddenly slid between their thoughts: “Move. Don’t move. It makes no difference.”Spencer flinched. “Lira, he’s inside my head again”“He’s not,” she said.“Then what is he doing?”“He’s inside your remnant.”Spencer’s throat tightened. “Is… is it talking back?”Lira’s silence answered for her. The warlock lifted one hand, slowly, precisely, as if raising a curtain. All the fog around them tightened inward, spiraling like a slow-turning whirlpool.Lira stepped in front of Spencer. “Don’t respond,” she hissed.“I’m not!”“I meant the remnant.”Spencer swallowed. “Can you stop it?”“No. I can only delay it.”“How long?”“Minutes,” she said. “M
CHAPTER 5 — THE HEART THAT ISN’T HIS
The symbols on the ground glowed faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat. Spencer stumbled backward as the message dissolved into dust. “Lira… what does it mean? Awakening too fast? How fast is too fast?”Lira didn’t answer. She didn’t breathe. She stared at the dust as if it were something alive. “Lira?” Spencer whispered. “Talk to me.”Finally, she spoke, soft, strained, terrified. “It means your remnant isn’t dormant anymore. It’s… accelerating.”“Isn’t that good?” Spencer asked desperately. “Doesn’t that mean I’m getting stronger?”“No,” Lira said sharply. “Awakening doesn’t mean strength. It means instability.”“Lira”She grabbed his wrist. “Spencer, listen to me carefully. If the remnant wakes too fast, it won’t merge with you.”“Then what does it do?”“It replaces you.”Spencer’s breath froze. “You’re joking.”“I wish I were.”He stepped away from her, chest tightening. “No, no, this can’t be happening. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want any of this!”Lira followed him slowly. “No
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