Kai Langford - October 2120
The moon hangs low above the lake, spilling silver light across the still water. Its reflection trembles only slightly when the wind brushes the surface, like a breath passing over glass.
Autumn is arriving quietly tonight. The air has that first edge of cold that settles into the lungs and lingers.
The scent of damp leaves drifts through the trees, carried on a slow breeze. Across the lake stands the barn. It's old and weathered. Forgotten about over many years.
At least, that's what it wants to look like. The wooden walls have darkened with age, and the roof sags just enough to suggest years of neglect.
A few broken boards hang loose, creaking softly when the wind shifts. I move through the treeline, careful with every step.
Fallen leaves crunch too easily underfoot, so I place my boots where the earth is bare and use my power to hide my steps. The shadows between the trees stretch long in the moonlight, and I let them curl around me instinctively.
They respond without hesitation. Darkness pools near my feet, sliding along the ground like quiet companions. A habit more than a conscious choice.
The barn grows closer, but there is still no movement. The comm in my ear crackles softly.
"Looking good so far, Kai," Ray's voice says, calm but attentive. "No movement from inside. They don't seem to have noticed you."
I crouch slightly behind the thick trunk of an oak tree, scanning the building again. The windows are dark and the door hangs slightly open. It's too quiet.
My fingers lift to the small earpiece. "Are you sure this is the right place?" I ask quietly. "It looks empty."
A beat of silence passes. Then another voice cuts in. "Are you saying I got it wrong?" Daniel says, irritation threading through his usually controlled tone.
"I followed them all the way here. This is the correct place."
I close my eyes for a moment and exhale slowly. "I didn't say that," I reply, keeping my voice steady. "maybe they just left already"
I push away from the tree and move again, staying low. The shadows stretch further ahead of me now, slipping across the ground toward the barn like scouts moving ahead of their commander.
The closer I get, the stronger the feeling becomes.
Something is off...
Earlier this evening, Ethan and I had been enjoying a rare moment of quiet. We were in our room, doing nothing important.
Ethan had been lying across the bed in that careless way he always did, one arm thrown behind his head while he talked about something random he'd seen earlier that day.
I was half listening, half watching him, when the the knocking started.
It wasn't a normal knock, more like pounding. The kind that rattles the door frame.
Ethan sat up immediately. "Alright, alright!" he called, swinging his legs off the bed.
The knocking continued without pause. I stood up as Ethan crossed the room, something uneasy settling in my chest.
When he opened the door, Jack stood in the hallway, breathing hard like he'd run the entire way there.
"Kai," he said quickly, barely glancing at Ethan. "You need to come. Daniel found something important."
Ethan and I exchanged a look. That sentence almost always meant trouble.
Within minutes we were hurrying down the corridor and across the yard toward Edmund's office.
The door was already open.
"What's going on?" Ethan asked as we stepped inside.
Daniel stood beside the desk, arms crossed, clearly waiting for us as Edmund stands behind his desk.
"I was in town getting groceries," he began.
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "That's where all the best crime happens."
Daniel ignored him. "I noticed two men in an alley," he continued.
"They were acting suspicious." I leaned against the wall, listening. "When I got closer," Daniel said, "one of them handed the other a vial."
Something about the way he said it made the room quiet and my stomach tightened.
Daniel continued, his voice turning sharper. "I recognised it immediately. A counterfeit Lunex vial."
That did it. The air in the room changed instantly.
Lunex was dangerous enough in controlled environments. A counterfeit version floating around in the wrong hands could cause far worse damage.
"So I followed him," Daniel said. "here" He pointed to a location on the map spread across Edmund's desk.
An abandoned barn by a lake outside town. "That's where he went inside."
The plan formed quickly after that. I would scout the location first, before Daniel and Ray join me.
Which Ethan immediately objected to. "You're not sending Kai out there alone," he said firmly.
I glanced at him. His expression had already shifted into that protective look he gets when something feels dangerous.
"I can handle it," I said quietly.
Ethan frowned. "That's not the point." "It's exactly the point."
Before the argument could go any further, Edmund stepped in. "Ethan," he said calmly, "I have another task tonight that requires your abilities."
Ethan looked like he wanted to argue and for a moment I thought he might. But eventually he sighed and gave a reluctant nod.
As we left the office, he caught my wrist. His grip wasn't tight, it was just enough to stop me. "
Be careful" he said softly.
I nodded. "I will."
... Now I stand at the edge of the barn's property. The building looms ahead of me, silent and dark.
The shadows around the structure begin to shift as I reach out to them. They slide across the ground and creep up the walls, slipping through broken boards and cracks like silent spies.
A moment passes... then another. Something moves inside and my eyes narrow.
There it is. A faint flicker of light through one of the broken boards. Someone is definitely inside.
I press my finger to the comm. "Ray," I whisper.
"Yeah?"
"It's not empty." I step closer to the door, my movements slow and controlled.
The shadows gather more tightly around my feet now, ready to respond if I need them.
My hand rests lightly against the old wood as the barn creaks softly in the wind. Inside, voices murmur.
I glance once more at the dark lake behind me, then back to the door. Calm breath in. Steady. I push the door open just enough to slip inside.
The old wood shifts with a low creak as I ease it inward, and I pause immediately, waiting to see if the sound carries further than I intended.
The hinges complain softly before settling again. I let the door fall back into place behind me, careful not to let it slam. Inside, the barn smells of damp timber, rust, and the faint dusty sweetness of old hay that has long since gone stale.
The air feels heavier than outside, thick with years of neglect. Moonlight slips through the gaps in the wooden walls, painting thin silver lines across the floorboards.
Dust floats lazily through the beams of light, turning slowly like tiny drifting stars. But there's another light deeper inside the barn. A lantern. Its dim orange glow spills across the central floor, flickering with every movement of the flame.
The light crawls up the wooden beams and across the high rafters, creating long shifting shadows that stretch and bend across the walls.
I stay within those shadows. They respond naturally when I move, gathering closer to my body, curling around my steps like quiet companions.
Voices echo through the barn. Two of them. Both loud and angry. I move slowly along the inside wall, careful with each step so the old floorboards don't give me away.
My attention stays fixed on the voices as they bounce through the open space. By the time I reach the corner of a large support beam, I can finally see them. Two men stand near a battered wooden table placed in the centre of the barn.
The table itself looks like it was dragged here years ago and never moved again. One of its legs is slightly shorter than the others, making it tilt whenever someone leans too hard against it.
One of the men grips the edge of the table tightly, his shoulders tense and jaw clenched. The other man paces back and forth nearby, his boots scraping restlessly across the floorboards.
Between them sits the small vial. The lid has been flipped open. Even from across the room, the liquid inside glows faintly orange under the lantern light.
It's the Lunex... or at least something pretending to be it.
The pacing man stops suddenly and points sharply toward the vial. "I already told you," he snaps, his voice cutting through the barn. "I'm the one taking it."
The other man lets out a harsh laugh that echoes off the rafters. "You?" he scoffs, shaking his head. "You'd probably drop dead before it even finished working."
"I'm stronger than you," the pacing man shoots back immediately.
"Stronger?" the other man replies, his voice rising. "You ran the second those guys handed over the vial."
"That was strategy."
"That was cowardice." The first man slams his palm down on the table, hard enough that the entire surface rattles.
The vial trembles slightly towards the edge of the table and both men freeze. For a brief moment neither of them moves, their attention locked entirely on the glass container sitting between them.
"You don't even know what it'll do," the pacing man mutters after a moment, his voice lowering slightly.
"I know what they said," the other man replies.
"They said a lot of things."
"They said it gives powers." The words hang in the air for a moment.
The man leaning on the table slowly straightens, staring down at the glowing liquid like it's the most valuable thing he's ever seen.
"They said it changes everything," he adds quietly. From my position in the shadows, my jaw tightens slightly. Whatever is inside that vial, there's no telling how unstable it could be.
Real Lunex is dangerous enough when handled by trained researchers. Giving something like that to desperate men chasing power rarely ends well.
The pacing man runs a hand through his hair in frustration. "No," he says firmly. "We stick to the plan. We sell it."
"We were going to sell it," the other man corrects, his eyes never leaving the vial. "Before we realised what it actually was."
"And now you want to inject yourself with some experimental garbage?"
"It's power," the man says quietly.
"It's poison!" Their voices rise again, echoing loudly through the barn.
The shadows at my feet ripple slightly as the tension in the room builds.
"Think about it," the pacing man continues, gesturing wildly toward the case. "We sell that thing and we're set for months. Maybe longer."
"And then what?" the other man snaps. "We keep scraping by forever?"
"At least we'll be alive."
"Barely." The man closest to the table slowly reaches toward the vial.
Before his fingers can touch the glass, the other man lunges forward and grabs his wrist. "Don't." The word comes out sharp and immediate.
For a moment they simply stand there, staring at each other. The lantern flame flickers slightly as the air shifts between them.
"You think you deserve it more than me?" the pacing man growls. The second man shoves him backward and reaches again for the vial.
That's when I step forward. The shadows loosen their hold around me as I move into the lantern light. My boots make a soft sound against the wood as I approach, calm and steady.
"Neither of you should touch it."
Both men spin around instantly. Their hands move toward the knives at their belts before their eyes finally settle on me.
For a moment, confusion flashes across their faces.
"Who the hell are you?" one of them demands, his voice edged with suspicion.
I stop a few steps away from the table, keeping my posture relaxed and non-threatening. My gaze flicks briefly to the vial. Still sitting there.
"You don't need to know my name" I say simply.
The pacing man narrows his eyes at me. "What exactly are you doing here?"
I glance back at the glowing vial before meeting his gaze again.
"Stopping you from making a very bad decision."
The man beside the table lets out a short laugh.
"Oh yeah?"
His hand darts suddenly toward the vial. But the shadows beneath the table react before I even fully think the command. Darkness surges upward in an instant. Thin tendrils coil around the glass vial and slide it smoothly across the wooden surface, pulling it out of reach before either man can grab it.
Both of them jump back in shock.
"What the hell-"
"You shouldn't play with things you don't understand" I say calmly.
Just as the silence settles over the barn, one of the men suddenly reaches into his jacket. The movement is quick and desperate. When his hand comes back out, there's a gun in it.
The metal glints briefly in the lantern light before he raises it and points it straight at my chest. For a split second, no one moves. Then the gun fires.
The sound explodes through the barn, deafening in the enclosed space.
My shadows react before I consciously command them. They surge upward from the floor in a dark wave, twisting together into a thick barrier just as the bullet reaches me.
The impact thuds into the mass of darkness, the force rippling through it like a stone dropped into water. The shadows absorb the shot, scattering the energy harmlessly into the wood around us. But the sudden defence pulls my focus.
For the briefest moment, my control slips.
The second man sees it immediately. His eyes snap to the vial where the glass briefly catches the lantern's glow.
Before I can adjust my stance, he lunges. His hand darts forward with reckless speed, grabbing the vial straight from my loosened grip.
"Got it!" he shouts.
I react instantly. My hand shoots forward, fingers spreading as I pull the shadows toward him. Darkness spills across the floor like a rising tide, ready to snap around his arm and tear the vial away.
Another gunshot cracks through the barn. The second bullet slams into the wooden beam beside me, splintering the surface with a sharp burst of flying chips. The sudden impact forces me to shift my balance and duck slightly to the side.
"Kai? What's going on?" Ray's voice cuts sharply through the comm in my ear, the static crackling with sudden concern.
I step back, forcing myself to steady my breathing as I prepare to strike again. But in that single moment of distraction, it's already too late.
The man holding the vial doesn't hesitate. He tears the small needle cap free with his teeth and jams it violently into the side of his neck. The syringe plunges downward.
The orange liquid drains from the vial in a single push.
"Stop!" I snap, lunging forward.
But the plunger is already fully pressed and the vial is empty.
For a heartbeat, nothing happens. Then the man staggers back a step, dropping the syringe as his hand flies to his throat.
His breathing becomes ragged, his shoulders rising and falling sharply. The other man stares at him in shock.
"What did you just-" He never finishes the sentence.
The man who injected himself suddenly stiffens. Every muscle in his body locks. A sharp gasp tears from his chest as his head jerks back, his spine arching unnaturally.
The lantern light flickers across his face as something shifts beneath his skin, like heat spreading through his veins. The change begins almost instantly.
It only takes seconds for the orange liquid to start doing its work.