The storm hit faster than anyone expected.
One minute, the sky was a bruised, ugly violet. The next, it split open with a roar,
hurling sheets of rain onto Katura Island like the fury of a god. The ocean churned,
waves rising like dark mountains. Thunder boomed so low it felt like the earth itself
groaned beneath it.
Selene Kai bolted the door of the rented shack and pressed her back to it, chest
heaving. Salt water dripped from her hair, mingling with sweat. She clutched the
obsidian disc so tightly her fingers ached. It hadn't stopped glowing since she
surfaced.
Across the room, Luka Voss stared at her as if he wasn't sure whether to be furious
or terrified.
"What. Did. You. Bring. Back."
His voice wasn't a question. It was a verdict.
Selene opened her mouth to explain, but the words wouldn't come. How could she
tell him that she'd heard voices in the deep? That something older than time had
spoken to her through this impossible relic? That part of her… wanted to go back.
A violent crack of lightning turned the room bone-white for a heartbeat. In that flash,
both of them saw it. A figure. Standing just outside the window.
No features. No eyes. Its face was a pale smear against the glass, water streaming
down its hollow form. In the next flash, it was gone — leaving only a misted
handprint on the windowpane.
Selene's skin crawled.She gripped the disc tighter, feeling it pulse against her palm like a living thing.
"Okay," Luka said, forcing a laugh that sounded like breaking glass. "We leave. Now."
Selene barely managed to nod. But when she stepped toward the door, a low, wet
whisper brushed against her ear.
"Return it…"
She spun, heart hammering. No one there.
"You hear that?" she asked, voice thin.
Luka's face was pale. "I… thought I heard—"
A deafening knock slammed against the door.
Once. Twice. A third time — harder than any human hand could manage. Selene's
stomach turned cold. She knew, without reason or logic, what waited on the other
side. Something from the depths. Something that had followed them up from
Nyumbara's grave.
The disc in her hand burned hot. The room seemed to tilt. Shadows bled along the
edges of the walls, thickening. The voice came again.
"The sea will claim its own."
Selene gritted her teeth, yanked open the floor hatch, and dropped into the
crawlspace beneath the shack. Luka followed, and a second later the door above
burst open with a sickening crack. Heavy, wet footsteps. Something… searching.
Selene pressed herself against the damp earth, holding her breath, listening. Rain
pounded the floorboards. The disc vibrated in her palm, humming like a dark heart.
A face appeared at the hatch opening.
Not a man. Not anymore.
Pale skin stretched too tight over sunken features. Hair floating like seaweed in an
unseen current. Its eyes — black pits — locked onto her.
"Return it, or drown."
Selene's terror snapped into fury. "No," she whispered, clutching the relic tighter.
"Not until I know what you are."
The figure hissed, skin cracking like old driftwood, and vanished in a surge of brine
scented air.Silence fell.
The storm began to ease. The sea calmed. But the disc stayed warm in her hand, its
symbols alive.
Selene looked at Luka.
"I'm going back," she said.
His eyes widened. "You're insane."
"Maybe," she replied, breath still ragged. "But whatever this is… it won't stop
coming until I finish what I started."
Far beyond the shore, the ocean stirred.
And beneath it, ancient eyes watched.