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> "A man can endure any nightmare—
until he wakes up and finds the nightmare wearing his skin."
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🌒 Scene 1 — An Empty Dawn
Aric jerked awake on a muddy riverbank two leagues from the academy walls. Dawn hadn't broken yet; the clouds were the colour of bruises. He sat up, drenched to the bone, fingers stiff with cold—and red.
Blood. Dried along the ridges of his knuckles. Splattered across the hem of his academy coat in fractal sprays.
> Why am I here?
How did I—
Memory shattered like glass if he tried to grasp it: Lena's tower… the sigil… a scream (his?)… then nothing but a black corridor lined with silver chains. He tasted iron and ash.
Something heavy tugged at his hip. A ceremonial dagger—not his—with House Umbra's serpent crest. The blade was warm, as if it had been inside a body only minutes ago.
Wind rattled the reeds. Somewhere upriver a bell tolled once, echoing like a funeral knell. Aric swallowed.
> "How many hours did I lose?"
When he tried to stand, his knees buckled; the second heartbeat inside his chest thudded out of rhythm, and in the hollow between beats he heard it—
> "Let me finish what you started."
The voice vibrated along his spine. Deep. Ancient. VOX.
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🧠Scene 2 — Black-Out Gaps
He limped toward the academy, keeping to treelines. As he walked, flashes bled through the gaps in memory:
A corridor lit by violet torches.
A hooded councilor pleading, "Please—mercy!"
His own hand burying the dagger, again and again, until mercy was impossible.
Each image cut like a shard under his eyelids. Each felt true.
> Was it me… or Vox?
At the outer ward he slipped into a disused servant tunnel, washing the blade in a drainage spout. The water ran pink, then clear. His reflection on the surface wavered: one eye ice-grey, the other almost glowing ember-red.
He blinked—both eyes were normal again. The ember vanished.
The tunnel torch sputtered out. In the sudden dark he heard students' voices echoing from far above, the gossip already spreading:
> "Another councilor dead!"
"Heart carved out—House Umbra's crest burned into his chest."
"Headmaster's locked the eastern wings—"
Aric pressed a palm to stone, steadying himself.
> I killed a councilor? Or Vox did… using me.
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🏛️ Scene 3 — Council Panic
Meanwhile, in the sealed war-room beneath the central spire, seven golden-masked elders argued over a map stained with fresh blood.
"Third high councilor in forty-eight hours," one hissed.
"Signs of Astral corrosion—this is Vox's sigil."
"Impossible. The cage still holds!"
"Then the monster walks outside the cage—wearing Aric Vale."
Headmaster Luthor slammed his staff. "Find the boy before sunset—or the cage will not hold."
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💠Scene 4 — Cassia's Proof
Cassia paced Aric's dorm. She had returned hours ago to find his bed empty, sheets wet with river water. On the mattress lay a single pag e torn from Aric's notebook:
> "If I forget who I am, remind me of the rain."
Beneath the line a fingerprint of dried blood. Hers? His? She didn't know.
Footsteps outside. She spun—Myles. Eyes wild.
"Cassia, they think Aric's possessed," he blurted. "An exorcism squad is coming."
"He is possessed," Cassia answered quietly, "but that doesn't mean he's lost."
Myles produced the Umbra dagger, wrapped in a rag. "He left this by the river. The blood matches Councilor Grane. They'll execute him."
Cassia's voice dropped to a tremor. "Then we find Aric first—and bring him back before Vox takes everything."
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🔥 Scene 5 — Inside the Mind-Cage
Aric staggered into an abandoned lecture hall, collapsing against a pillar. He clenched his eyes—and the world inverted. Floors melted into ceiling. Stone became glass, reflecting a mirror-image sky swirling with black constellations.
He stood now in an inner hall of chains—the place Vox called home. Each chain linked memories together: childhood beatings, Lena's betrayal, Darin's blood, Councilor Grane's carved chest.
Vox materialised as a silhouette of molten starlight.
> "You wear guilt like shackles," it purred. "Let me bear it—submit, and I'll finish them all."
Aric's jaw pulsed. "You think I'm afraid of killing?"
> "No. You're afraid of becoming what they called you: demon, devil, monster."
Chains lashed outward, binding his wrists. Images flooded him: villages burning, Cassia screaming, the academy ruins under a violet sky—all futures Vox promised.
Aric's pulse roared. Two heartbeats fighting for rhythm.
He whispered a single word: "Rain."
Thunder cracked overhead—a memory he chose: the night he died, rain falling as Lena pulled the trigger. The chain of that moment glowed white-blue, severing Vox's link for an instant.
Aric ripped his hands free. "You gave me power, Voice, but I choose where the blade swings."
Vox surged, galaxies swirling in its chest.
> "Without me you are still the fool. With me you are the end of kingdoms."
"I don't need to end kingdoms," Aric hissed, "only the ones who built monsters out of children."
He slammed his fist into the rain-lit memory, shattering it into splinters of light that stabbed into Vox's silhouette. The entity howled—soundless but felt in bone.
Aric fell backwards—
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🌧️ Scene 6 — Reality Bleeds Back
—and landed on the lecture-hall floor, coughing water. Real rain hammered the shattered skylight overhead, mirroring the storm inside.
Cassia burst through the door, Myles behind her. She rushed to Aric, gripping his face. "Look at me! Which heartbeat is yours?"
He stared, recognition flickering. "First… heartbeat."
She pressed her forehead to his. "Then hold it. I'm here, Aric. I'm the rain, remember?"
Footsteps thundered in the corridor—Headmaster Luthor and masked exorcists. Incantations already lighting their staves.
Myles flung up a telepathic barrier; Cassia drew a chalk sigil around Aric, whispering the thunder-rain rhyme he'd once murmured in his sleep.
Aric's second heartbeat pounded—then slowed. The burning VOX letters on his chest pulsed once, twice… and dimmed to embers.
Doors burst open. Light spears levelled.
Headmaster's eyes widened: Aric knelt calmly, blade surrendered, Cassia's hands bloody but steady on his shoulders.
"Let him speak," she demanded. "Aric Vale is still here."
And for the first time in days, the boy's grey eyes held no starlight—only exhausted resolve.
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🔗 Scene 7 — A Bargain in Chains
Minutes later, in a sealed ward-circle, Aric faced the council. Cassia and Myles stood beside him.
"I'm possessed," Aric admitted. Gasps.
"But Vox chose me because you"—he swept his gaze across the golden masks—"let monsters roam your halls in mortal flesh. Kill me, and Vox finds another vessel. Work with me, and we chain it together."
Councilors murmured. Luthor's grip on his staff whitened knuckles.
At last the eldest mask bowed. "Terms?"
Aric lifted Lena's stolen Commander's Sigil. "Amnesty for Cassia and Myles. Access to the Astral Gate archives. And Lena Voss—handed to me."
Silence stretched razor-thin.
Luthor exhaled. "We keep the sigil. You keep your life—for now. The girl and telepath are free. Lena faces tribunal, not execution by your hand."
Aric's jaw clenched… then he nodded. "Deal—for now."
The council's chanting lights dimmed. The ward faded.
But in the rafters, unseen, a thin crack split the ceiling rune. A whisper slid through:
> "Deals break… and so do chains."
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