Lucian woke with a jolt.
Not from a dream. From something else. A deep, sudden pressure in his chest, like a weight had just been lifted off it. The room was dim, lit only by the blue glow of computer screens and the blinking lights of half-assembled gadgets on Jace's desk. Outside, the rain hadn't stopped. It beat gently against the windows like tapping fingers.
For a moment, he didn't move.
His head throbbed. His muscles ached. The couch beneath him was lumpy, and someone's half-folded hoodie served as his pillow. But the worst part,what truly woke him was the heat spreading from his left hand.
It was pulsing again.
Slow and steady, like a second heartbeat.
Lucian sat up, rubbing his face. He could still feel the faint echo of footsteps in his mind. Like someone was watching him through a crack in reality.
He glanced around. Jace wasn't in sight, but a bowl of instant noodles sat steaming on the table nearby, untouched.
Lucian flexed his fingers. The mark didn't glow this time, but it watched. He could feel it like something just beneath his skin had opened its eyes.
And that was when Jace appeared from the back room, holding a glowing scanner and a power bank.
"You're up," he said. "Good. We've got work to do.
Jace shuffled to the mini-fridge, pulled out two cans of fizzy orange soda, and tossed one over.
Lucian caught it with one hand. His marked hand.
The can hissed as he cracked it open then hissed louder. His palm flared with heat. Not burning, but alive. The mark pulsed like a heartbeat.
He winced.
Jace noticed. "That your hand again?"
Lucian nodded, teeth clenched. "It's getting worse. I think… she triggered it somehow. The woman who found me."
"You said she had a sword?"
Lucian nodded. "And eyes like ice. She didn't say her name, just told me I 'wasn't supposed to wake up.' Like she knew me."
Jace pulled a stool up and sat. "You think she's from the group that experimented on you?"
Lucian stared into the orange fizz, swirling it slowly. "She moved like one of them. Fast. Precise. Not human."
"So she's a cleaner," Jace said. "You escaped, and now they're tying up loose ends."
Lucian didn't reply.
Jace leaned back. "We need to scan that mark. See what it's doing. If it's transmitting anything, we wipe it. If it's changing you…"
"It is changing me."
Lucian flexed his fingers. The veins in his arm shimmered faintly. A flicker of light. Then gone.
"I can feel things before they happen. I knew she was coming. Like I could hear her footsteps a block away."
Jace's eyes narrowed. "Then we're running out of time."
He got up and pushed aside a stack of hardware from his workbench. "Give me your arm."
Lucian hesitated, then rolled up his sleeve.
The mark was black again. A twisting symbol that looked half ancient, half like corrupted code. Jace pulled on gloves and held a scanner over it. The device beeped, clicked, and started humming softly.
"This'll take a minute," Jace said. "Try not to pass out or explode."
Lucian smirked. "Comforting."
Outside, thunder rolled across the sky.
Inside, the scanner pulsed with a soft whine—and then, without warning, the mark on Lucian's arm flared.Blue light burst across his skin.The scanner sparked and died.Lucian's body convulsed.
Jace swore, diving back as the lights in the room flickered. Monitors glitched. Drones twitched. A glass cracked on the counter.
Lucian's head snapped back. His eyes lit with the same pale glow as his arm locked onto something invisible in the ceiling.Then it all stopped.The light faded. The room went still.
Lucian slumped forward, gasping.Jace stared. "Okay. So… that's new."
Lucian wiped blood from his nose. "What the hell is happening to me?"Jace checked the scanner. Dead."No clue. But if they didn't know where you were before… they do now."Lucian stood slowly. "Then we move."Jace glanced out the window. "To where?"Lucian didn't answer right away. He looked at the mark again. It no longer pulsed like before. It whispered.A thought drifted into his mind, uninvited but undeniable.
A place."Northbridge."Jace frowned. "That's outside city limits. Total dead zone."Lucian nodded. "Exactly. If I'm going to figure this out, I need to go where no one's watching."Jace sighed, already grabbing his backpack. "I really should've picked better friends."Lucian smiled faintly. "Too late now."
And together, they disappeared into the rain.
Leaving hazy foots prints behind theydashed through several alleys with lingering fear Jace particularly,was shivering in cold's grip with heavy breathing and heart pounding like it's been smashed continuously against a rock but they can't slow down at least not now.