VOL. 1: CHAPTER 2: THE DOOR THAT BREATHES
The door didn't just sit there.
It breathed.
Not like lungs. Not like a living thing.
Like an idea that had learned how to imitate life.
Sionu stared at the chain lock, at the thin strip of shadow beneath the door, at the way the peephole looked like a single unblinking eye. The hallway beyond felt close even though there were inches of wood and metal and deadbolt between them.
"Open… open… open…"
The voice outside was familiar, but only in the way a doll's face is familiar when it's modeled after a real person.
Same shape.
Wrong spirit.
Blitz didn't move. She stood in a wide stance, bat angled low like she'd practiced for this in a past life. Her eyes were dry now, but her stare was wet with wrath.
Ultimo held his hands up slightly, palms open, not surrendering, just bracing. His shoulders rose and fell like a boxer's. Those green streaks in his hair looked brighter under the kitchen light, like someone had highlighted him with a marker called bad omen.
Sionu's hands sparked again.
He hated that.
He hated how his body was betraying him with light.
Hated how his nerves were suddenly loud.
"Blitz…" he whispered.
She didn't look at him. "Don't talk. Listen."
They listened.
The dragging noise continued, slow, deliberate, like something was enjoying the sound it made. The voice softened, almost tender.
"Y'all in there. I can feel you."
Ultimo's eyes widened a fraction. "How the hell…"
Sionu swallowed. His throat felt lined with sandpaper.
Because he could feel it too.
The pressure in the air wasn't random anymore. It had direction.
A pull.
Like a magnet was being moved around the room, searching for the strongest piece of metal.
And Sionu was the metal.
Blitz's voice came out low and deadly. "Who is it?"
A pause.
Then the voice answered, bright with childish glee.
"It's meee."
Blitz's eyebrows pinched. "Say your name."
Another pause, longer this time, like the thing outside had to sift through a drawer of stolen identities.
"…Ms. Ronna," it finally said.
Blitz's lips pressed into a hard line.
Ms. Ronna lived two doors down. She was the kind of neighbor who always had her hair done and always had something to say about somebody else's business. She had a laugh that could fill an entire hallway. She also had asthma and a bad knee.
Whatever was outside had her voice, but none of her breath.
Sionu leaned toward the door, careful, like approaching an animal that might bite.
"Ms. Ronna," he called, "you okay?"
The voice giggled.
"I'm better than okay."
The chain on the door rattled, not because someone yanked it, but because the wood behind it vibrated. A tremor ran through the apartment's air, like the walls were humming back.
Sionu's electricity spiked.
A spark snapped from his fingertip to the metal bat in Blitz's hand.
Blitz flinched, eyes cutting to Sionu for the first time.
"What the hell was that?" she hissed.
Sionu held up both hands, palms out, shaking. "I didn't mean to."
Ultimo's face tightened. "Bro, you gotta get control of that."
"Yeah," Blitz snapped. "Cause if you light up my whole apartment, I'm finna end you myself."
Sionu tried to laugh. It came out as a cough.
Outside, Ms. Ronna's voice went soft again, like a preacher lowering their tone right before the altar call.
"I'm cold," it said. "Let me in."
Blitz stepped forward, bat lifting slightly. "No."
A pause.
Then the voice changed.
Not in tone.
In texture.
It became deeper, heavier, as if something behind Ms. Ronna's voice leaned closer to the door.
"You don't want to be alone in here," it said.
Sionu's blood went cold.
Because in that voice, he heard something that wasn't human at all.
It wasn't demon-movie dramatic.
It was worse.
It was ordinary, like the voice of someone who believed they were entitled to your survival.
Blitz's eyes hardened. "We not alone. We got each other."
The voice outside laughed again.
"Not for long."
Then the dragging sound moved away.
They all froze, listening.
Silence.
A few seconds passed.
Then, from the apartment across the hall, a door creaked open.
A man's voice: "Ms. Ronna? You okay?"
Sionu's heart dropped.
Blitz's eyes widened. "No, no, no…"
The man continued, sleepy and irritated. "Lady, it's late. Why you…"
There was a sound like a wet cloth being slapped against tile.
A strangled gasp.
Then a scream, short, panicked, abruptly cut off.
Blitz covered her mouth with her free hand.
Ultimo took one step toward the door.
Sionu grabbed him. "Don't."
Ultimo yanked his arm back, eyes wild. "We can't just sit here!"
Blitz's voice was shaking now, but it stayed sharp. "We can't save anybody if we die in the hallway. Think!"
A new sound rose up.
Chewing.
Sionu felt bile climb his throat.
Then, through the door, they heard Ms. Ronna's voice again, brighter now, happy as a kid on Christmas.
"Mmm," it said. "He got good SOL."
Sionu's skin prickled.
Ultimo whispered, "It's talking about souls like food…"
Blitz backed away from the door, dragging Sionu with her toward the living room.
"Everybody shut up," she ordered. "Lights off."
Ultimo flicked the switch. Darkness swallowed them except for the TV's dull glow. Blitz muted it with one click.
Now the apartment was quiet enough to hear their breathing.
Too quiet.
Sionu's eyes adjusted. He could still see Blitz's silhouette, bat raised, her body language screaming I dare you.
Ultimo crouched near the couch like he was ready to spring.
Sionu stood in the middle, hands trembling, trying to keep the electricity from spilling out.
Outside, something moved in the hall.
Slow.
Heavy.
Like it was savoring the fear.
Then the voice returned, softer, closer.
"Open the door, baby."
Blitz's jaw clenched. She mouthed silently: Don't answer.
Sionu didn't answer.
The voice continued anyway, as if it didn't need permission to speak.
"You got light in you," it whispered. "You don't even know what you are yet."
Sionu's heart hammered.
The voice chuckled.
"I do."
1) THE MYTH: THE FIRST HUNGER
In the unseen realm, something turned in its sleep.
The Event Horizon pulsed with slow, patient satisfaction.
SOL had been sealed. SOL had been contained. SOL had been regulated by laws older than governments.
But now it was loose.
And where SOL went, hunger followed.
The hunger did not come in one shape.
It came as plague.
It came as awakening.
It came as miracle.
It came as madness.
The old tongue called it many things, but it all meant the same idea:
When the boundary breaks, the world gets fed upon.
The infected were not demons. Not zombies. Not aliens.
They were people whose SOL had been invaded by a shimmer that rewrote the rules inside them.
Some of them became beasts.
Some became conduits.
Some became something in-between, intelligent enough to speak but hungry enough to treat a human soul like meat.
And the hunger had a favorite flavor:
Starborne SOL.
Because it was concentrated.
Because it was powerful.
Because it was rare.
The hunger was learning.
And it had already found Sionu.
2) THE HALLWAY WAR
Blitz's mind worked fast, fast enough to outrun fear.
She wasn't thinking about the mystical. She wasn't thinking about cosmic realms.
She was thinking about geometry.
How many exits.
How many angles.
How many places to hide.
She pointed toward the back window with two fingers.
Ultimo nodded.
Sionu started toward it, but the electricity in his body surged again, reacting to the nearness of the thing outside.
Blitz saw the sparks and hissed, "Control it!"
"I'm trying," Sionu whispered, teeth clenched.
The voice outside sang softly, a little melody, like a lullaby.
Then the doorknob turned.
Not rattled.
Turned.
Slowly.
The deadbolt held, but the knob turning at all meant something was wrong.
Blitz's eyes widened. "How…"
Ultimo whispered, "That door ain't supposed to—"
The knob turned again, smoother this time.
Sionu stepped back, heart banging against his ribs.
Blitz raised the bat higher, positioning herself between the door and the others.
"Come through here," she muttered, "I promise you the first thing you gon' meet is Louisville's finest."
Another sound.
A click.
The chain on the door went taut as the door opened about an inch, as far as the chain allowed.
Sionu's breath caught.
The gap was tiny, but it felt like an abyss.
Through the crack, there was darkness.
Then something moved.
A face slid toward the opening, too close, too eager.
Ms. Ronna's face.
But her eyes weren't her eyes.
They glowed faintly, veins lit like dim streetlights beneath skin.
Her smile was wide, lips shiny with fresh wetness that didn't belong on lips.
"Heyyyyy," she whispered, voice playful.
Blitz swung the bat without thinking, smashing the door shut.
The chain clattered.
Ms. Ronna's voice shrieked, suddenly enraged, the sweetness dropping like a mask.
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"
Blitz snapped back, "I know exactly what I'm doing!"
The door shook.
Something hit it from the other side, hard enough to rattle the frame.
Ultimo grabbed a chair and jammed it under the doorknob.
Sionu backed away, breathing hard.
Blitz turned, eyes locked on Sionu.
"Can you do that lightning thing again?" she demanded.
Sionu's mouth opened, then closed.
"I… I don't know how I did it."
Blitz's stare was merciless. "Figure it out."
Ultimo snapped, "He ain't a damn generator, Blitz!"
Blitz shot him a look that could break glass. "Then what he is?"
Sionu swallowed.
The truth sat heavy in his chest:
He didn't know.
But the electricity inside him felt like it knew plenty.
The door shook again.
A deeper voice came through, not Ms. Ronna anymore.
"Starborne," it murmured. "Let me taste."
Sionu's knees almost buckled.
Ultimo's eyes widened. "It called you what?"
Sionu whispered, "I don't know what that means."
Blitz's voice went low. "I don't care what it means. I care that it wants you."
She glanced toward the window.
Then back to the door.
Then made a decision.
"We leaving," she said. "Now."
Ultimo blinked. "How? It's right there."
Blitz pointed toward the bedroom. "Fire escape."
Sionu shook his head. "That's on the other side of the building."
Blitz nodded. "Then we move through the apartment quiet, and we pray it don't hear the floorboards."
Ultimo muttered, "Girl, it's already hearing our souls."
Blitz ignored him. She grabbed Sionu's sleeve and pulled him toward the bedroom.
"Shoes on," she ordered, "no talking, no running."
They moved.
The apartment felt different now, like it had become a maze.
Every creak sounded like betrayal.
From the hallway, the door stopped shaking.
Silence.
That was worse.
Blitz reached the bedroom window and slid it open.
Cold air poured in, thick with smoke.
She peered out.
The fire escape was there, rusted but intact.
Below, the alley was dim.
No obvious movement.
Blitz nodded once. "We go single file."
Ultimo went first, climbing out.
Blitz gestured to Sionu next.
Sionu stepped onto the metal platform, hands gripping the rails, electricity buzzing under his skin like a swarm.
Blitz climbed out last.
The moment her foot touched the fire escape, the apartment door behind them slammed open.
A scream echoed from inside, a mixture of triumph and rage.
"You can't run from your SOL!"
Blitz whispered, "Move."
They descended the fire escape fast but careful, metal groaning under their weight.
Sionu felt the pull again, like a magnetic line tugging at his chest.
He looked up.
In the window of their bedroom, Ms. Ronna's face appeared.
She pressed her forehead against the glass and smiled down at them, eyes glowing faintly.
Then she opened her mouth.
And exhaled.
A thin shimmer poured out, drifting downward like fog with intention.
Ultimo cursed. "It's following!"
Blitz grabbed Sionu's wrist. "Can you shock it?"
Sionu stared at the shimmer, at the way it moved like it was alive.
His fear spiked.
His electricity surged.
He thrust his hand toward it and begged his body to obey.
A crack of blue-white light snapped from his palm.
It hit the shimmer.
For a split second, the shimmer scattered, breaking apart like mist slapped by wind.
Ms. Ronna screamed from above, furious.
Sionu's body trembled from the effort, like he'd emptied a battery he didn't know he had.
Blitz's eyes flashed with grim satisfaction. "Good. Do it again if you have to."
They hit the ground and ran into the alley.
3) THE CITY'S NEW RULES
The alley opened into a side street where the usual nighttime life should've been:
Couples arguing.
Cars thumping bass.
Somebody frying something on a corner grill.
A man selling loose cigarettes like the economy was a joke.
Instead, the street was almost empty.
Not because people weren't there.
Because people were hiding.
They ran past boarded windows, past cars parked crooked like they'd been abandoned mid-escape.
A distant loudspeaker echoed again.
"…QUARANTINE ZONE…"
"…NONCOMPLIANCE WILL BE MET WITH FORCE…"
Blitz's face twisted. "They really doing it."
Ultimo's voice was tight. "We gotta get somewhere secure."
Blitz nodded. "Where your auntie at?"
Ultimo pointed. "Six blocks east."
Blitz started moving that way without hesitation.
Sionu followed, lungs burning, head pounding.
As they ran, Sionu noticed something horrifying:
The infected weren't everywhere.
They were… strategic.
Like they were learning the city's flow.
One stood on a corner, head tilted, eyes glowing faintly, sniffing the air like a dog.
Another crouched in a doorway, fingers tapping the wall, listening.
And every now and then, one would lift its head, stare into space, and smile as if it heard a voice no one else could.
Sionu's skin crawled.
"Why they acting like that?" he whispered.
Ultimo answered, voice low. "Like they getting instructions."
Blitz's eyes narrowed. "From who?"
None of them answered.
Because the answer felt like it lived in the smoke.
They crossed an intersection and froze.
A military checkpoint blocked the street ahead.
Concrete barriers.
Soldiers.
Drones hovering.
Spotlights scanning faces.
A line of civilians stood with hands up, being checked one by one, some pleading, some angry.
A soldier shouted, "Masks up! Move forward!"
A man in line yelled back, "We ain't got masks! You think we got money like that?!"
The soldier raised his rifle.
The line quieted.
Blitz tugged Sionu's sleeve. "We not going through that."
Ultimo nodded. "Back route."
They turned into another street.
And that's when Sionu saw the billboard.
A huge digital screen, usually used for ads, now showing an emergency message:
FEDERAL QUARANTINE DIRECTIVE
KALOI'S CITY IS CLOSED
SHELTER IN PLACE
AVOID CONTACT WITH INFECTED INDIVIDUALS
REPORT ALL STARBORNE ACTIVITY
Sionu's stomach dropped.
Blitz stared at the words "STARBORNE ACTIVITY" like they were personal.
Ultimo whispered, "They already got a name for it."
Sionu's mind raced.
They blamed him.
Before they even understood it, they blamed people like him.
Blitz's voice was venomous. "They ain't even pretending no more."
Sionu felt the electricity inside him flare, responding to anger like it liked it.
He clenched his jaw, forcing his hands to stop sparking.
Not now.
Not yet.
4) ULTIMO'S FIRST CRACK
They were two blocks from Ultimo's auntie's place when Ultimo suddenly stumbled.
Blitz grabbed his arm. "What's wrong with you?"
Ultimo blinked hard, shaking his head.
"I… I feel weird."
Sionu's heart tightened. "Weird how?"
Ultimo swallowed, eyes wide, voice trembling. "Like… like the ground heavier."
Blitz frowned. "You hurt?"
Ultimo shook his head. "No. It's not pain. It's… pressure."
His knees bent involuntarily, as if something had suddenly increased the planet's weight.
Ultimo gritted his teeth, muscles straining.
Sionu reached for him.
The moment Sionu touched him, Sionu felt it:
A strange density around Ultimo, like invisible hands pressing down.
Ultimo gasped. "Get off me!"
Sionu backed up instantly.
Ultimo's eyes flashed with fear. "Bro… what if I'm changing too?"
Blitz's face went hard. "We don't have time for a meltdown. Walk."
Ultimo tried.
His foot lifted, then slammed down harder than it should've, cracking a piece of sidewalk.
All three of them stared at the broken concrete.
Ultimo's mouth fell open.
Blitz whispered, "Oh."
Sionu's stomach dropped.
Ultimo's voice cracked. "I didn't do that on purpose."
Sionu stared at the crack.
Gravity.
Heavy.
Pressure.
Ultimo's earlier words echoed in Sionu's mind:
like I'm about to be struck by lightning but the sky clear.
Sionu whispered, "That shimmer… it touched you back there."
Ultimo's eyes went glossy. "I coughed, yeah… but—"
Blitz cut in, voice sharp. "No time. We get you inside, then we figure it out."
Ultimo nodded, but his face looked like someone trying not to drown.
They hurried the last two blocks.
5) AUNTIE'S HOUSE
Ultimo's auntie lived in a brownstone squeezed between two buildings like it was stubbornly refusing to be erased. The front steps were swept clean despite the chaos outside. A small porch light glowed warm, brave enough to pretend normalcy still existed.
Ultimo pounded on the door in a rhythm that sounded practiced.
A few seconds later, the door cracked open.
An older woman's face appeared, eyes sharp, hair wrapped, holding a kitchen knife like it was an extension of her hand.
"Ain't nobody supposed to be outside," she hissed.
"Auntie," Ultimo said quickly, voice trembling. "It's me."
Her eyes narrowed, then softened just a fraction.
"Boy," she said, "you got death on your breath."
Ultimo swallowed. "We need somewhere to lay low."
Her gaze flicked to Blitz, then to Sionu.
She stared at Sionu's gold eyes.
For a second, something like recognition passed through her expression.
Not familiarity.
A spiritual knowing.
She stepped back and opened the door wider. "Get in. Now. And don't bring no demons in my house."
Blitz muttered, "We trying not to."
They rushed inside.
The house smelled like lemon cleaner and fried onions, the scent of someone who kept their home ready for anything.
Auntie locked the door, then locked it again, then slid a heavy bolt across it.
"Basement," she ordered. "Down."
They followed her through a narrow hallway and down stairs into a basement that had been turned into a living space: couch, old TV, blankets, water jugs, canned food stacked like a survivalist's sermon.
Auntie gestured at them. "Sit."
Blitz sat, still gripping the bat.
Ultimo sat slowly, breathing hard.
Sionu remained standing, restless energy buzzing through him.
Auntie looked them over like a judge.
"What happened?" she asked.
Ultimo started talking fast, describing the explosion, the shimmer, the infected, the checkpoint.
Auntie listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she sucked her teeth.
"I told y'all," she muttered. "I told everybody. Evil don't always come wearing horns. Sometimes it come wearing a uniform and paperwork."
Blitz's eyes sharpened. "You knew something like this was coming?"
Auntie shrugged. "I know when a city got too much pain stored up. Pain don't disappear. It transforms."
Sionu's stomach tightened. "They said 'report all Starborne activity.' What is Starborne?"
Auntie's gaze went to Sionu's hands.
As if she could see the electricity without seeing it.
She said quietly, "That word been whispered in places you ain't never been. Churches. Cells. Government rooms. Secret rooms. Places where people plan other people's suffering like it's a business."
Ultimo leaned forward. "So it's real."
Auntie nodded slowly. "Baby, real is what survives."
Blitz's voice went low. "And infected people are hunting him."
Auntie stared at Sionu like she was measuring something in him that wasn't visible.
Then she walked closer and held out her knife.
Sionu tensed.
Auntie said, "Relax. I'm not stabbing you. Not yet."
Blitz snorted despite herself, tension cracking for half a second.
Auntie used the knife tip to lift Sionu's sleeve slightly, exposing his forearm.
The faintest glow flickered beneath his skin, like a lightning storm trapped behind glass.
Auntie exhaled.
"Mm-hm," she murmured. "There it is."
Sionu's voice was rough. "What is it?"
Auntie met his eyes. "Power. And power is never free."
Sionu's hands clenched.
Ultimo whispered, "So what do we do?"
Auntie turned and pointed at the couch. "First? You sit down. You breathe. You stop shaking like the world owns you."
Then she looked back at them, face hardened.
"And then we plan. Cause the city is closed now."
Blitz's jaw clenched. "Meaning?"
Auntie said it like a verdict:
"Meaning the only way out is through."
Above them, the floor creaked.
A soft dragging sound passed overhead, slow and deliberate.
Then a voice, faint through the ceiling, sweet as sugar and rotten underneath:
"Starborne…"
Sionu's blood went cold.
Auntie's eyes narrowed.
She lifted her knife.
Blitz tightened her grip on the bat.
Ultimo's breathing quickened, and the air around him felt heavier, like gravity itself leaned in.
Sionu's fingertips sparked.
And the basement light flickered once, as if the house itself felt the presence above them.
The hunt hadn't ended.
It had followed them home.
to be continued...