[Sarafina POV]
The night I died didn't feel like death at first.
It felt… ordinary.
Cold air. Neon glow on the river. The faint smell of rain sitting somewhere high in the clouds. Valeries City humming the way it always did at midnight, alive, restless, sleepless.
I'd walked this route a hundred times. Starlit Bridge was my shortcut home, a strip of steel and LED lights stretching over black water like a glowing spine. Usually it comforted me.
Tonight, it felt like it was watching me.
I tugged my jacket tighter around my waist. "Happy twenty-fifth birthday to me," I muttered. No cake. No candles. Just insomnia and the ache of a long day.
That was when I noticed the air shifting.
A faint ripple, like the atmosphere inhaled sharply. My skin prickled.
And then,
The first warning was the ringing.
Not in my ears, inside my blood.
A thin metallic hum coursed beneath my skin, vibrating like a plucked wire. I froze on Starlit Bridge, hands gripping the railing as neon lights from Valeries City blurred across the river in streaks of electric purple and blue.
The lamps along the walkway flickered.
Once. Twice.
Then all at once, glitching in a synchronized pulse of cold blue light. I blinked hard. "Okay… that's new."
My breath caught. Something was wrong. Wrong in a way that had no name.
The hum in my blood intensified, crawling from my wrists to my throat like a warning I didn't understand. It wasn't fear, fear made sense. This felt deeper, older, like instinct crying out from a place I'd never listened to before.
I rubbed my arms, trying to shake off the chill. It was just past midnight, my twenty-fifth birthday, but instead of feeling older, I felt watched.
My phone buzzed in my hand, startling me.
Clara:Where did you disappear to?
You better not be crying over turning 25….
Her teasing normally made me smile.
Tonight it made my heart tighten.
I didn't get to finish reading.
Because a figure stepped out of the alley across the street.
Then another. Then three more. They didn't rush. They didn't stumble. They didn't look around like they were lost. They moved with intention,slow, precise, coordinated.
Five men. Dark coats. Expressions too blank, too composed, like they were carved from shadow and certainty.
My heart tripped.
They weren't drunk tourists. They weren't police. They weren't normal.
I stepped back instinctively, my shoes scuffing against the concrete. "Um… do you guys need something?" I called out, instantly regretting how thin my voice sounded.
They didn't answer.
Instead, they continued approaching, silent, synchronized steps that reminded me of something mechanical rather than human.
The tallest one lifted something at his side, and neon light flashed against a curved metal blade.
My stomach sank.
A knife? Who casually carried a knife that big around the city?
"Okay, look," I stammered, backing away from the bridge's center. "It's late. I don't want trouble, I just want to get home…."
They ignored every word.
"Sarafina Ainsley."
The tall one's voice was low, certain.
Not a question. A sentence.
"By decree…" he continued, "…your existence ends tonight."
Ice crawled over my skin. It was like my blood had shattered into pieces.
"I.. what? Who are you? What decree? Listen, I don't know you…"
"You do not need to understand."
The others spread out, forming a loose circle around me. Their steps were silent. Rehearsed. As if this wasn't the first time they'd done something like this.
Panic slammed into me so hard I felt dizzy.
My phone slipped from my shaking hand, clattering on the concrete. The sound echoed far too loudly in the sudden stillness.
One of the men hesitated, the one slightly behind the others. His jaw clenched. His eyes flicked over my face with something like conflict. Regret. Recognition?
I didn't understand any of it.
He whispered, barely audible:
"She doesn't even realize…"
"Darius."
The leader's voice cut like a blade.
"Hold your position."
So that was his name.
Darius swallowed hard, fingers tightening at his sides. Something in his expression twisted like he wanted to say more. Like he didn't want to be here.
But he didn't move.
My heart hammered so loudly I could barely hear my own voice. "Please. Just tell me what this is. What did I do?"
The leader lifted the blade.
"You were born."
That made no sense. None of this made sense. My mind scrambled for possibilities, was this a kidnapping? A cult? A delusion? A prank gone horribly wrong?
But the look in his eyes told me the truth:
Whatever this was, it wasn't a joke.
Before I could process the words, he lunged.
Pain exploded in my side, knocking the breath out of me. I didn't even have time to scream. My legs buckled as if they no longer belonged to me, and I fell hard, the world spinning, lights smearing into violent streaks of purple and red.
Darius flinched forward, " Wait…."
But the others didn't budge. Their formation tightened, emotionless, impassive. I tried crawling backward, my palms scraping against cold concrete. My blood rushed in my ears, drowning out everything except the sharp, analytical part of me screaming move, move, get up, run.. But my body wasn't listening.
My vision blurred as the leader crouched in front of me, gripping my chin with cold fingers and forcing my gaze up to his.
"When your blood sings," he murmured, "the world ends."
"I don't.. I don't know what that means…" I choked out.
But in that shattered heartbeat,
I heard it.
A soft, eerie hum rising from deep inside me. Growing louder. Sharpening into a chorus of impossible notes. My blood was singing. The ringing turned into a roar. The man's expression shifted, a flicker of something like fear, or awe. I couldn't tell.
Darius shouted something, too far away to understand. The blade arced down. And the world snapped into darkness.
I felt my heartbeat slam once. Twice. Then dissolve into cold silence. The neon light above me fractured into white sparks as if the world itself was breaking. And my lungs refused to draw another breath. Cold seeped into my limbs. I was falling downward, inward, nowhere.
And my blood sang as the world went dark.