đ Scene 1: Beneath the Ruins
Darkness.
Not the kind that fades when eyes adjustâbut the kind that presses down, heavy and old.
Nkumkani coughs violently, dust filling his lungs as he forces himself upright. Stone and broken metal surround him. Somewhere above, the world has collapsed.
Hyde groans nearby, pinned under rubble. Monkey sits against the wall, bleeding from the forehead but alive.
Silence follows.
Not peace.Something worse.
Hyde â âŠWe alive?
Nkumkani doesn't answer. His red eyes glow faintly in the dark as he looks around.
The tunnel wasn't part of the bar.
It wasn't part of Area 51 either.
The walls are smooth. Ancient. Etched with symbols that pulse faintly, as if reacting to his presence.
Monkey â Tell me this is just⊠underground plumbing.
The ground trembles.
Something shifts far below them.
đ Scene 2: The Garden's Reach
A low hum vibrates through the tunnel.
Nkumkani grips his head as whispers flood his mindânot voices, not words, but memories that aren't his.
Forests that never existed.Creatures older than language.Roots stretching through worlds.
Nkumkani â âŠThe Garden.
The symbols ignite.
A crack forms in the stone floor, glowing with the same sickly energy as the Garden Behind the Fence.
Hyde stares.
Hyde â That thing followed us⊠didn't it?
Nkumkani clenches his fists.
Nkumkani â No.
It was already here.
Something watches from the dark.
𩞠Scene 3: The Possession
Elsewhere.
Far from the ruins.
General Nina Havery crawls from beneath shattered rock, her uniform burned, her skin cracked and bleeding. She gasps, dragging herself forward.
Nina â âŠI won't die like thisâŠ
A shadow pools beneath her.
It rises.
It enters her.
She screamsâbut the scream twists, reshaping itself into something smaller, sharper.
Her body convulses. Bones snap. Flesh folds inward.
When the dust settles, a boy stands where the General once was.
Black eyes.Too calm.Too old.
He looks at his hands and smiles.
The Boy â So this is what humanity feels like.
The shadow retreats into him.
Satisfied.
đ Scene 4: Above Ground â False Graves
The survivors stand in the desert as smoke coils into the sky.
Sasha stares at the ruins, refusing to cry.
Sasha â He's not dead.
No one answers.
Dante grips his weapon tighter.Luke scans the horizon.Trish collapses to her knees.
They believe Nkumkani is gone.
The world believes it too.
đ Scene 5: The Queen Watches
High above the city ruins, the Queen of Skinwalkers stands atop a broken building.
Her eyes glow with amusement.
Queen â Three buried. One broken world.
How generous.
She turns away, cloak dissolving into ash.
Queen â Let the Garden grow.
đ Final Scene: Something Awakens
Deep underground.
Far below Nkumkani.
Chains rattle.
Roots pulse.
A massive eye opens in the dark.
Ancient Voice â The child has entered the soil.
The ground trembles again.
Nkumkani steadies himself, staring into the darkness ahead.
Nkumkani â âŠGuess I don't get to rest.
The symbols burn brighter.
The tunnel stretches onward.
END OF BOOK ONE
THE GARDEN BEHIND THE FENCEA garden that can never be pruned.
TO BE CONTINUEDâŠ
