"Will I truly never be an Awakener?"
Cedric's voice felt thin in the small bathroom. He waited for a response from the universe, but all he heard was the drip of a leaky faucet and the distant hum of a passing car. He looked at himself one last time. He saw a tired young man who had spent his life preparing for a door that remained locked. He turned away from the mirror and walked back into his bedroom.
The air in the apartment was stale. He sat on the edge of his bed, the springs creaking under his weight. He reached for his phone on the nightstand. His screen was filled with notifications from class group chats. Everyone was talking about their new classes. Some were bragging about their stats, while others were asking about the best starter weapons.
He didn't open a single message. He pressed the power button, watching the screen go black, and plugged it into the charger. He didn't want to see the digital glow of other people's success. He pulled the thin blanket over his shoulders and lay there in the dark. It took a long time for his mind to stop racing, but eventually, exhaustion won.
The next morning, Cedric woke up before his alarm. It was a habit he couldn't break. Even if he wasn't an Awakener, his body was used to the rigors of training. He pulled on a pair of worn-out running shoes and a gray hoodie. He needed to move. He needed to feel the air in his lungs to prove he was still alive.
He stepped out of his building just as the sun was starting to peek over the skyscrapers. The city was already waking up. Cedric started at a light jog, heading toward the central district. This was his daily route. He liked the steady rhythm of his feet hitting the pavement.
As he ran, he passed by the high-end commercial strip. This was where the Awakener shops were located. Huge glass windows displayed shimmering suits of armor made from dragon-scale alloys. There were swords that pulsed with a faint blue light and staves topped with glowing crystals.
He slowed down to a walk as he passed a store called Vanguard Armaments. A group of young people, likely his age, were standing outside the door, waiting for it to open. They were dressed in expensive athletic gear, looking excited and full of life. They were pointing at a set of enchanted gauntlets in the window.
"That's exactly what I need for the Forest Gate next week," one of them said.
Cedric looked down at his own hands. They were calloused from lifting weights and practicing forms, but they were empty of magic. To these people, he was invisible. He was just a civilian, a background character in their heroic story. He picked up his pace again, running until his legs burned and his lungs felt like they were on fire. He wanted to outrun the feeling of being left behind.
A few hours later, Cedric sat in a crowded lecture hall at St. Jude's University. This was the 'Regular' campus, located miles away from the prestigious Awakening Academy. The room smelled of old paper and cheap coffee. A professor was droning on about the economic impact of monster materials on the global market.
Cedric tried to take notes, but his eyes kept drifting to the large television screen mounted on the wall. It was muted, but the news ticker at the bottom was easy to read.
'Rookie Awakeners Clear Grade-E Rift in Sector 4.'
The footage showed Arthur, the boy with the yellow hair from the testing hall. He was covered in soot, holding a broken shield, but he was laughing. He was surrounded by reporters,
Cedric looked around the room. Most of his fellow students were half-asleep or doodling in their notebooks. They had accepted their lives as ordinary citizens. They were the ones who would work in the offices, manage the logistics, and pay the taxes that funded the Awakeners.
'Is this my life now?' he thought. 'Am I going to spend the next forty years talking about the price of monster hide?'
The thought made his stomach churn. He didn't hate the people in the room, but he couldn't stand the idea of being trapped in a cubicle while the world changed outside. The lecture ended, and he moved through the rest of his day like a ghost. He went to his other classes, ate a bland sandwich in the cafeteria, and ignored the pitying looks from the few people who recognized him from high school.
By the time evening rolled around, Cedric couldn't handle the noise of the city anymore. He didn't want to go back to his cramped apartment, and he didn't want to see the neon lights of the shops. He decided to head toward the old park on the edge of the northern district.
This was a place where no one went anymore. The paths were cracked, and the streetlights had long since burnt out. It was a vast, hilly area that overlooked the city skyline. It was the only place where he could find some actual silence.
He walked past the rusted gates and followed a path up toward a high ridge. The grass was long and dry, rustling against his jeans. He reached the top of the hill and sat down on a stone bench that was covered in moss. Below him, the city was a sea of light. The skyscrapers looked like jagged teeth reaching for the stars.
He looked up at the sky. It was a clear night, and the stars were bright. He wondered where the monsters actually came from. People said they fell from the sky, but no one really knew what was on the other side of the rifts.
Cedric leaned back, closing his eyes. He just wanted to exist for a moment without the pressure of failing. He breathed in the cool night air, enjoying the stillness of the abandoned park.
A sudden whistling sound broke the silence.
It started as a low hum, but it rapidly grew into a deafening roar. Cedric opened his eyes and saw a streak of light cutting through the darkness. It wasn't a shooting star. It was too big, and it was moving too fast. A brilliant trail of white and purple smoke followed it as it descended.
He stood up, his heart hammer against his ribs. The object was coming straight toward the hill. It grew larger by the second, a ball of intense heat and light that turned the night into day.
"What the..."
He didn't have time to finish the sentence. He tried to turn and run, but the air around him became heavy and hot. The ground began to vibrate. The light became blinding, a wall of white that erased the city and the trees.
The meteor struck the center of the ridge with the force of a bomb. The impact threw Cedric backward. He felt a wave of searing heat wash over him, followed by a shockwave that knocked the wind out of his lungs.
He hit the ground hard, his head spinning. Everything was a blur of dust and fire. He tried to crawl away, but his limbs felt like they were made of stone. In the center of the smoking crater, a jagged, dark stone pulsed with an eerie, rhythmic light. It looked like a heart beating.
The stone cracked open, and a surge of green energy erupted from the core. It didn't explode outward. Instead, it moved like a liquid, rushing across the ground toward Cedric. He watched in terror as the shadows stretched and coiled around his legs, pulling him toward the heat.
The last thing he saw before the world went dark was a flicker of purple light in the center of his vision.