(Part 1)
The storm came early that morning.
Grey clouds rolled over the quiet town as if someone had dragged shadows across the sky with their bare hands. Cold wind slipped through half-open windows, rattling them just enough to wake the boy sleeping inside.
Aurel gasped and sat up straight.
He wasn't breathing normally.
He never did… after that dream.
He pressed a hand to his chest, fingers trembling. His heartbeat was a frantic rhythm, as if trying to match the sound of thunder outside.
For a moment, the whole world felt drenched in the colours of his nightmare — black flames, silver feathers falling like snow, and her voice calling his name with heartbreak sharp enough to cut through bone.
"Aurel…"
He shut his eyes tight.
The echo of her whisper still lingered.
Even after all these years, he never got used to it.
The Dream That Wouldn't Stop
Every night since he turned thirteen, Aurel saw the same vision:
A battlefield of shattered marble.
A sky split open like a wound.
A girl with horns — dark and curved — staring at him with a face full of sorrow and fury.
He didn't know her.
Yet he knew her.
She wasn't human.
And she wasn't just a dream.
Aurel wiped the sweat from his forehead. His room felt freezing despite the warm blanket tangled around his legs. He swung his feet onto the floor, teeth chattering slightly as he walked to the window.
The rain outside looked normal.
The world outside looked normal.
His life should have been normal.
But he knew better.
The Name That Didn't Fit
When he was little, he once asked his parents why they named him Aurel — an old-world name that didn't match anyone in his school, or in his town.
His mother only said,
"It felt like your name before you were even born."
Aurel never understood what she meant.
But some nights… after waking up from the dream, he felt like Aurel wasn't his name at all —
It was a reminder.
A piece of something ancient that refused to fade from him.
Something he wasn't supposed to remember.
The Morning That Changed Everything
He checked his phone: 6:38 AM.
Too early for school, too late to go back to sleep.
Not that he could sleep again.
He threw on a hoodie, ran his fingers through his messy dark hair, and stepped outside.
Rainwater dripped from the edges of roofs. The smell of wet soil filled the air. School kids ran past him with bags bouncing behind them. Auto rickshaws honked in the distance.
This was the world he knew.
Predictable. Ordinary. Loud.
But today… something felt wrong.
The air was colder.
The wind whispered in a way wind shouldn't.
And his chest had a strange, dull ache — like someone tugging a thread tied around his heart.
He walked faster.
Maybe he was just tired.
Maybe he was imagining it.
Or maybe…
He stopped walking.
No.
It was happening again.
The Sigil
There, on the massive banyan tree beside the old temple — something glowed.
A mark.
Black, intricate, shaped like curling flames and broken wings.
Aurel's breath caught.
His dream.
It's the same symbol.
For a second, he stood frozen, unsure if his mind was tricking him. He blinked hard.
The symbol pulsed once — faintly — and vanished.
"A hallucination…" he whispered weakly, but even his voice didn't believe it.
He took a hesitant step closer.
The bark was cold to the touch. Just a tree. No mark. No glow. Nothing.
But he'd seen it.
He was sure.
The same sigil that burned on the wrist of the demon girl in his dreams.
Aurel stumbled back, pulse thundering.
"What is happening to me?"
But the wind didn't answer.
Instead, something else did.
The Crow
A crow landed on the temple wall.
Strange, but not strange enough to scare him — at first.
Then it looked at him.
Its eyes were wrong.
Too sharp. Too red.
Aurel's stomach tightened.
The crow tilted its head…
and then—
It spoke.
Not cawed.
Not cried.
It spoke, in a low, broken whisper that sounded like two voices tangled into one.
"He has awakened… at last."
Aurel froze.
His mind couldn't process the words, couldn't accept what he heard.
"What— what did you just—?"
But before he finished, the crow's body crumbled into black dust, scattering into the air like smoke blown apart by the wind.
Aurel stumbled backward, heart hammering so hard it hurt.
A talking crow.
A mark from his dreams appearing on a tree.
His nightmare bleeding into reality.
This wasn't normal.
It wasn't even close to normal.
And deep inside, a part of him — a part he had been avoiding for years — whispered:
It's starting.
Trying to Be Normal
Aurel forced himself to breathe.
"Okay. It's stress. It's lack of sleep. It's—"
He cut himself off and rubbed his face. "It's something."
School would be a distraction.
It had to be.
He walked quickly toward the main road, trying to shake off the cold crawling up his spine.
Kids shouted. Buses honked. A group of friends laughed loudly about something that wasn't funny. Smells of idli, wet tarmac, and frying pakoras mixed in the air.
Ordinary sounds.
Ordinary smells.
But Aurel felt absolutely nothing ordinary inside him.
Friends Who Noticed Too Much
"AUREL!"
He turned just in time to see Taru jogging up to him, jacket half-zipped, hair completely defeated by the rain.
"You look like you didn't sleep for eight years," Taru said. "Are you dying?"
Aurel blinked. "Good morning to you too."
"So you ARE dying." Taru squinted dramatically. "Is this the part where you tell me you have a secret girlfriend and she broke your heart?"
"Sure," Aurel deadpanned. "A demon girl from my nightmares broke up with me."
Taru laughed — expecting a joke.
But Aurel didn't smile back.
Taru's grin faded.
"Hey… you're actually serious?"
Aurel looked away. "It's nothing. Just… weird dreams."
Taru studied him quietly for a moment.
"You're shaking."
Aurel shoved his hands in his hoodie pocket. "I'm cold."
"You're sweating," Taru replied.
Aurel cursed under his breath.
His best friend wasn't stupid.
"Talk to me," Taru tried again. "Is something wrong?"
Aurel opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
What was he supposed to say?
Yeah bro, a demon girl keeps calling my name in dreams and now random crows are announcing my awakening like I'm some kind of discount prophecy.
He forced a weak smile.
"I'm fine."
Taru didn't buy it.
But he didn't push further.
"Okay, but if you pass out in class, I'm NOT carrying you to the nurse. I am delicate."
"You weigh more than a schoolbag."
"Exactly. I'm fragile."
For the first time that morning, Aurel almost laughed.
Almost.
The Stranger in the Crowd
As they approached the school gates, Aurel slowed down.
Something was wrong again.
There were hundreds of kids entering through the gate — chatting, running, complaining about homework.
But in the middle of that crowd, Aurel saw someone who didn't fit.
A tall man in a dark coat.
Not a teacher.
Not a parent.
Not anyone Aurel recognized.
The man wasn't walking with the flow of students — he was standing still, like a stone in the middle of a river.
Just watching.
No — staring.
At Aurel.
Aurel's breath hitched.
His legs stopped moving.
Taru turned. "What's wrong—?"
But Aurel didn't hear him.
The man didn't blink.
Didn't smile.
Didn't move.
He simply lifted a hand…
…and traced the shape of a winged sigil in the air.
The same one.
Aurel staggered back.
The man smirked faintly.
Not friendly.
Not human.
And then—
He disappeared.
Not walked away.
Not slipped into the crowd.
He vanished, like smoke dissolving into the air.
Aurel felt the cold in his bones again.
Taru grabbed his arm.
"Dude, you're white as a ghost. Are you sick? What happened?"
Aurel swallowed the truth.
Nothing would make sense to anyone.
Maybe not even to himself.
"Let's just go inside," Aurel whispered.
But deep inside, he already knew:
His normal life ended the moment the crow spoke.
The Feeling of Being Watched
As they entered school, Aurel kept looking over his shoulder. The hallways felt too quiet, the lights too bright. Every sound echoed.
Something was following him.
Not physically.
But in the air — a presence, a shadow, an attention that made his skin crawl.
Every few seconds, he felt an invisible pull, like a thread tugging him toward something unseen.
Taru noticed his distraction.
"Okay, you're freaking me out. Seriously. What's wrong?"
Aurel whispered, "…Someone is watching me."
Taru blinked. "Who?"
Aurel shook his head. "I don't know."
This was the truth — and the worst part of it.
He didn't know who, or what, was watching.
But he knew one thing:
It wasn't human.
The First Crack in His Reality
As the morning classes began, Aurel stared at his notebook, unable to concentrate. The teacher's voice was background noise. Pen tapping, page flipping, whispers — everything felt distant.
He doodled absentmindedly.
When he looked down, his blood ran cold.
He had drawn the sigil.
The same symbol again.
Without realizing it.
His fingers trembled.
The ink on the page shimmered slightly… then settled.
Someone behind him whispered, "That looks cool, bro."
Aurel flinched so hard the pencil almost flew out of his hand.
He snapped the notebook shut.
He couldn't let anyone see this.
He couldn't explain it.
Not even to himself.
His mind raced.
What was happening to him?
Was he losing sanity?
Or was something he had always ignored finally waking up inside him?
The bell rang, but Aurel barely heard it.
His vision blurred for a second.
Then—
A voice whispered in his ear.
Close. Too close.
"Aurel…"
He whipped around, heart slamming against his ribs.
No one was there.
But the scent of smoke lingered in the air.
And he recognized it instantly.
The same scent that always filled his dreams.
Black fire.
Her fire.