The third toll of the church bell faded into the air, like a dying breath.
Tan rose from the ground, fingers stiff from the cold that had no business clinging to them in early August. The heartbeat he previously felt steadied itself—growing patient.
The bell rang once more.
This was even more unusual—three rings of the bell were final. There had never been a fourth... What could possibly be happening?
Shouting filled the air as the villagers fled from the fields, gathering near the church, faces pale, some still clutching their tools.
Tan pushed through the crowd. Someone grabbed his arm—Old Mira, her face carved deep with worry.
"Don't," she whispered. "You shouldn't see it-"
Tan ignored her words and pulled himself free.
Cloth hid a body too small to be an adult. A child. Tan covered his mouth to stop himself from throwing up—the body already had maggots running through it...
The villagers recoiled at the sight of the body of the young child—but no one recognized the young boy... They weren't from this village, and they clearly didn't die recently.
Light began emanating from the corpse of the young child...
The light crawling from the child's chest thickened, pulsing in time with the heartbeat beneath the soil. Tan's teeth began to chatter—not from cold, but from a pressure that squeezed the air out of his lungs.
Someone screamed for everyone to get back, but the sound warped, stretching thin as if the world itself were pulling it apart...
The blast roared, a pressure so violent that it ruptured Tan's eardrums before the heat reached his skin. Screams cut off mid-sound, replaced by ringing that pressed harder than any noise ever had done to his ears. Dirt, bone, and something warm sprayed across his face as the ground shook beneath him.
Tan felt weightless for a heartbeat as he flew through the air, then the world slammed him sideways. His ears rang with a high, endless whine, and the smell of charred flesh and scorched earth filled his nose as the sky darkened from smoke and dust.
Before he lost his consciousness, Tan saw three hooded figures, cloaked in dark gray, step out of the tree line... His vision faded as he deepened into the realm of unconsciousness.