Chapter 1: Into the Fracture
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The air was thick with the metallic tang of blood, the kind you could taste before you saw it. Kael Drayke crouched behind a rusted cargo container, gripping a shard of broken glass. His breath came in shallow gasps, each one reminding him of the cracked ribs from his last run-in with a rival scavenger.
Above him, the sun flickered erratically, like a dying bulb. This part of the Outskirts was always unstable. Too close to the fractures.
"Just one more haul," Kael muttered to himself, his voice a mix of desperation and determination. He wasn't doing this for himself—not entirely. The thought of his sister, Maya, hooked to a ventilator in the Enclave's underfunded hospice, gave him strength.
Void Crystals were the only currency that mattered, and they didn't come cheap. Without them, Maya wouldn't last the month.
Kael peeked around the corner. The fractured landscape ahead shimmered like a mirage, edges bleeding into a kaleidoscope of colors. That was his target.
A Fracture.
The sight sent a shiver down his spine. Fractures were dangerous anomalies where the Verge bled into the real world. Most people avoided them, but scavengers like Kael had no choice.
Void Crystals grew near the edges, feeding off the instability.
Kael adjusted his scavenger pack, checking the crude equipment he'd cobbled together over the years: a patched gas mask, insulated gloves, and a battered flashlight. Nothing could truly protect him if the Fracture destabilized, but it was better than nothing.
As he stepped closer, the world warped around him. The fractured air hummed with an unnatural frequency, and the shadows seemed to deepen, pulling away from the light.
Kael knelt by a jagged outcrop of crystal. Its faint glow was mesmerizing, but he forced himself to focus. He reached into his pack, pulling out a small chisel and hammer.
"Easy…" he whispered, striking the crystal carefully.
The first shard came loose, then a second. Each one pulsed faintly in his palm. Kael's heart raced—not from fear, but from hope. These shards could buy him another week, maybe two.
Then the humming intensified.
Kael froze. The air grew heavy, like a storm about to break. He turned, his eyes widening as the shadows behind him began to twist and writhe.
Something was coming.
A low growl echoed from the darkness, a sound that seemed to bypass his ears and reverberate in his chest. Kael scrambled back, clutching the crystals in one hand and his makeshift weapon in the other.
From the shadows emerged a creature unlike anything he'd ever seen. Its body was humanoid but stretched and distorted, as if someone had tried to sculpt it out of smoke and failed. Its eyes burned like coals, and its movements were unnaturally fluid.
A Shadow.
Kael's breath hitched. He'd heard stories of these creatures, whispers from survivors who'd barely escaped the Verge. Shadows were predators, feeding on fear and flesh alike.
The creature lunged.
Kael dove to the side, the jagged edges of the fractured ground tearing at his clothes. He swung the shard of glass wildly, catching the Shadow across its arm. To his surprise, it recoiled, a hiss escaping its formless mouth.
But it didn't retreat.
Kael scrambled to his feet, his mind racing. He couldn't fight this thing. Not with his injuries, and certainly not with a piece of glass.
The Shadow lunged again, faster this time. Kael braced for impact—
—and fell.
The ground beneath him crumbled, pulling him into the Fracture's depths.
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When Kael came to, the world around him was alien. The sky was an oppressive shade of crimson, with jagged black spires rising in the distance. The air buzzed with a strange energy, making his skin crawl.
This wasn't the Outskirts.
This was the Verge.
Kael struggled to his feet, the crystals still clutched in his hand. He didn't know how he'd survived the fall, but he knew one thing for certain.
He wasn't alone.
From the distance, a guttural roar echoed, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps.
Kael's grip tightened on the crystals. Survival wasn't a choice anymore. It was a necessity.