The weight of Luna's revelation clung to Angelo like a second skin. He had created the Riftborn. He had wished for something that never should have existed, and now it was hunting them.
Back at Jade's studio, the air was thick with tension.
"So, let me get this straight," JJ said, rubbing his temples. "Angelo wished for power, and the Rift answered. But instead of just handing him a cool sword or something, it spat out a nightmare that wants to eat reality?"
"Pretty much," Jade muttered, flipping through the old notebook again.
Eli leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "The question is… why did you forget, Angelo? What made you erase your memories?"
Angelo pressed his fingers to his temples. "I don't know. Maybe I—" His words caught in his throat as something flickered in his vision. A memory? No, a nightmare.
He was standing in an endless void, the Rift swirling around him. A figure stood before him—tall, draped in shadows, eyes burning with an unnatural glow.
"You are me."
Angelo gasped and clutched his chest. The memory dissolved, but the voice lingered.
Jade's eyes narrowed. "You just saw something."
"I—" Angelo hesitated. "I saw him. The Riftborn."
JJ whistled. "And?"
Angelo's voice was barely above a whisper. "He said... he's me."
Silence.
Jade exhaled sharply. "Well. That's terrifying."
Eli tapped his fingers against his arm. "It makes sense."
JJ blinked. "How does that make sense?"
Eli started pacing. "Think about it. The Rift gives power based on desire. Angelo wished for something. If the Rift interpreted that wish wrong, maybe it split him—created something else entirely."
"Like a living consequence," Jade murmured.
Angelo felt his stomach turn. A consequence with its own will. And it wants to consume everything.
"We need to move," Jade said, grabbing her coat. "We need to find out what happened the last time we fought him. There's gotta be something we're missing."
JJ groaned. "Can't we just—"
A deep, resonating hum shook the walls.
The lights flickered. The floor trembled.
And then—
A voice, whispering from every direction at once.
"Found you."
---
The air turned ice-cold.
Angelo turned sharply. A black crack had appeared in the middle of the studio, stretching like a wound in reality. The Riftborn's presence oozed from it, thick and suffocating.
Jade's fingers twitched. "Illusions won't work on something that's already beyond reality."
JJ took a shaky step back. "So, uh… run?"
The crack widened. And from it—
A hand emerged.
Black as the abyss. Dripping with something that burned the air around it.
Eli cursed under his breath. "That's not good."
The hand curled, clawing at the edges of the tear. The Riftborn was coming through.
Angelo's instincts screamed at him to run.
Instead, he stepped forward.
"Angelo, what are you doing?!" Jade hissed.
But Angelo wasn't listening. His body moved on its own, drawn by something deep within him. His pulse thundered in his ears as the Riftborn's fingers brushed against his.
The moment they touched—
A shockwave exploded outward.
Suddenly, Angelo wasn't in the studio anymore.
He was standing in a vast, broken city. Skyscrapers were torn apart, floating in the air. The sky was fractured, as if it had been shattered and stitched back together by something that didn't understand how reality worked.
And before him—
The Riftborn.
Fully formed. Watching him.
Angelo clenched his fists. "What do you want?"
The Riftborn tilted its head. Its voice was soft, almost amused.
"To take back what is mine."
Angelo's stomach twisted. "I don't belong to you."
The Riftborn took a slow step forward. "Don't you?"
The air cracked around them. Angelo staggered, feeling his mind bend. The Riftborn was doing something—rewriting something—
Memories that weren't his flooded in.
A past he had never lived.
A world where he had never forgotten.
A world where he had ruled.
Where he had been the Riftborn.
---
Angelo gasped, snapping back to reality. He was in the studio again, JJ shaking him violently.
"Dude! Wake up!"
Angelo inhaled sharply, stumbling backward. "I—I saw it."
Jade's grip tightened around her notebook. "Saw what?"
Angelo's mouth went dry. "A world where I became him."
Silence.
JJ clapped his hands together. "Cool. So. That's horrifying."
Eli's eyes darkened. "If that's true, then we need to stop this now."
Jade nodded. "We need to figure out how we stopped him before."
Angelo rubbed his face. "If we stopped him before."
---
Over the next few days, they dug through everything they could find—old journals, hidden records, even Luna's library.
And then, finally, they found it.
An old letter.
Addressed to Angelo Zayne.
Jade read aloud:
"If you are reading this, then the cycle has begun again. You have forgotten. We always forget. But know this—there is a way to end it. To break free from the Rift's grasp. You must find the last thread of the old world. The first wish you ever made. Destroy it. Only then will the Riftborn be undone."
JJ blinked. "So… we're looking for a wish? How do you even find a wish?"
Eli frowned. "And if we destroy it, what happens to Angelo?"
Jade hesitated. "That's the part I'm worried about."
Angelo exhaled slowly. "We don't have a choice."
The Riftborn was coming.
And this time, there was no escaping it.