Chapter 1: Harbinger of Chaos
Ava Sinclair awoke, her heart pounding against her ribcage. The steely taste of fear lingered on her tongue as the nightmare's tendrils gradually tightened their grip. Through her condominium window, the city's skyline pierced the dawn sky, immaculate and calm, ignorant to its approaching fate.
Six months of such images had left their imprint. Even in the dim morning light, heavy rings cast a shadow over her eyes. The nightmares became more vivid with each passing night: buildings falling to ash, streets splitting open like wounds, and now the port bursting in flames.
Her cellphone vibrated. Elena's visage illuminated the screen, familiar and comfortable.
"Permit me wager," her high-quality friend's voice contained a hint of anxiety behind its customary warmth, "another nightmare?"
"they're getting worse." Ava placed her forehead to the cool window pane. "greater specific. greater urgent."
"Perhaps you should take some time off work. The survival faculty can manipulate without "
"No." The phrase turned out sharper than planned. "My college students require these skills. quickly."
Elena sighed, breaking the silence between them. "At the very least, allow me to carry you espresso before class. "You sound exhausted."
The morning routine was like taking walks in fog. bathe and dress. Device test. The survival pack through her door had evolved from paranoid practice into something resembling desperate reality. Scientific supplies. Water filtering. Emergency radio. She wished that the equipment for the future would never arrive.
Elena waited outside the converted warehouse that housed the survival school, holding two coffee cups. She observed Ava's face with the care and attention of someone who recognized her despite her youth.
"You appear to be hell."
"thank you." Ava generously spread the espresso, its warm temperature flowing through her shaking fingertips. "always expect you for honesty."
"a person has to preserve you grounded." Elena fell in step with her. "What was it this time?"
"The harbor." The picture flashed again. Water turned to steam, ships melted like wax, and something large shifted beneath the floor. "It begins there, I suppose. "Anything is coming."
They entered the study room together. College students came in, talking about weekend plans and everyday issues that appeared as fragile as spun glass. Modern lesson: necessary knots for survival situations. The irony was not lost on Ava.
Her hands shook as she confirmed the bowline, muscle memory battling fatigue and anxiety. The rope slipped and lost its shape.
"You ok?" Elena spoke from her position beside the supply cupboard, anxiety etched in her features.
"Simply another dream," Ava said with a broken glass smile. "This time, I noticed the harbor in flames."
The remarks hung in the air between them, laden with premonition. A student raised her hand and inquired about the knot's practical applicability. Ava released into evidence, grateful for the distraction from her thoughts.
The morning moved slowly. Each performance felt like a countdown to something imminent. Elena surrounded her in the delivery room throughout the lunch hour.
"there's some thing else, isn't there?" She stopped the exit, palms crossed. "something you're not telling me."
Ava pondered deception, but two decades of friendship made it impossible. "I noticed you in the dream. At the harbor. You had intended to warn someone, but" The phrases lodged in her throat.
"however what?"
"I couldn't pay attention to what you were saying. The entire thing burns, after which..." Ava's voice crackled. "You disappeared."
Elena's face paled, but her voice stayed constant. "It is just a dream, Ava. There is too much late-night information on earthquakes."
"Is it?" Ava indicated to her cellphone, which was open to a news alert about unusual seismic activity in the harbor. "The styles match. Tremors, variations in water temperature, and electromagnetic disturbances. Everything lines up with what I've seen."
"Even if you're right," Elena began, but a deep rumble halted her words. The building shuddered. The delivery shelves creaked ominously.
"Just another tremor," someone called from the classroom.
But Ava's blood turned cold. This was not just another tremor. This became the beginning.
Her smartphone buzzed with a text message from an unknown source: you are not insane. The dreams are real. Meet me at the harbor. -M
"who is M?" Elena focused on the show.
"No idea." Ava's arms hesitated above the response button. "however they understand about the dreams."
"it may be an entice."
"Or it may be solutions." Ava grasped her survival percentage. "cowl my afternoon class?"
Elena grabbed her arm. "you're not going by myself."
"A person wants to live here. If events begin to unfold..." Ava returned her friend's stare. "those humans will want your assist."
Another tremor shook the building, stronger this time. Within the classroom, voices raised in subject.
"Promise me you will be careful." Elena drew her into a strong hug. "And solution your damn telephone when I name."
Ava hurried across unfamiliar neighborhoods. Regardless of the early hour, the sky darkened, with clouds accumulating at an abnormal pace. Her cellphone buzzed with information alerts: electromagnetic interference impacting communications, unusual weather patterns, and marine species behaving inconsistently.
The harbor loomed ahead, with container ships dotted over the water like toys. Employees went about their business, unaware of the bad vibes brewing in the air. Ava's skin prickled with static electricity.
A parent stood at the end of an empty pier, tall and darkly dressed, his face obscured by the unusual shadows that hung over the lake. As Ava approached, they became.
"you are proper on time." The woman's accessory became impossible to locate. "even though we are slicing it alternatively near."
"who are you?"
"someone who understands what you've seen." She extended her hand. "I'm Maeve O'Sullivan. And you are a Watcher, even if you don't realize it."
Before Ava could react, her phone erupted with emergency warnings. The water began to churn, and steam formed unimaginable columns.
"It's beginning," Maeve's voice echoed above the growing turmoil. "The question is, are you prepared to stand what comes next?"
The sky was split open with unearthly light. Within the distance, sirens began to sound. Something massive and ancient trembled beneath their toes in the harbor's depths.
Ava's horrors were no longer a dream. These had been prophesies.
And this was simply the beginning.
Her smartphone vibrated in her pocket, displaying Elena's name. However, before she could respond, the sector erupted in flame and darkness, just
as she had predicted.
The harbor burnt, and with it, the last vestiges of the sector she knew.