The drive to Fabio's house was a blur. He wasn't even sure how he got there...one moment, he was gripping the wheel, and the next, he was stepping onto Fabio's porch. There was no one in the surrounding, and something was different.
The house was empty.
No lights. No movement.
Jack knocked. No answer.
He knocked harder. Still nothing.
His pulse quickened as he stepped back, scanning the quiet street. His instincts screamed that something was off, something deeper than just an empty house.
Had they ever been here at all?
No, that was insane. He had spoken to Fabio, interrogated him, pulled a gun on him. That had happened. He knew it had happened.
But what about the gate? The flowers? The whisper?
His mind was looping, thoughts colliding like waves in a storm. He felt like a man who had just woken from a dream only to find the world around him had shifted slightly, as if reality had folded over itself and left behind a crease he could still feel.
Jack took a slow breath.
He needed to figure this out.
And to do that, he needed to find Fabio's gang.
Jack exhaled sharply, stepping away from Fabio's empty house, his mind clouded with unease.
The house was abandoned...too abandoned. No signs of struggle, no hurried departure. Just… nothing, as if Fabio and the others had simply vanished into thin air. His instincts screamed that something unnatural had taken place, but the more he tried to make sense of it, the more his thoughts unraveled.
Shaking his head, he turned and walked back to his car. He needed to regroup, think clearly. The engine rumbled as he reached for the handle...
Then the world shifted.
A sudden, overwhelming pressure crushed his surroundings, as if space itself had folded. His breath caught in his throat.
Gone was the street.
Gone was his car.
The metal door handle in his grip was no longer a car door..it was wood. Heavy, ancient, reinforced with iron, like something from another time.
Jack's pulse hammered.
He stood before an enormous door, towering over him, set within walls of stone. The air was thick, heavy with the scent of aged parchment, melted wax, and something deeper..something decayed.
Slowly, cautiously, he pushed the door open.
What lay beyond made his breath hitch.
The chamber was massive. The ceiling stretched impossibly high, lost in the shadows of towering stone pillars. Torches lined the walls, their flames flickering with an eerie blue hue, casting ghostly shapes that slithered along the cold stone floor.
At the far end of the room, upon a raised dais, sat a throne.
Not just any throne...this one seemed alive. Crafted from twisted black stone, it pulsed faintly, as if breathing. The air around it shimmered unnaturally, distorting reality itself.
And on the throne… someone sat.
Jack couldn't see him.
Or rather...he could see the absence of him. A void of pure darkness cloaked the figure, swallowing all light, making it impossible to discern any features. He wasn't a silhouette, he was an emptiness in the shape of a man, a distortion of existence itself.
But his eyes...
They glowed. Two piercing, golden orbs burned through the darkness, radiating something ancient, something beyond human comprehension.
Jack's instincts screamed danger. Every fiber of his being told him to run, to escape this place before it swallowed him whole. But his body refused to move.
Then, the voice came.
Smooth. Deep. Powerful. It wasn't loud, yet it filled the entire chamber, vibrating in the marrow of Jack's bones.
"Jack."
A chill ran down his spine.
The figure knew his name.
Jack swallowed, forcing himself to stand tall. "Who the hell are you?"
The throne-bound figure didn't move. The torches flickered, as if dimming in response to his presence.
"That is not your concern."
Jack clenched his jaw. "Then why bring me here?"
A pause. The golden eyes seemed to narrow slightly.
"Because you are meddling in affairs beyond your comprehension."
Jack's fingers twitched toward his gun, but something inside warned him it wouldn't matter. This… thing, this king, was something different. Something beyond bullets and steel.
"You're the one behind all this, aren't you?" Jack's voice was steady, but his heartbeat was erratic. "The disappearances. The gate. The world twisting itself like some kind of..." He stopped himself. Like some kind of dream.
The golden eyes studied him.
Then, a low chuckle.
"You see more than most."
Jack exhaled sharply, bracing himself. "And you don't like that, do you?"
A silence fell over the room, thick as fog. Then,...
"No."
The single word was laced with finality, heavy with unspoken consequence.
The air tightened around Jack. A sudden force pressed against his chest. Not physical, but something deeper, as if his very soul was being weighed, examined.
The voice darkened.
"Do not interfere."
Jack's fists clenched. "Or what?"
A shift. The torches died. The entire chamber was swallowed in utter darkness,except for the golden eyes, burning through the void like twin suns.
Then, the threat came.
"I will erase you."
Jack felt it, the sheer weight of those words. It wasn't a mere death threat. It was something worse.
Erasure.
Not just his body.
Not just his existence.
But the concept of him.
His name. His memories. His past.
Gone, as if he had never been.
Jack took a slow breath. The pressure squeezing his chest was suffocating, but he refused to let it break him. He had faced killers, kidnappers, terrorists, horrors of war. He wasn't about to back down now.
"If you wanted me gone," he said carefully, "you would've done it already."
The golden eyes watched.
Then, the voice returned, softer this time, but colder.
"You are right."
A pause. Then...
"This is your only warning, Jack. Step away from this path, or you will know what it means to cease."
Jack met those burning eyes, refusing to look away.
Then...
-TO BE CONTINUED.