It took time weeks that bled into months but eventually, Kael had taught himself to sit upright in his crib.
His small, trembling body swayed as he gripped the wooden rails, knuckles white with effort. Finally he did it. The world had been nothing but ceiling patterns and shadows for so long. Now, as he surveyed the room with his eyes he noticed something.
The nursery stretched before him was like a graveyard.
Empty cribs lined the walls, their blankets undisturbed, the silence deafening. Between them, scattered like forgotten toys, were the other babies the survivors. But that word wasn't really correct for this situation. They weren't surviving. They were withering away.
Kael's gaze moved from one to the next. Some were impossibly small, their bodies barely filling the swaddles wrapped around them. Others bore marks he couldn't name defects? His mind thought their skin was the color of old parchment, translucent and sickly. Some didn't move at all.
Where did the others go?
He stared at the gaps, the empty spaces where cribs had been removed. The question sat in his chest, he didn't understand where the rest went.
He didn't know what to feel about this. So he did what he'd always done he lay back down and let the darkness take him again.
When his eyes opened, Nurse Hadra's face hovered above him like a pale moon.
Her lips curved into something that almost resembled a smile, but it flickered and died before it could fully form. "It seems you're a resilient one," she murmured, her voice carrying notes of something Kael couldn't identify pride? Relief? He wondered what it was.
She lifted him with practiced care, cradling his fragile body as though he might shatter at any moment. Her fingers were cool against his skin.
"I had high hopes for you," she continued, more to herself than to him. "And you've delivered. One more month. Just survive one more month, and you'll make it out."
Out? Kael's mind latched onto the word. Out to where? And what happens to those who don't make it out?
She placed him back in the crib, but before she pulled away, he caught her eyes. Deep brown, almost black in the dim light, with something swimming in their depths.
Nurse Hadra stared back, her expression unreadable. For a moment, they were locked in silent conversation, infant and caretaker, both searching for something in the other.
Then she turned and walked away, her footsteps echoing across the wooden floor.
The moment the door clicked shut behind her, it began.
The energy crashed over Kael like an invisible wave.
It pressed down on his chest, squeezing the air from his lungs. His tiny body convulsed as the pressure intensified, becoming a crushing weight that threatened to flatten him into nothingness. What is this? His mind screamed even as his mouth couldn't form the words.
This happened every time the nurses left. Every single time.
The room would transform from mere nursery into something else that was like a torture chamber.
The air itself became thick and oppressive. He could feel it pressing against every inch of his skin.
He laid there just when the darkness began creeping into the edges of his vision, when his lungs burned and his heart stuttered, the birthmark on his left shoulder began to burn. Searing heat spread across his skin, and with it came relief the crushing energy receded, just enough for him to gasp in a desperate breath.
Why? The question tormented him. Why does this place try to kill us when no one's watching? He had no answers he could only sit here and take this.
Another month crawled by in this cycle of torture and reprieve.
By the end, Kael felt hollowed out, scraped clean of whatever vitality he'd been born with. His body was tired so tired and the constant vigilance had worn grooves into his infant mind.
How much longer can I last? Then, one day, the door opened.
Nurse Hadra entered, but she wasn't alone. A group of people filed in behind her five in total, maybe six. Their outfits were strange, Leather and metal that didn't match the nursery vibe.
They moved with predatory grace, and when they looked at the cribs, they chuckled.
"Seems like only two of these little bastards survived," one of them said, his voice rough like gravel.
"No cursing in the nursery," Nurse Hadra snapped, shooting him a look of pure scorn.
The others laughed, watching their companion get scolded like a misbehaving child. But their laughter had edges sharp, cruel edges.
The one Kael instinctively identified as the boss spoke next. He was taller than the others, with shoulders that blocked the light. "Just from walking in here, only one of them has any type of presence."
"Should we just kill him, boss since he has no presence?" Another voice, younger, uncertain.
Silence stretched. The boss considered, his head tilting as he studied Kael's crib from across the room. Finally, he shook his head. "Although he'll probably be a useless piece of shit, only good for pleasure… better to keep him around than not."
The room erupted in laughter. Nurse Hadra's eyes found him. In them, he saw something new pity. She looked at him the way one might look at a wounded animal, and though he didn't understand the expression,
something in him recoiled from it. She shook her head and sighed.
"Alright, boys," one said, his voice carefully neutral. "Let's go take a look at this baby. Surprisingly, they feel quite remarkable."
He walked toward the crib, they circled the other crib the one Kael had barely noticed.
A baby's cry pierced the air. It was terrified and scared.
The men smirked. "Hmm, turns out she's a girl," one observed. "A pretty baby at that. She's going to grow up to be something special, won't she?"
Nods all around. But the boss's expression shifted, becoming something serious.
He leaned over the crib, meeting the crying infant's eyes, and something sparked in his gaze.
"Boys," he said, his voice dropping to a register that made the air feel thinner. "There's something I need you to do."
The room became a tomb. Nobody moved nobody breathed.
"When we report back, tell them only one baby survived."
Shock erupted throughout the room. Kael could feel it radiating from the men, even if their faces didn't show it.
"But wh—"
Before the speaker could finish, he simply… dissolved. His body crumbled into black dust, falling to the floor like ash from a funeral pyre. The others stared at the pile that had been their companion, but not one of them flinched.
'Poor rookie' They all thought in unison
The boss scooped up the crying baby girl with surprising gentleness, cradling her against his chest. But before he left, his eyes locked with Kael's.
Time seemed to freeze. Kael saw everything the jagged scar cutting across the man's right cheek the, dark crimson eyes that held nothing but violence, the slicked-back brown hair that somehow made him look both civilized and feral. But it was the expression that burned itself into Kael's memory it was ruthless, calculating, the face of someone who had killed before and would kill again without hesitation.
The man's eyes narrowed slightly, as if he could read Kael's thoughts, see something in this infant that interested him. Then he broke the gaze and swept from the room, the baby girl disappearing with him.
That was the last thing Kael remembered from that place.
Kael's new room if it could be called that was barely large enough to contain the narrow bed shoved against one wall.
The space was suffocating in its smallness. Mysterious black spots bloomed across the cracked walls like disease, and the air carried the stale scent of neglection. The floor creaked with every movement, and in the corners, shadows gathered with cobwebs.
But Kael didn't mind. After the nursery, anywhere felt safer.
This was an orphanage, though people rarely came here to adopt. The only visitors were the staff, the hollow-eyed children who wandered its halls, and occasionally, others. Men and women who arrived in the dead of night, spoke in hushed voices with Nurse Hadra, and left before dawn.
Kael learned quickly not to pay attention to them or rather, to seem like he wasn't paying attention while noting every detail.
Nurse Hadra ran the orphanage, though Kael rarely saw her. She moved like a ghost through the building, always busy, always elsewhere.
At age five, Kael was enrolled in the school adjacent to the orphanage. A crumbling building that smelled of chalk and mildew, where children sat in crooked rows and learned to read and write from teachers who looked very unenthusiastic.
Kael picked up reading and writing instantly. The letters made sense to him in a way they didn't seem to for the others. It all clicked into place like puzzle pieces, forming words, sentences, meaning with effortless clarity.
But he hid it.
Instead, he watched his classmates struggle with their letters, observed how long it took them to form words, and matched his pace to theirs. He became a mirror, reflecting the mediocrity around him, careful never to stand out.
Around this time, he noticed the hierarchy forming. The children with stronger energy signatures those who radiated that same presence the boss had mentioned became the bullies. They targeted the weak, the small, the ones whose energy barely registered as a flicker.
Kael watched with detached curiosity. We're all the same, he thought, observing a particularly vicious shove that sent a smaller boy sprawling. Same school, same orphanage, same food, same clothes. The only differences are cosmetic height, appearance, learning speed.
So why this cruelty? What drives them to create hierarchies where none should exist?
He filed the question away with all his others and focused on blending in.
It was during one of these tedious lessons that he felt it a gaze on the back of his neck.
Kael had become sensitive to being watched. He could distinguish between casual glances and focused attention, could even sense the intent behind the stares. Each had its own flavor.
This gaze was curious. intensely curious.
He turned his head.
A girl sat three desks over, her dirty blonde hair falling in tangles around a face marked by a small black spot near her right cheek like a birthmark, his mind noted.
She didn't look away when he caught her staring. If anything, her gaze intensified.
She won't stop, Kael realized. So I might as well address it.
"What," he said flatly, his voice carrying none of the inflection the other children used.
She squinted at him, her head tilting slightly.
"Are you stupid, by chance?" The question came with genuine concern, as if she were a doctor diagnosing a patient.
Kael's eyebrow raised. Stupid? He'd been careful to match the class's pace exactly. "And what makes you think that?" he asked, allowing a hint of curiosity to color his words.
Her smile was quick, almost mischievous. "Because you just sit there and stare at the paper, and only after everyone else writes do you write. It makes no sense."
Damn. She'd been watching him more carefully than he'd thought. Kael furrowed his brows. "Why are you even looking at me?"
"Because I pity your dumbness," she said simply, as if this explained everything.
Kael nodded slowly, then turned back to face the front. I'll need to change my approach, he thought, already calculating how to mimic the other students less obviously.
The girl also looked away, returning to fidgeting with her pencil, spinning it between her fingers with absent-mindedness.
For several minutes, the classroom continued in its usual monotony. The teacher droned. Children shifted in their seats. The clock ticked with agonizing slowness. Then Kael felt something
The energy around this place felt weird like a storm was coming Every instinct in his body screamed for him to run.
So he stood abruptly, his chair screeching against the floor, and bolted for the door.
Confusion rippled through the classroom. Students turned to stare. The teacher opened her mouth to call him back, but strangely, she didn't. She just… watched him go, her expression blank.
his legs carried him down the hallway.
Footsteps echoed behind him. He glanced back to see the girl the one who'd called him stupid jogging to catch up, her face flushed with exertion and confusion.
"What—" he started, but Kael's body was already slowing, his limited endurance spent. He stopped in the middle of the corridor, hands on his knees, gasping.
The girl caught up, staring at him with that same peculiar expression she'd worn in class. "What?" she demanded. "I should be asking you what. Was my conversation with you that irritating?"
Before Kael could respond, the world exploded.
A tremendous CRASH shook the building. Dust rained from the ceiling. The floor trembled beneath their feet.
The girl's eyes went wide with terror. She stumbled backward, then, inexplicably, moved behind Kael, as if his small frame could somehow shield her from whatever had just happened.
Kael didn't look surprised. "I wonder what that was," he mumbled, taking a step forward toward the source of the sound.
Her hand shot out, grabbing his arm with surprising strength. She stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "You really are stupid! Don't go in there, idiot! We don't know what that was!"
A monstrous roar tore through the air definitely not a human. It was followed immediately by the agonizing screams of children and the teacher. The sounds of panic and terror flooded the hallway running feet, crashing furniture, and the sound of death.
The girl began shaking violently. Tears streamed down her face, hot and desperate. "I'm scared," she choked out, her breath coming in rapid, shallow gasps. "We're going to die. We're going to die."
Kael took another step forward. She clung harder to him, her fingers digging into his shirt. "Don't go! Please don't go die!" Her voice broke on the last word, and Kael felt wetness spreading across his back as she pressed her face against him, sobbing.
He looked back at her. Her knees were weak, quivering so badly she could barely stand.
Her entire body trembled like a leaf in a storm.
She's terrified, he observed clinically.
Completely overcome by fear.
Even seeing this even feeling her terror radiating through her touch Kael continued walking. He had to see. He had to know what had caused this.
Behind him, the girl's legs gave out. She collapsed to the floor, sobbing so hard her whole body shook. Her cries echoed down the hallway, but Kael drowned them out, focusing only on the classroom ahead.
When he stepped through the doorway, the smell hit him first.
Blood,Death, and rotting bodies The classroom had become an abattoir. Body parts were strewn across the floor like discarded toys arms, legs, he couldnt tell who's were who's. Blood painted the walls in arterial sprays, still wet and glistening. The desks were overturned, some crushed completely. And the bodies…
His classmates. Children he'd sat beside just minutes ago, reduced to pieces.
Anyone else would have vomited. Would have screamed. Would have run.
Kael stood there, his expression one of pure confusion. "What could've possibly caused this?" he asked the empty air, his voice eerily calm.
His answer appeared before him. The thing stood in the center of the carnage, its form vaguely humanoid but also weirder. Its skin was dark as obsidian, wet-looking and cracked like cooling lava. Spikes protruded from its back and arms at irregular angles, some as long as fingers, others short and stubby. Its face was a void of darkness with one exception teeth. So many teeth, white and sharp and grinning in a mouth too wide for any human face.
Kael had to crane his neck upward to meet where its eyes should have been.
He studied the creature with the same detached curiosity he'd used when thinking of the dead babies in the nursery. "Did you do this?" he asked, genuinely curious.
The creature's response was a guttural growl that vibrated through Kael's chest. Then it moved impossibly fast for something so large its long, dark claws swiping toward Kael's small body.
Instinct kicked in. Kael jerked backward, his body moving before his mind could process the command.
But he wasn't fast enough. The claws caught him across the chest, and the world became pain. He flew backward, his small body ragdolling through the air until he crashed into the wall with a sickening crunch. The impact drove him into the stone, creating a small crater.
Blood poured from the gashes across his chest, soaking his shirt, pooling beneath him. Each breath was agony. He could taste copper.
Ah, he thought distantly. So this is dying.
The creature charged, its mouth opening impossibly wide, rows of teeth gleaming with saliva and bits of… things Kael didn't want to identify.
This is how I die, Kael thought, his eyes beginning to close. Torn apart by a monster in a forgotten classroom.
"Don't close your eyes, or you will die."
The voice exploded in his head not heard with his ears it was just in his mind.
Kael's eyes snapped open. The creature was mere feet away, close enough that Kael could see himself reflected in its teeth
And then it simply… disintegrated. Crumbled into black dust that scattered across the blood-soaked floor like ash in the wind.
What?
Kael's brows furrowed. What just happened? The sensation tickled the edges of his memory he'd seen this before, hadn't he?
Before he could pursue the thought, a figure materialized out of nothing.
One moment the space was empty. The next, a man stood there, hands in his pockets, looking thoroughly annoyed. "Ugh, having to deal with this… I'm definitely making them do more runs," he muttered, his voice carrying the irritation of someone whose day had been inconvenienced.
He surveyed the room the bodies, the blood, the destruction and clicked his tongue. "This is going to be a pain to pay for. Why do I even fund this shitty place?"
His eyes passed over the dead students and teacher with complete indifference, as if they were ants rather than children who'd been alive minutes ago.
"Guess I'll just erase everyone here," he said casually, raising one hand.
But before he could move it, he suddenly spun around.
His eyes found Kael, struggling to keep his eyes open despite the blood loss, despite the pain screaming through his body. The man waited, clearly expecting Kael to lose consciousness.
Kael's eyes didn't close. The voice said not to, he thought hazily. So I won't.
The man sighed, the sound heavy with resignation. "Blink," he commanded, his voice flat and emotionless.
Kael didn't respond. Didn't blink Just kept his eyes fixed on the stranger, even as his vision began to blur.
The man shook his head, and disappeared.
Gone, just like the creature simply not there anymore.
Kael looked around frantically, trying to locate him, and realized with a start that he was no longer in the classroom. He was in the orphanage, lying in the hallway outside his room.
How did he end up here? Nurses rushed toward him, their faces pale with shock at the blood covering his small body. But Kael's eyes searched past them, looking for the mysterious man.
He was nowhere to be seen. Kael started fading into unconsciousness as the darkness finally claimed him, pulling him down into unconsciousness like a hand dragging him underwater.