2025-07-05 03:48:38Jonah stood frozen, his legs stiff and his heart pounding like a war drum. What he was seeing didn’t make any sense. It couldn’t be real. It shouldn’t be real.
Right in front of him, Conor had Helen pinned to the floor. His face was twisted in rage. Pale skin stretched tight over his bones, and thick blue veins bulged along his neck like ropes.
“Conor! Stop it!” one of their coworkers shouted.
Two others ran forward and tried to pull him off Helen. But Conor didn’t stop. He didn’t even flinch. He seemed inhuman, his strength too much for the two men to handle. Then, without warning, Conor let go of Helen and turned around, his eyes wild and empty. In one quick motion, he lunged at one of the men and sank his teeth deep into his shoulder.
A scream tore through the air.
Jonah’s thoughts were racing. This isn’t possible... This isn’t happening… Is this a dream? He blinked, hoping the scene would disappear. But it didn’t. It only got worse.
“What the hell is happening to him?” Clara gasped beside him. Her voice trembled as she watched Conor snarl like a wild animal.
Jonah was about to step forward when a loud, high-pitched scream echoed from outside. He turned to the window. Across the street, a woman was being attacked by four men. They weren’t just hitting her, they were biting her.
His heart dropped. “No,” he whispered. “This… This is spreading.”
Then it clicked. Conor wasn’t just acting strange, he was infected. Just like those men outside.
He turned quickly to Clara. “We need to leave. Now.”
“What? Why?” Clara narrowed her eyes. “Conor’s still here, he needs our help. Don’t tell me you’re trying to slack off again.”
“No, Clara, listen to me,” Jonah said quickly, gripping her arm. “It’s not what you think. This isn’t normal. Conor… he’s not sick. He’s turned. Like the others outside. This is something else. Please trust me.”
Clara pulled her arm back. “Turned? What are you even talking about?”
“I don’t have time to explain,” Jonah said, panic rising in his throat.
But before Clara could reply, Helen let out a soft, guttural groan. They both turned.
Helen was shaking. Her eyes rolled back. Her skin began turning white. Her lips trembled, and blood dripped from her nose.
Then she stopped moving… and lifted her head. Her eyes locked on Clara.
“What, Helen?” Clara stepped back.
Jonah felt it in his bones, Helen was no longer human.
“Watch out!” he yelled, and grabbed the nearest chair. Without thinking, he hurled it.
The chair slammed into Helen just as she leapt forward.
She collapsed to the ground.
Clara stared at her, horrified. Her mouth hung open, but no words came out.
“Let’s go!” Jonah grabbed her hand. They ran through the office halls. Around them, people continued typing, unaware of the nightmare creeping in.
Jonah shouted, “Run! Everyone! Get out now! You have to leave!”
But nobody listened. Some laughed. Others frowned. None of them took him seriously.
“We’re on our own,” he muttered, pulling Clara toward the main hallway.
“Jonah, what is going on?” Clara asked breathlessly. “Why did Helen attack me? She, she looked dead…”
“I think…” Jonah took a deep breath. “When Conor went home, something must’ve happened. Maybe it was in the air or something he touched. Whatever it was, it turned him into… that. A monster. And when he bit Helen, ”
She gasped. “You think she got infected?”
“That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“But that’s not possible! You can’t just catch something and turn into a, ” Clara stopped mid-sentence as another horrible sound reached them.
A gurgling noise.
They turned the corner… and stopped.
A man stood in front of the exit. He was hunched over another person, feeding.
Clara screamed.
Jonah pulled her back. “We can’t go that way!”
She trembled. “What are they? Zombies?”
“I think so,” Jonah said. “Or something like them…”
He turned and ran, dragging Clara along. Every hallway they passed held more horrors: coworkers crying, screaming, shaking… and some already turning pale, their eyes growing blank and lifeless.
“Clara, we have to keep moving,” Jonah said. “Please.”
“I, I don’t think I can,” she said, stumbling.
“You have to. I’m not leaving you behind.”
They kept moving. He spotted the red emergency box at the wall up ahead. Inside was a fire axe.
Jonah sprinted toward it, smashed the glass with his elbow, and yanked out the axe. It was heavier than he expected, but he gripped it tightly.
Now he had a weapon.
“We’re on the seventh floor,” he said. “If we can find the emergency stairwell, we can escape.”
Clara nodded weakly.
As they walked quickly toward the fire exit, Jonah tried to distract her. “We’ll be okay. We just need to stay calm, keep quiet, and get out. Once we’re outside, we’ll find help. We’ll figure this out.”
They reached the stairwell door.
Jonah grinned. “Finally…”
Then he heard it. A rush of footsteps behind them.
He turned. Half the office, former coworkers, now looked dead. Their eyes were empty. Their jaws hung open. And they were running fast.
“Clara, go!” Jonah shouted.
They pushed through the door and into the stairwell.
But then, slam.
The door shut behind him. From the other side.
Jonah turned, confused. Clara was inside the stairwell. He was still outside.
“Clara?” he called, banging on the door. “Open the door! What are you doing?!”
Clara’s face appeared in the small window. Tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Jonah,” she said. “You have the axe. You’re strong. You can make it.”
“No, no, don’t do this. Open the door!”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I won’t make it out alive. I’m not strong like you. I’m scared. I can’t take the chance.”
“Clara, please!”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Please don’t hate me.”
And then she was gone.
The door stayed shut.
Jonah stood there, heartbroken, the axe heavy in his hands… and the monsters closing in behind him.
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Chapter 192. Lisa’s Capture
Lisa felt the world tilt the moment the red mist touched her skin. It slid over her like smoke, cold and crawling, and the forest around her twisted into blurry streaks. She tried to reach for her lantern, but her fingers felt numb. The blue flame flickered inside the glass, fighting to stay alive against the spreading red haze.“Stay steady,” she whispered to herself. Her voice sounded thin. The mist swallowed the words. Behind her, boots thudded against broken leaves. Inhuman steps followed soon after, soft and rhythmic, like metal dragging across soil. Lisa ran, even though her legs trembled. Branches whipped her arms. The ground cracked under her boots. She pushed her body harder, faster, refusing to look back.But they followed her without hurry. A calm, steady march. Almost gentle.She burst through a line of dead trees into a clearing. The red tower loomed ahead, rising like a spine of metal and bone. It pulsed with a slow heartbeat that echoed through the ground. Each puls
Chapter 191. The Memory War
Jonah felt the world trembling long before anyone else noticed. It started as a faint shiver under his skin, like a cold hand brushing along his spine. Then the air changed. The hum of the Breath-Born lost its softness. It turned heavy, slow, and full of things that should not be remembered.He stood on one of the city’s high bridges, looking toward the east where the red horizon pulsed like a quiet heartbeat. The sky there moved in a strange rhythm, rising and falling with sound that was not sound. It made him feel sick, but he did not step away.Behind him, three Breath-Born hovered, their pale shapes flickering with worry. They whispered to one another in thin glowing streams, but Jonah understood them without needing translation.“The red song grows.”“The humans sleep standing.”“The memories play.”Jonah closed his eyes. He felt the weight of it all pressing on him like a storm. He whispered, “It is not a song. It is a trap.”The Breath-Born dimmed at his words, as if the trut
Chapter 190. The Red Choir
New Crest usually breathed with soft blue glows from the towers and gentle hums from the Breath-Born. But tonight the sky felt heavy. The air tasted thick, almost metallic. People sensed something wrong long before any sound reached them.Jonah stood on the roof of the north watch post, looking toward the eastern horizon where the red tower pulsed in slow, dark waves. The pulse was different tonight. It was slower and deeper, like a heartbeat struggling to wake.Lisa was still missing. The Breath-Born were restless. The city was breaking into fear again.Jonah whispered, “What are you planning, Echo Core?”He waited for the towers to answer, but the Breath-Born were silent. They trembled beneath his feet like frightened children. Then the first note came.A single low tone rolled across the plains, carried by the wind. It was not loud, but Jonah felt it inside his bones. The sound was deep and cold, almost like distant thunder, but smoother and too perfect to be natural.The note s
Chapter 189. Kevin’s Discovery
Kevin woke before the sun rose. The sky was still dark and blue, and the air felt colder than usual. He sat up on his small sleeping mat and listened. The city was quiet, but not the normal kind of quiet. It was the heavy kind, the kind that made the world feel like it was holding its breath.The faint hum of the towers drifted through the walls. It was soft, almost gentle, but Kevin felt the second tone beneath it, a hidden echo that did not belong to the Breath-Born. It pulsed slow and hungry, like a heart waiting for something to break.Kevin rubbed his hands together and looked toward the sphere resting on the table across the room. It was silent now. Echo was gone. It had faded into dust days ago, leaving only a faint ring of blue powder behind. Kevin had swept it into a jar. He kept it close even though it hurt to look at it.He whispered to the empty room, “I remembered you. I keep remembering.”The wind outside whispered back, brushing against the window.Kevin stood slowly
Chapter 188. Jonah’s Burden
The morning light in New Crest felt thin, almost fragile, as if the sky itself was trying to recover from a long scream. The city’s towers shimmered with soft blue veins, calmer than they had been in weeks, yet every pulse felt strained. Every beat felt heavy.Jonah stood at the center of the rebuilt plaza with his hands pressed against a quiet pillar of light. He let his eyes close. He listened. He always listened now.The breath of the towers flowed through him with every heartbeat. The Breath-Born whispered faintly inside the hum, speaking in soft tones only he could hear. Their voices sounded like wind through glass, gentle but desperate. “Prime Listener, hear us, guide us.”Jonah winced. He opened his eyes slowly. His vision flickered gold, then dimmed. His chest felt tight, hollow, tired. A faint shimmer of light crawled across his arms as if the glow under his skin struggled to stay alive. “Not now,” he whispered. “Please, not now.”A few workers nearby paused and watched
Chapter 187. The City’s Division
New Crest should have felt alive. The sky was blue again. The towers hummed softly in the distance. Children ran in the open streets without flinching at the sound of every little breeze. But beneath all of that peace was something deeper and colder, something that moved silently between people. Fear. Fear of the red tower. Fear of the Breath-Born. Fear of Jonah.It began with whispers, tiny fragments of conversations that drifted from homes and market tents and broken balconies.“He is not the same anymore.”“The blue light changed him.”“Maybe the red tower is the safer one.”“At least it speaks clearly.”Then the whispers grew teeth. By morning, half the city had chosen a side. Lisa felt the tension the moment she stepped into the central square. People stood in two groups divided by a long crack in the ground, as if the earth itself had split to show them how far apart they had grown. Some held blue lanterns carved from scraps of tower dust. Others clutched red ribbons tied ar
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