Three years ago.
The hospital lights were too bright. They bleached everything white—the walls, the floor, the doctors' coats. The only color was the frantic red on the heart monitor. Kaiden stood outside the operating room, his scrubs feeling like a costume. He wasn't a nurse today. He was just a brother, watching through a pane of glass as his world fell apart.
His hands were cold and slick with sweat. His chest was so tight he could barely breathe. On the table, under the harsh glare of the surgical lamp, was his sister, Lily. Eighteen years old. Her life was supposed to be starting.
Then he saw it.
A thin, red thread. It hung in the air, connected to Lily's chest. It pulsed, faint and weak, like a dying heartbeat. Kaiden blinked, rubbing his eyes hard. He was losing his mind. It had to be stress, a hallucination brought on by terror and exhaustion. But when he opened his eyes, it was still there. A real, physical thing that no one else seemed to see.
Then, it snapped.
The thread didn't fade. It broke. One moment it was there, the next it was gone, disintegrating into nothing.
Instantly, the machines screamed. A long, solid tone cut through the beeping. Doctors shouted. Nurses rushed. Lily flatlined.
"No!" Kaiden slammed his fists against the glass, the impact jarring his bones. "Save her! Do something!"
He pounded on the window, his voice raw, but the sounds were muffled on the other side. He could only watch the useless flurry of activity, the frantic pumping on her chest, the grim faces. It was too late.
He saw the moment they gave up. The doctor pulled his hands back, head bowed. A nurse covered Lily's face with a white sheet.
Kaiden's strength vanished. His legs gave out and he slid down the wall, his knees hitting the cold floor. All he could see was the still, lifeless shape under the sheet.
---
Three years later, the blare of an alarm clock dragged Kaiden from a dreamless sleep. He slammed his hand down on it, the sudden silence ringing in his ears. His small apartment was a mess of empty coffee cups and discarded takeout containers. Medical textbooks he hadn't touched since Lily's death gathered dust on a shelf. On his nightstand, a photo of a smiling, vibrant Lily stared back at him.
He was twenty-seven now. He looked haunted.
The threads were everywhere. They had started appearing a month after Lily died, faint at first, but now they were a constant, shimmering overlay on his reality. He'd learned to tune most of them out, treating them like background noise. A skill born from necessity.
---
Kaiden walked down the crowded morning street, heading for a corner café. He kept his eyes down, trying to ignore the web of colors around him. White threads of normal, boring fate crisscrossed everywhere. Gray threads, signaling minor tragedies—a lost wallet, a sprained ankle, a fender bender—were common. Red threads were rarer. He saw a few, thin and distant, and forced himself to look away.
He'd learned that lesson the hard way. In the beginning, he'd tried to save everyone. He'd nearly destroyed himself in the process. It wasn't his job. It wasn't his problem.
But one thread snagged his attention.
It was different. Thicker. It pulsed with a violent, urgent light that reminded him so much of Lily's. It was connected to a woman standing across the street, buying a newspaper. She was in her early thirties, dressed in professional clothes. A detective's badge was clipped to her belt.
*Walk away,* he told himself. *It's not your problem.*
But the thread throbbed again, a silent scream in his vision. He couldn't shake the image of Lily's thread breaking.
*Just this once. Just one more.*
As the thought crossed his mind, text materialized in his vision, crisp and digital.
[TARGET IDENTIFIED]
[FATE: Death in 43 minutes]
[CAUSE: Gunshot wound - chest]
[INTERVENTION POSSIBLE: Yes]
His jaw tightened. He hated this. He hated the threads, hated the choice. But he was already moving, crossing the street, keeping a careful distance as he followed the woman.
---
Her name was Maya Chen, according to the nameplate he glimpsed when she turned. She walked with purpose, heading toward the massive stone building of the police headquarters. Kaiden followed, his anxiety growing with every step. He'd gotten good at this—stalking potential victims, trying to spot the danger before it struck.
A countdown timer appeared in the corner of his vision.
[38 minutes remaining]
How was she supposed to die inside a police station? The place was crawling with cops. It made no sense.
Maya entered the building. Kaiden found a bus stop across the street and sat, his eyes fixed on the entrance. The minutes ticked by. The world was a storm of threads, but his focus was locked on the pulsing red one tied to Maya.
A black SUV pulled up to the curb. Three men in plain clothes got out. Their threads were wrong. A sick, twisted dark gray, almost black. They radiated a cold hostility.
[HOSTILE INTENT DETECTED]
Kaiden's stomach dropped. They were here for her. They walked into the station, posing as visitors, and somehow passed security without a problem. Their guns had to be well-hidden.
[22 minutes remaining]
He couldn't call 911. What would he say? "Hello, I see magic death strings and some guys with bad vibes just went into your building"? They'd think he was a lunatic.
He had to go in himself. He stood up, his heart pounding against his ribs. This was a terrible idea.
---
Kaiden walked up to the front desk, his mind racing. He pulled out his old, expired hospital ID. "I have an appointment," he said, his voice steadier than he felt. He flashed the ID, hoping the guard wouldn't look too closely. The guard grunted and waved him through.
Inside, he followed Maya's red thread. It was a lifeline pulling him through the maze of hallways. It led him toward the interrogation wing. As he rounded a corner, he saw them. The three men. They were setting up an ambush. One stood near the exit, blocking the only way out. The other two were creeping toward the interrogation room where Maya's thread disappeared. They were coordinated. Professional.
[8 minutes remaining]
Panic flared in Kaiden's chest. He had no weapon. No plan.
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: Cut thread before trigger event]
[WARNING: Physical intervention required]
[COST: 5 Defiance Points]
[CURRENT BALANCE: 67 Points]
He didn't fully understand the System, but he knew what "cutting the thread" meant. He reached out, his fingers passing through the air until they found the invisible, pulsing strand. It felt solid to his touch, like a super-taut guitar string. He gripped it and pulled.
The thread resisted. Pain, sharp and electric, shot up his arm and exploded in his skull. He gritted his teeth and yanked with all his strength. The thread vibrated violently but didn't break. His vision blurred.
[ERROR: Proximity to trigger event too close]
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: Remove trigger cause]
[5 minutes remaining]
He had to stop them. Physically.
His eyes darted around and landed on a red fire alarm on the wall. Without a second thought, he lunged for it and pulled the lever.
Alarms blared. Red lights flashed. The building erupted into chaos. Cops shouted, and people started evacuating. The gunmen froze, their plan shattered. But one of them recovered quickly. He pulled a gun and sprinted toward Maya's room.
Kaiden didn't think. He ran and tackled the man from behind. They crashed to the floor. The gun went off with a deafening crack, the bullet burying itself in the wall.
In the next second, cops were everywhere. Kaiden was yanked off the gunman and slammed face-down onto the linoleum, a knee pressing hard into his back. Through the chaos, he saw Maya step out of the interrogation room, her face a mask of confusion. He looked for her thread. The violent red had faded, replaced by a calm, steady white. She was safe.
[FATE ALTERED SUCCESSFULLY]
[+10 Defiance Points]
[Current Balance: 77 Points]
[WARNING: Physical strain at 34%]
Then the price hit him. A wave of exhaustion so profound it felt like he was drowning. His muscles screamed, and the world started to go gray at the edges. He had won. And it had cost him.
---
Two hours later, Kaiden sat handcuffed to a table in an interrogation room. The one right next to where Maya had been. The irony wasn't lost on him. The door opened and she walked in, sitting across from him. The woman he'd saved was now his interrogator.
"How did you know?" she asked, her voice sharp. "How did you know there was a threat?"
He just shook his head, too tired to form a lie. "I had a feeling."
"A feeling?" She leaned forward. "You were following me. You pulled the alarm *before* he drew his weapon. You tackled him at the exact right second. It's like you knew what was going to happen."
Kaiden's eyelids felt like lead weights. The strain of using his power was catching up to him, a deep, aching exhaustion that settled in his bones.
Maya's expression softened slightly. "You look like hell. You need a doctor?"
*If only you knew,* he thought.
She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I'm letting you go. You saved my life. But…" She slid a business card across the table. "My name is Maya Chen. Those men were here to kill a witness I was interviewing. You stopped them. If you know anything else, anything at all, you call me. I need answers."
Kaiden took the card with a weak nod.
A few minutes later, he was stumbling out of the station into the cool night air. He leaned against a brick wall, gasping for breath. Relief washed over him. He did it. He'd saved her. He hadn't failed this time. He hadn't failed like he failed Lily.
He looked up at the dark sky, a moment of peace settling over him.
Then his blood ran cold.
On the rooftop of the building across the street, a figure stood silhouetted against the moon. It was humanoid but utterly black, a void in the shape of a man. It had no face, no features—only two glowing red eyes that were staring directly at him. It was watching him.
A new alert flashed in his vision, the text a screaming, urgent red.
[WARNING: FATE GUARDIAN DETECTED]
[RANK: F - Observer]
[STATUS: Hostile awareness]
[ALERT: You have been marked]
The shadow didn't move. It just stared, its gaze piercing through him. Kaiden blinked, and in that instant, it was gone.
But he could feel it. A change in the world. Something had noticed him.
Saving Maya's life was the easy part. Now, something was hunting him. And he had no idea what it was.