The week dragged by under a sky the color of tin. Ridgeway looked smaller when the clouds pressed down; the streets felt closer, the air heavier.
Lucius stood at the bus stop, earbuds in, no music playing. The drizzle had returned, tapping against the hood of his jacket.
He liked that sound soft, predictable, like white noise for the thoughts he couldn't switch off.
Sleep had been a rumor the last few nights. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw that flicker again the light stuttering in Luna's streetlamp, the hum behind it. The more he tried to forget, the louder it seemed to echo.
Jamie's voice pulled him back.
"You okay?" his little brother asked, face scrunched under an oversized hoodie.
Lucius smiled faintly. "Yeah, just thinking."
"You always say that."
"Because it's true."
Jamie kicked at a puddle. "You think school ever stops feeling like prison?"
Lucius smirked. "Only after you escape."
"Cool. I'll start tunneling."
The bus screeched to a stop, coughing exhaust. Lucius ruffled Jamie's hair before climbing aboard.
Inside, he found Luna half-asleep against the window, earbuds in for real this time. She cracked one eye open when he sat beside her.
"You look like death again," she murmured.
"Thanks. You're radiant as usual."
She smiled. "Flattery before eight a.m.? Dangerous."
He leaned back, watching the gray blur of houses pass by.
You don't even realize, do you? he thought. How you pull people toward you without trying.
Luna tapped his shoulder. "You coming Friday? Zach wants another movie night."
"Didn't he lose the remote last time?"
"He found it. Under a shoe."
Lucius chuckled. "Then yeah, sure."
By lunch, the sky had gone darker. A storm was gathering — slow, patient. The air smelled like ozone.
Zach was in his usual seat at the cafeteria table, spinning a pen between his fingers. "You ever notice how nobody here actually likes this place? It's like we're all serving time for crimes we didn't commit."
Harlem raised an eyebrow. "You did commit crimes. Minor ones."
"Victimless!" Zach said. "Mostly."
Ava arrived with her tray, sitting beside Lucius. "You're quiet today."
He shrugged. "Didn't sleep."
"You never sleep." She said it softly, not unkindly.
Luna tossed a grape at him. "Insomniac."
He caught it, and smiled. "It's all the rage."
Zach leaned back, watching the group with that half-grin he used when he didn't want to show what he was thinking.
He saw the way Ava's gaze lingered on Lucius when she thought no one noticed. He saw how Luna's energy filled the air around them, how Lucius seemed pulled to it like gravity.
Everyone wants something they won't say out loud, he thought. Guess I'm not special.
Outside, thunder rolled once distant but deep enough that the windows rattled.
Ava jumped slightly. "That sounded close."
"Storm's been building all week," Harlem said.
Lucius glanced at the darkening sky through the glass. For a second, he thought he saw something move in the clouds, a shimmer, almost like a pulse of light.
He blinked. Gone.
By the time the final bell rang, the sky looked bruised. Thick clouds crawled low over Ridgeway, and the air tasted like static.
Zach stood at the bike rack, board tucked under one arm, staring at the horizon. The storm had been flirting with the town all week, but now it felt serious like it had finally made up its mind.
Luna jogged up, rain jacket half-zipped, hair caught in the wind. "You heading home?"
"Eventually," Zach said. "Waiting for the thunder to drop a mixtape first."
She rolled her eyes. "You're impossible."
"Accurate."
They fell into step together, boots splashing through the first lazy drops.
"You think Lucius is okay?" Luna asked after a moment.
"He's fine. He's always fine."
"That's not an answer."
Zach shrugged. "He's got that quiet, mysterious thing. Probably writes poetry in his sleep."
Luna laughed, shoving his shoulder. "You're deflecting."
He grinned. "You're projecting."
She narrowed her eyes but didn't press. The streetlights flickered as they passed beneath them once, twice, then steady again. Zach noticed, but said nothing. Ridgeway's power grid was older than the town itself.
They reached the intersection where they usually split. "See you tomorrow?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, even though he wasn't sure what tomorrow would look like.
He watched her disappear down her street, then dropped his board and pushed off. The rain came harder now, the kind that blurred everything into watercolor.
Halfway home, he cut through the alley behind the hardware store faster, quieter. That's when he heard it.
A hum. Low, deep, and wrong. Not thunder. Not wind. It vibrated in his chest, in his teeth, like something was waking up underneath the asphalt.
He stopped, heart hammering. "Okay," he muttered, "not creepy at all."
Then light. A sharp flash, white and gold, bursting at the far end of the alley. It wasn't lightning. It was closer. Controlled.
Zach shielded his eyes. When the glow faded, he saw something etched into the wet pavement, a symbol, circular, faintly smoking.
He stepped closer, cautious. It looked almost alive, like the lines were breathing. He reached out, then hesitated. Every instinct screamed don't.
He took a photo instead.
Another flash this time in the clouds above. Thunder followed, shaking the walls. The hum vanished. The air went still.
Zach stared at the spot one last time before backing away, board under arm, legs unsteady.
By the time he reached home, the power was out across half the block.
Meanwhile, across town, Lucius stood in his backyard, watching the same storm tear open the sky. For a moment, he thought he saw something descend through the rain not lightning, but a shape. A glint of light curling toward the ground like a falling star.
He blinked, and it was gone.
His phone buzzed. A message from Zach.
Zach: "You seeing this?"
Lucius: "Yeah."
Zach: "Something's off. I found… something."
Lucius: "Show me tomorrow."
Lucius pocketed the phone and turned toward the house, but not before glancing back once more. The storm had passed, but the clouds still glowed faintly from within like something was still moving behind them.
He didn't know why, but he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever it was… it had seen him, too.
Morning came gray and heavy, the kind of light that made the town look half erased. The rain had stopped, but everything still glistened; puddles mirrored the power lines like dark glass.
Ava sat by her window, coffee cooling beside her notebook. The storm had shaken the house until after midnight, yet she hadn't been able to sleep. Every few minutes she thought she heard a low thrum under the floorboards, like a train passing somewhere deep underground.
She tried to write about it, but the words came out crooked: "It felt alive."
At 7 a.m. her phone buzzed. Group chat:
Luna: "Bus is late again. Figures."
Zach: "Probably abducted by the storm gods."
Zach: "Meet by the south gate. Need to show you something."
Harlem: "If this turns into another Zach prank, I'm leaving you all in the rain."
Ava smiled, pulling on her jacket. Something about Lucius's message set her pulse quickening.
When they reached the south gate, the sky had begun clearing, threads of blue breaking through the gray. Zach was already there, crouched beside a chalky circle burned into the asphalt.
"This is what I was talking about," he said. "Found it in the alley last night. It was glowing."
Luna whistled. "Looks like crop circle graffiti."
Harlem frowned. "That's not paint. The surface is melted."
Lucius crouched beside it, fingertips hovering over the edge. "It's warm."
Ava swallowed. "You think lightning did it?"
"Lightning doesn't draw symbols," Zach said.
They all stared in silence. The mark pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat.
Lucius straightened, eyes dark. "Let's go."
"Where?" Luna asked.
"Back here. After school. I want to see if it changes."
Zach opened his mouth to joke but stopped when he saw Lucius's face calm, focused, but there was something behind his eyes, something that said he felt it too.
All day, the town buzzed with small failures: flickering lights, phones losing signal, static bleeding through the intercom. Teachers blamed the storm; students blamed the school.
Ava couldn't concentrate. Every time she looked out the window, she swore she saw a faint shimmer in the air above the sports field, like heat rising from the pavement even though the air was cold.
After the last bell, they met again by the gate. The circle was still there but it had grown. Fine lines now stretched outward from it, spider-webbing across the ground.
"What the hell…" Zach whispered.
Luna crouched, tracing one line with her finger. "It's spreading."
Harlem stepped back. "Maybe we should tell someone."
"Who?" Zach said. "'Hey, Officer, the sidewalk's haunted?'"
Lucius crouched again, staring hard. The pulse in the pattern matched the rhythm in his chest. He didn't know why, but it felt familiar like it had been waiting for him.
Then it flashed. A brief flare of white light. They all stumbled back, shielding their eyes.
When it faded, the markings were gone. Nothing but wet pavement.
Ava's breath caught. "Did anyone else….."
"Yeah," Lucius said quietly. "We all saw it."
Zach rubbed his arm, goosebumps rising. "Okay, so either we're insane or something out there just blinked."
Luna exhaled slowly. "Maybe both."
The air around them hummed once more, so low it was almost imagined. Then it stopped.
They stood there for a long moment before Lucius finally said, "Tomorrow. Same time."
Ava looked at him, saw the determination in his eyes and something else, something unsettled and searching. She didn't know why, but she trusted him.
As they turned to leave, she thought she saw a faint shimmer following their shadows across the pavement.
Night fell hard, the kind of dark that swallowed the familiar world whole. Ridgeway's streets were empty, the streetlights flickering weakly, throwing long shadows across puddles.
Lucius walked beside Luna, hands deep in his pockets. His thoughts spun in a quiet storm of their own: the shimmer on the pavement, the hum in the air, the strange pulse that seemed to match his heartbeat. Why me? Why now?
He stole a glance at Luna. She walked with effortless energy, unaware of how tightly his chest clenched at her laughter or the flicker of her hair in the dim light. He knew it now, he liked her. Liked her in a way that made everything else feel muted, like the world had a color missing unless she was near.
Ava walked slightly behind him, hood over her hair. She kept glancing at Lucius, subtle, careful, like she was afraid to be seen noticing. Zach caught her look and smirked, knowing exactly what it meant though nobody knew that he, too, carried feelings for her, buried under his endless jokes and bravado.
Harlem fell last, tall, silent, his mind elsewhere. Always observing. Always calculating.
They reached the old lot behind the gym. The circle had returned. Bigger now, glowing faintly in white and gold, etched into the concrete with lines that seemed alive.
Zach crouched, jaw tight. "This is getting seriously weird."
"You think?" Harlem said dryly.
The air thickened. The world seemed to inhale. A low hum thrummed beneath their feet, vibrating in their bones.
Then the voice came.
["Congratulations, young ones."]
It wasn't loud. It wasn't coming from the air around them. It wasn't even coming from the ground. It was inside their heads, simultaneously everywhere and nowhere.
["You have been chosen. Anyone on this planet between the ages of 16 and 24 will now be sent for your first trial. Good luck."]
Lucius's stomach turned. Trial? What the hell does that mean? His pulse quickened, and the hair on his arms stood. He looked at Luna, who froze mid-step, eyes wide.
Zach immediately stood, fists clenched. "This is some prank, right? Somebody's got speakers hidden somewhere?"
Harlem shook his head, calm but tense. "No tech I know. None of this makes sense."
Ava's hands clutched her jacket, fingers trembling. "W-what does it mean? First trial?"
The circle beneath them shimmered. Then it exploded in blinding white light, throwing them backward. The world twisted.
Lucius felt a pull, a tug at his very chest, like something inside him was being rewritten. He reached instinctively for Luna's hand, but she was already being drawn away. He wanted to call to her, wanted to fight gravity itself but the light swallowed everything.
Zach felt it too the sensation of falling without moving. The floor disappeared, the sky disappeared. Only the hum remained, threading through his head. His last thought before the white was: This isn't Ridgeway. This is something else. Something bigger. And we're part of it.
Harlem's calm mind cataloged the chaos, trying to make sense, to predict, to survive.
Ava clutched at the air as the light passed over her, the hum resonating with something deep inside something elemental, raw.
And Luna, she laughed, barely audible over the crackle, exhilarated, terrified, feeling the pulse of power moving under her skin, something she could taste, control, or perhaps be consumed by.
The light dimmed.
The five of them were no longer in Ridgeway. The streets, the homes, the school — all gone.
They stood on an endless plain of mist, the ground soft and glowing faintly underfoot. The sky above swirled with colors they didn't recognize, a constellation of impossible shapes bending like liquid.
Lucius swallowed, heart racing. He looked at Luna, and for the first time, he realized how small and fragile they all were in comparison. Yet, buried in the fear, he felt… a spark. A part of him that whispered: This is where you begin.
Zach cracked a grin, teeth tight. "Well… I guess we're not getting pizza tonight."
Luna glared, but the corner of her mouth twitched. Ava's eyes were wide, the light of curiosity and fear flickering together. Harlem stood steady, silent, the same calm he always had though Lucius swore his eyes held a storm inside.
And Lucius… he felt the pull first in his chest, then in his limbs. Something called to him in the distance, a path of sin, winding, shadowed, and dangerous.
Zach's pulse matched something else, the path of virtue, sharp, bright, and unyielding.
Ava's breath came quick; she could feel the elemental pulse around her, responding to her focus.
Luna exhaled, a smirk forming even in the fear, as if daring the world to try her. Control was hers to wield.
Harlem's gaze went outward, seeing possibilities too terrifying to name. Madness lurked at the edges of his mind, whispering secrets.
The hum grew louder, vibrating through the air, through their bones.
Then a single thought struck all five at once, unbidden and undeniable:
This is just the beginning.
And somewhere, deep in the swirling horizon of this new world, their paths awaited.