Marcus/Rocco
Nobody moved for a full second after I spoke.
The apartment felt painfully still.
Seraphina stared at me. Callie looked confused. And beside me, Valen
looked entirely unconcerned by the catastrophe he'd just caused.
"Well," he said lightly, "that certainly could have gone better."
I wanted to strangle him.
"What do you hell do you mean?" I hissed under my breath.
Callie frowned now. "Okay, now you're definitely talking to someone."
Fantastic. Just great.
Seraphina's expression darkened instantly.
"Rocco."
The way she said my name made something uncomfortable settle in my
stomach.
Before I could respond, a sharp electronic sound cut through the
apartment.
Seraphina moved towards an old device sitting near the maps flashed red
while a distorted pulse echoed through the room.
"Another one," Seraphina muttered. She grabbed her coat from the chair
nearby.
"East District. Near Riverside."
Callie swore quietly under her breath.
"The tear opened fully?"
Seraphina looked toward the flashing map.
"Partially. But something already crossed through."
I looked toward Valen. He looked almost bored again. Except for one
brief moment earlier, when I'd asked him what he meant, Valen had looked
uncomfortable.
Not guilty. Not afraid. Just caught off guard.
That… unsettled me more than anything else tonight.
We moved quickly after that. Back into the car. Into
the suffocating silence of the city at night.
Rain had started falling lightly now, streaking across
the windshield while distant thunder rolled somewhere above the skyline.
Seraphina drove ahead of us again. Callie sat quietly
in the passenger seat while I kept my eyes on the road. Then finally-
"What did you mean earlier?"
Valen glanced toward me lazily.
"You'll need to be more specific. We've covered
several disasters tonight."
I tightened my grip slightly on the wheel.
"You said this might be my fault."
For the first time since I met him… Valen hesitated.
Briefly, but I noticed.
The expression vanished almost instantly, amusement
slipping back into place like it always did. Still. Too late.
"You noticed that," Valen mused.
"You're avoiding the question."
Valen leaned back casually in the seat despite not
technically existing.
"My power maintains the separation realms," he
admitted finally. "Or at least it used to."
I frowned. "And?"
"And healing a dying human using said power," Valen
continued lightly, "was apparently less structurally sound than anticipated."
I stared at him. "You're telling me the tears opened
because of me?"
"In fairness," Valen said calmly, "you did ask."
I almost missed the next turn entirely.
"Only because you said you could help me!!"
"Yes," Valen agreed thoughtfully. "You had seemed very
distressed."
I looked at him in disbelief.
"That was your decision-making process?"
"You requested survival." Valen shrugged faintly. "I
obliged."
That answer, felt deeply inhuman while also making
horrifying sense.
Callie glanced toward me suddenly.
"You, okay?"
Right.
Because from her perspective I'd just been glaring at
the dashboard for thirty seconds.
"Fine," I muttered.
"You don't look fine."
"Comforting."
Rain hammered harder against the windshield as the
city shifted around us.
Unlike Black Hollow, Riverside wasn't abandoned and as
always made this worse.
Streetlights reflected off wet pavement while
apartment buildings towered overhead.
People still lived here. Well, as they should.
The tear had opened an old shopping district mostly
closed for the night.
Seraphina's car skidded to a stop near an intersection
already half-destroyed.
I stopped close to her then stepped out immediately.
The pressure hit me at once. Stronger than before. The
air vibrated violently around the street while shattered glass littered the
pavement.
Several cars had been abandoned nearby with doors left
hanging open.
And somewhere ahead, something screamed.
Callie reached for the coiled whip at her side.
"That's new."
Seraphina pointed toward the far end of the street
"Movement." Then we saw them.
Three creatures stumbled from the darkness between
buildings.
Full-fledged demons. Their limbs bent unnaturally.
Skin split open with glowing cracks beneath it. Their faces looked half-formed,
stretching wrong whenever they moved.
And the stench, was so strong. My stomach twisted.
"Those crossed through the tear?" I asked.
"Yes," Seraphina answered grimly.
One of the creatures lunged. Everything exploded into
motion.
A sharp metallic crack split through the rain.
Callie's whip unfurled in a blur of silver and black,
snapping around the demons neck before it could reach us.
The creature screeched. Callie twisted her wrist. The
whip tightened instantly.
The demon was ripped sideways and slammed into the
side of an abandoned car hard enough to dent the door.
"Still ugly," Callie muttered.
A second demon charged from the opposite side.
Seraphina moved. No wasted motion. No warning.
One second, she stood beside us. The next, her sword
flashed through the rain. Silver steel cut through darkness.
The demon barely had time to react before the strike
passed cleanly across its chest.
It froze. Then collapsed. Gone. Like it had never
existed.
I didn't get time to appreciate how terrifying that
was. The third demon was already moving.
It came straight for me. Its glowing eyes locked onto
the bracelet first. Almost like it recognised it. Or feared it. Maybe both.
The creature lunged. I stepped inside its reach.
Slipping right into rhythm. I may have not done this in a week but muscle
memory took over.
It felt as easy as breathing. I slipped beneath its
claws and drove an elbow into its ribs.
The demon staggered. I followed immediately.
A knee slammed into its stomach. The creature folded
forward. Perfect.
One of my short swords was already in my hand. The
blade flashed upward.
The demon barely managed to twist away before the
strike could finish it.
It stumbled backward with an angry shriek.
"Persistent little thing," Valen observed.
"Helpful." I grunt.
"I try."
The creature lunged again. This time I met it head on.
A low kick swept its leg from beneath it.
The instant it lost balance, I stepped forward and
drove my swords down.
The demon dissolved before it even hit the ground.
Silence followed. Rain drummed softly against the
pavement.
Callie recoiled her whip with practised ease.
"They're usually stronger than that."
"That has to do with the ones connected to Aldo,"
Seraphina responded.
"Great."
Then the pressure changed again. Making every instinct
in my body scream. The air thickened. The temperature dropped. And then-
Reality split open. Everyone turned simultaneously.
At the far end of the street, the tear hung suspended
above the intersection like wound carved into existence itself.
Crimson light spilled through the crack while
distorted whispers flooded the street instantly.
The remaining demon twitched violently at the sight of
it.
Seraphina's expression darkened. "It's growing."
I could feel it. The pull. Like something beyond the
tear recognized me.
Valen stepped beside me quietly now. "Walk closer."
I frowned slightly. "What?"
"You heard me."
The whispers intensified. Behind me, Seraphina
realized what was happening.
"No," she said sharply.
I looked toward her.
"Don't approach it," she warned. "Rocco, stop."
But the tear pulled at me strangely. Not physically.
Something deeper.
Like the bracelet itself reacted to it. Valen watched
the tear carefully.
"Closer."
I took another step.
"Rocco!" Seraphina snapped.
I barely heard her. The closer I moved toward the
tear, the quieter the whispers became. The pressure eased.
Rain swirled unnaturally around the street now while
the crimson light reflected across wet pavement.
Then I stopped directly beneath the tear. The air
above me twisted violently.
Callie looked genuinely panicked now.
"Rocco, get
away from thar thing!"
Valen's voice remained calm beside me.
"Raise your hand."
I hesitated only briefly before lifting my arm slowly
toward the tear.
The bracelet surged. Blue light exploded across the
street. The entire tear shuddered violently. Whispers turned into screams.
Power rushed through me hard enough to nearly force me
to my knees as glowing blue fractures spread outward across the crack in
reality itself.
Then slowly… the tear began closing.
Not violently though. Carefully.
Like invisible threads were stitching reality back
together piece by piece.
The whispers faded. The crimson light flickered. The
fracture shrank smaller and smaller until finally-
Silence.
The tear vanished completely.
Rain continued falling softly across the ruined
street. Nobody moved.
I lowered my shaking arm slowly. And when I turned
around-
Seraphina was staring at me in horror.
"You," she said, pointing at me, "should not have been
able to do that."