Aiden's search for others like him became an odyssey across America, stretching from the misty forests of the Pacific Northwest to the scorched highways of the Southwest. With Dr. Harrow guiding the way, they followed breadcrumbs hidden in blurry online forums, old psychiatric records, and hushed whispers from conspiracy communities. Every lead mattered, no matter how tenuous.
Their first destination: Medford, Oregon. There they found Isaiah, a 17-year-old whose panic attacks could send nearby furniture flying. Isaiah lived with his aunt, who had chalked up the phenomena to demonic possession. But Isaiah's drawings—meticulously detailed star charts and fractal diagrams he didn't consciously remember making—matched ones Aiden had seen in his own dreams.
Next was Kansas City, Kansas, where a girl named Sofia spoke in a dream-state language no linguist could identify. Sofia's family thought she was schizophrenic. But when Aiden met her, he understood the patterns in her speech—not the words, but the rhythm. Like a data stream. Like a signal.
Arizona brought them to Felix, a 19-year-old recluse who covered every wall of his trailer with paintings—cities in ruins under skies teeming with leviathan-like ships. He called them "The Shepherds." Felix claimed he'd been drawing them since he was six.
Felix refused to come at first, until Aiden looked him in the eyes and said the word "Return." Felix froze. Then he packed his bags.
In Denver, they met Mariah, a hacker and self-described "tech empath" who could crash computers with her mood swings and once made an ATM spew cash during a panic attack. She didn't trust them until Aiden predicted a subway explosion three days before it happened. Then she joined.
Tayo was last. They found him in Chicago, catatonic and housed in a private mental facility. He spoke only when Aiden touched his hand—and what he said chilled everyone to the bone:
"They never left. One of them stayed. Inside me."
The group was complete. Six of them, each scarred and gifted in ways that defied logic, bound together by a shared fate and a coming cataclysm.
They called themselves The Witnesses.
Their powers grew stronger together. Their dreams more vivid. Aiden realized that the more they converged, the louder the whisper became—a voice not outside them, but within, echoing across space like a tide slowly reaching the shore.
And always, the countdown continued: October 7. The day the sky would fall.