Adrenaline. (Chapter 2)

The first scream didn’t come from a monster. It came from one of my friends.

Lyra collapsed to her knees, clutching her head as if her skull were about to split. Her Harmonic Pulse, which usually felt like a warm summer breeze, suddenly turned into a jagged, shrieking loop.

"Lyra!" I lunged forward, but I was shoved back by a wave of cold, violet heat.

"Get back, Lior!" Jax roared. He was already snapping his fingers, his movements frantic. Usually, his sparks were precise, but now they were sputtering, the purple flames dying the moment they touched the "Static" surrounding the Dissonance. "I can’t… the air is dead! I can’t get a spark to hold!"

Kaelen stepped in front of us, slamming his foot down to trigger his Steady Beat. The ground groaned, and a translucent barrier of gravity rippled into existence. But it wasn't the perfect circle he usually made. It was flickering, covered in the same geometric "glitches" as the monsters.

The Dissonance didn't attack, not yet. They strode forward, ignoring the laws of physics. One of them moved with a sickening, frame-by-frame stutter, appearing five feet closer every time I blinked.

"They're eating the frequency," Kaelen gasped, his face drenched in sweat. He was pouring every ounce of his soul into that barrier, but the monsters were leaning against it, their distorted hands pressing into the gravity as if it were nothing but wet paper.

"What the… WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE GUYS?! Lyra, I need a sync! Recalibrate us or we're dead!"

"I can't..." Lyra’s voice was a ragged whisper. Blood was trickling from her ears. "It’s too loud... the silence... it’s somehow screaming..."

That was the moment the shield shattered.

It didn't break like glass. It dissolved into static, like the Dissonance ate straight through it. The force of the collapse sent Kaelen and Jax flying backward into the undergrowth. I tried to reach for Lyra, but a shadow fell over me. heavy, cold, and smelling like old iron and ozone.

I looked up. One of the Dissonance,the largest one, its face a melting mask of too many teeth, was standing directly over me. It didn't have a pulse. It had a hunger.

"Run!" Jax’s voice came from somewhere in the dark, followed by a desperate, small explosion. "Lior, run!"

I did NOT need to be told twice. I scrambled to my feet, my lungs burning, and bolted into the pitch black heart of the woods. I didn't look back. I couldn't look back. I could hear the sounds of my friends fighting, the heavy thud of Kaelen’s gravity, the sharp cracks of Jax’s fire, but they were getting fainter.

The forest was changing. The trees were sagging even more than before. their bark turning into grey, blurred textures. The silence was chasing me, growing heavier with every step I took. I tripped over a root that should not have been there and tumbled down a steep hill, crashing through thorns and dead leaves until I slammed into the base of an ancient, rotted oak.

I tried to stand, but the air felt like lead. My heart the only thing in my body that had a rhythm. was hammering against my ribs so hard it hurt.

Ba dump, Ba dump, Ba dump.

And then, I heard it. The stuttering sound.

The monster had followed me. It descended the embankment slowly, its body flickering in and out of reality. It looked at me, and I realized why I was the only one it chased this far.

To the others, it was a threat. But to me. It was a death sentence. We were both anomalies.

Yet one only grew stronger, while I stayed weak.