Aarav couldn't breathe.
His chest felt tight, as if the very air around him was thickening, refusing to let him take in enough. His eyes were fixed on her—on Selene—unable to comprehend the image in front of him.
She lay there, glowing faintly beneath the blood-red moon, as though she were woven from the very light itself. Her hair swirled like liquid silver, moving even when there was no wind. Her form shimmered, almost transparent, like she wasn't entirely part of this world.
Aarav's heart raced, the pounding in his chest matching the rising dread within him. He could feel something wrong in the air. Something… darker than he could see.
He instinctively reached toward her, his fingers trembling as they hovered above her outstretched hand. He didn't know why. Maybe it was the need to prove she was real. Maybe it was the strange pull, like an invisible thread tying him to her.
"Are you… real?" he whispered, the words barely leaving his lips.
Her silver eyes flickered beneath closed lids. And then—
"You found me… again."
Again.
Her voice wasn't just soft. It was like a secret, a thread between worlds, carrying memories that shouldn't have existed.
Aarav's throat tightened. "What do you mean—again? Who are you?"
But before Selene could respond, the wind shifted.
Aarav froze. It wasn't a normal breeze. No. This was sharp—cold—like a blade slicing through the warmth of the night. The air itself seemed to grow still, as though time had paused.
The meadow…It felt alive. And it felt like it was watching.
He turned slowly, his heartbeat quickening with each passing second. The shadows at the edge of the trees weren't just shifting—they were moving. Not like the wind or the branches. Like something waiting, watching, and it was coming closer.
And then—
Tick.
The pocket watch in Aarav's hand—the one that had been still for so long—snapped to life.
The sound of that single, sharp tick echoed through the eerie silence. It was like a door had been unlocked. Like a trigger had been pulled.
Selene gasped, her head snapping up. Her eyes—those silver eyes—widened with a recognition that chilled Aarav to his core.
"No…" she whispered, her voice trembling. "No. It wasn't supposed to happen like this."
Aarav's stomach dropped. "What do you mean? What's happening?"
Her face paled, and her hands reached for him, almost desperate. "You weren't supposed to find it. Not yet. Not the watch. Not the time."
She turned her gaze up to the blood-red moon hanging low in the sky, as if it were a warning.
Suddenly, the air grew thicker. Aarav's vision blurred for a split second, and he felt an unnatural pressure building in the air around him. It was like the world was holding its breath.
Then Selene spoke, her voice barely a whisper. "You shouldn't have touched it… You've undone everything."
"What do you mean? What's undone?" Aarav felt a knot tighten in his gut.
She stood quickly, her movements sharp and fluid. Her eyes flashed to the sky, and he saw fear—real fear—in her gaze. "The stars will shift. The sky will remember what it has forgotten. And they will come for you."
Aarav's mind raced. "Who will come for me? Who?"
But before Selene could answer, the wind howled. And in that instant, Aarav saw it.
It wasn't a star falling from the sky. No. It was something darker. A shape, like a shadow in the sky, twisting and writhing as it descended toward them.
It was falling fast, like a comet, but there was no fire. There was only the blackness that seemed to tear through the night, as if the very heavens were cracking open. A long, twisted tail followed it, and Aarav could feel the pull of something ancient, something terrifying. His heart skipped a beat.
"Selene!" Aarav's voice broke. "What is that? What's happening?!"
She turned to face him, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and resolve. "It's the first one. The one who never should have woken up."
The ground beneath Aarav's feet began to tremble. His mind screamed at him to run, to get away, but his body wouldn't obey. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the falling shadow.
And then—
A deafening crack split the air.
Not thunder. Not lightning.
The very sky splintered, like glass breaking into a million shards. The world seemed to stretch and warp around them, like reality itself was bending, warping, unraveling.
And that shadow? It was closer now.
Aarav's pulse pounded in his ears. "What is that?!"
Selene's voice was barely audible, almost drowned out by the roar of the wind. "They're coming… all of them. And once they reach you—"
The shadow crashed into the ground with a force that shook the earth. The trees around them snapped. The ground cracked beneath their feet.
And when the dust cleared, Aarav saw…