The rain hadn't stopped.
Elias stood alone in the middle of the wreck. People were screaming for help, but no one came near him. Not after what they saw.
Not after what he didn't do—but couldn't explain.
He was supposed to be dead.
His hands trembled as he stared at them. No cuts. No bruises. Just blood that wasn't his anymore. And the shadow—was it real? Was he hallucinating?
> "Wake up."
That voice again—still echoing somewhere inside his skull.
He staggered away from the crash. No one stopped him. They looked at him like a ghost.
Or worse—like a monster.
---
Back at Home – Tondo
His small room above a sari-sari store was dark when he entered. Rain tapped at the metal roof like nervous fingers.
He stripped off his bloodstained hoodie and stared at the cracked mirror. Same eyes. Same face.
But something was different. Inside.
Like something was… watching from within.
"Kung multo ka," Elias whispered, "lumabas ka na."
Silence.
Then… a flicker.
From the corner of the room, his shadow moved. But not with him.
It peeled off the floor like liquid glass, stretching upright.
Standing. Facing him.
Elias fell back against the wall, eyes wide. He couldn't move. His chest tightened.
"Anong… anong klaseng sumpa 'to?"
The shadow didn't speak. But it reacted. When Elias flinched, it stepped back. When he breathed faster, it trembled.
It was copying his fear.
That's when he understood:
It wasn't trying to hurt him. It was connected to him.
Alive—but bound.
He raised his hand slowly. The shadow mirrored him again, perfectly. Their fingers almost touched on the wall.
"Are you… me?"
It tilted its head. And then—it melted into the floor, like it had never been there.
---
Unknown Location – Project Silencer HQ
Inside an underground surveillance facility, Dr. Ria Velasco rewound footage from a public CCTV drone. Frame by frame, she watched the moment Elias's body lit up after the crash. The regeneration. The shadow rising.
She adjusted her glasses.
"Another one. This one's stable."
A man in military uniform stepped forward. Colonel Dela Vega, lead enforcer for Project Silencer.
"Send a retrieval team?"
"Not yet," Ria replied. "We watch. Let it grow. See how far the mutation goes."
"And if it spreads?"
She smiled thinly.
"Then we collect them all."
---
Later That Night – Elias's Room
Sleep was impossible. Every time Elias closed his eyes, he felt it—the thing inside him—breathing, stretching, whispering without words.
At 3 AM, he couldn't take it anymore. He slipped out of bed and left a note for Nanay downstairs.
He walked the dark streets of Tondo. Heading nowhere. Trying to make sense of what he'd become.
Then—
A whisper. Not in his mind. This time, from the alley beside him.
> "Found you."
A shape darted from the shadows.
Elias spun just as a stranger tackled him to the ground. Dressed in black. Eyes glowing red through goggles.
Before Elias could scream, the man reached for a syringe.
His shadow reacted.
Instantly.
From the pavement, Elias's shadow erupted—like a spear of darkness—and struck the attacker, pinning him to the wall with inhuman force.
Elias gasped.
The man groaned, knocked out cold.
Elias stepped back, trembling. He looked at his shadow—no longer idle.
It had just saved him.
And it was growing stronger.