We have never heard it open.
Not at first.
There was no alarm, no warning. It became too quiet all of a sudden. The kind of quiet that feels wrong.
Then came the shaking.
Some said it felt like the air itself broke, split down the middle. Others said that they heard a metal twist or bone grind against stone. But for most of us, it was the screams. It told us something had gone horribly, impossibly wrong.
And then… they came.
The Hollowed.
No one knows what they are, not really. Monsters, we call them but that word is too small. Their forms are broken. Jaws where chests should be. Limbs bent backwards. Eyes - too many or none. Skin, peeling in places, pulsing in others. Some slither. Some crawl. Some fly.
But all, hunt.
They came from beneath the surface of our world. We call it the Hollow Layer. A place we never saw, never knew existed , until the Doors began to open.
Some say the Doors are just tears in the air. Others call it a punishment. Is the name that important? All I know is, once a door opens, it doesn't matter who you are. Child, Cleaner, president. You run. To live. And hope something stronger than you is standing between you and what's coming through.
People screamed. Ran. Prayed. And something answered.
That's where the Gifted appeared.
People born ordinary, who awakened with impossible abilities. Fire. Shadows. Metal. Power that broke Hollowed bodies in half.
People called them miracles.
Guardians.
Hope.
The Gifted fought. Bled. Died. Still the Hollowed came.
No one knows what triggers them. Sometimes in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes in the middle of a home.
But when they do. Death follows.
This is the new world. Cities were lost. Burned to ashes. Survivors gathered in what was left, behind reinforced walls and steel bunkers. The science facilities rose. The centers of control, research and order. The Gifted were trained there. Worshipped there.
And the rest of us?
We endured. Worked. Kept our heads down.
Because in this world, power decides who gets remembered and who disappears.
No one talks about the ordinary. The forgotten.