The sky hadn’t cracked, but it might as well have. They stood around the glowing fracture in the concrete as if it were sacred, or cursed — or both. The silence returned, except this time it wasn’t natural. It was holding its breath.

  “Do we touch it again?” Zara asked.

  “No,” Rian said, his voice low. “Not yet.”

  Devika stepped back first. “I don’t think it’s active anymore. That pulse… it burned something into my mind.”

  They moved cautiously, half-expecting another wave of invisible force. But the glow was gone, and with it, the feeling of static in the air.

  Zara walked a slow circle around the fissure. “You think anyone else felt that?”

  [Canon Sync] As if in answer, a faint hum buzzed at the edge of hearing — not from the crack this time, but from the far side of the street. A thin shimmer in the air faded before they could focus on it.

  “Let’s move,” Devika said, already heading toward the alley behind the bookstore. “I don’t want to be in the open if more of those cracks show up.”

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  The alley was tight, the buildings pressing in with fire escapes that rattled in the wind. Zara took point, hopping a broken stair to get to the ledge above. Rian boosted Devika up next, then followed.

  From the rooftops, they could see the city.

  What was left of it.

  Patches of light flickered unevenly in the distance — isolated buildings or backup generators. Entire blocks were completely dark. Cars sat abandoned in intersections. The city’s pulse had flatlined.

  Devika turned to Rian. “What do we do if this spreads?”

  “It already has,” he replied. “We just haven’t caught up to it yet.”

  Zara exhaled. “So where now?”

  Rian glanced east, toward the darker end of the skyline. “My place isn’t far. We’ll rest, regroup. I’ve got a few things there.”

  No one argued. No one looked back at the café as they left. Something in the air made it feel like a place they couldn’t return to — as if it belonged to a version of the world that had just ended.

  The rain had stopped, but the silence felt heavier.

  And somewhere, just past the line of sight, something moved like it had been waiting a long time.

  They needed shelter. And answers.

  Thanks for reading Chapter 3!

  Froggy