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| The Fire and The Fear |
Until tonight.
Alex Thompson stood at the edge of the cracked parking lot, the faint hum of streetlights overhead. His breath came in slow, shallow pulls, the cold night air biting his throat. The raven pendant hung heavy around his neck, pressing against his chest like a heartbeat that didn’t belong to him.
He didn’t know why he was here.
His feet had brought him.
His mind buzzed with static—flashes of Jason laughing, of the hallway slam, of every moment he’d ever been pushed aside, overlooked.
“You’re not nothing,” Naamah’s voice whispered. “You are the storm.”
Alex’s fingers curled into fists. His nails dug into his palms.
He took a step closer to the building.
The center had been closed for hours, but the echo of old memories clung to it—school clubs, game nights, food drives. The kind of place people cared about.
The kind of place that would be missed.
The pendant grew warm.
Then hot.
Alex staggered, grabbing the chain, but it didn’t burn. Not like fire. It pulsed with energy—like it was waking up. Or waking him up.
“I didn’t come here to do anything,” Alex said aloud, but his voice was thin. Unconvincing.
From the shadows, the raven landed silently on a nearby lamppost.
Its glowing eyes locked on his.
“You came because they’ll notice,” the voice said. Not Naamah’s. Antioch’s.
“You came because deep down, you want them to feel it.”
A low rumble sounded behind Alex.
He turned.
Smoke.
The first trail of it curled upward from one of the windowsills.
His stomach dropped. “No… I didn’t…”
A soft glow flickered inside the building.
Then, with a breath—it exploded.
Glass shattered. Heat burst outward like a wave. Flames licked up the side of the building, swallowing the mural of the children.
Alex fell backward onto the pavement, eyes wide with horror.
But no one was there to see him.
Except the raven.
And it cawed once.
Then flew away.
At the Felton House
“Dude, do you smell that?” Allen asked, wrinkling his nose as he leaned over the windowsill.
Laric was already pulling on his hoodie. “It’s smoke. It’s close.”
They grabbed their bikes without another word.
As they pedaled through the side streets, Laric’s stomach tightened. The smell grew stronger—burning plastic, scorched paint. And then—
The community center came into view.
Flames engulfed it. Black smoke curled into the sky, lit by the orange glow of destruction. Sirens wailed in the distance, but the fire was already tearing through the roof.
Allen cursed under his breath. “What the heck happened?”
Laric didn’t answer right away.
Because standing at the edge of the scene, far off to the left, barely lit by the flicker of the blaze, was a shape.
A person.
He squinted.
The figure turned—and vanished into the shadows.
The Next Morning — Arklow Bible Museum
The smoke lingered in the air even blocks away from the site. Obadiah stood near the tall windows of his office, eyes scanning the skyline.
He hadn't slept.
Something had shifted last night. A ripple in the spiritual current. He'd felt it down to his bones.
Luk-el entered quietly, his tone grim. “It was no ordinary fire.”
Obadiah didn’t need to ask. “You felt it too.”
Luk-el nodded. “Something dark ignited it. Not just destruction—intent.”
Obadiah turned from the window. “I believe one of the Chosen Ones has been compromised.”
“More than compromised,” Luk-el said. “This was a message.”
Obadiah’s hands clenched behind his back. “Then let’s decode it.”
After School — Library Computer Lab
Laric hunched over a grainy black-and-white video file.
Allen sat beside him, nervously bouncing his knee.
“I pulled it from the city’s old security cam network,” Laric said. “One of the corner buildings has a rear-facing camera. It caught a figure at the scene. No clear face. But... watch.”
He hit play.
The footage flickered. Smoke began to build from the back windows.
A shadow stood across the street—frozen, unmoving. Watching.
And for one split second, when the fire erupted—
—a glint of metal around the figure’s neck. A pendant.
Allen leaned in. “That’s Alex.”
Laric nodded slowly. “I think... I think the fire came from him.”
Allen stared at the paused frame. “You’re saying he set it on fire?”
“No. I’m saying something inside him did.”
They sat in silence for a moment.
Then Laric stood, grabbing the flash drive.
“I’m telling my uncle.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
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