The silver key burned against Aarav's palm as he stumbled back to his room, his mind a hurricane of fear, curiosity, and something darker ,something with teeth that he couldn't yet name.
By the time he reached his door, a small envelope lay waiting on the floor, pale and silent, as if it had grown there like a poisonous weed.
Inside was a map.
Hand-drawn. Rushed. Angry.
A tangled scrawl of alleys and forgotten paths, smeared with fingerprints and shadow. In the corner, a single blood-red X — no words, no sender.
Just a command written in absence:
Tonight.
Metronova after midnight was a city transformed — less alive, more awake. The streets emptied, but the silence didn't soothe. It crouched low, vibrating with expectation, like the moment before a scream.
Aarav followed the map down a spine of crumbling alleyways, past shuttered shops and flickering signs. Neon light couldn't reach here — only the deep pulse of something ancient and watching.
Rats darted through slick puddles.
A child's laughter echoed somewhere — shrill, mechanical, wrong.
The air stank of metal and mildew, like the breath of a dying god.
The building at the end of the path wasn't a ruin.
It was a wound.
Windows gaped like broken teeth.
Its brick walls bled rust and graffiti.
The front door moaned on rusted hinges, surrendering to the silver key with unnatural ease.
Inside, darkness closed around him like a coffin lid.
The stairwell twisted upward — a spine of wood and rot.
Each step creaked with something more than age… as though it remembered screams.
On the third floor, he found it.
The door.
Not broken, like the rest — new, freshly painted in a thick coat of red so dark it was almost black.
Wet to the touch. Still breathing.
Aarav hesitated — one last flicker of reason fluttering like a dying moth — then slid the key into the lock.
It turned.
The door opened.
The room was bare.
No furniture. No lightbulbs.
Only a single metal chair, bolted to the floor like an altar.
Tied to it was a man — slumped forward, breathing shallowly.
A black hood obscured his face.
Duct tape bound his wrists and ankles.
His chest rose and fell like a hunted thing.
Taped to his shirt: a black envelope.
Aarav's breath hitched. His first instinct was to run, to claw his way out of this nightmare and pretend it was a hallucination brought on by ambition and sleepless nights.
Instead, hands trembling, he peeled the envelope free and opened it.
Inside, a small note:
"Everything you want is within reach.
Trust us.
Prove your loyalty.
Leave the building.
Do nothing else."
Then, below it, in smaller script:
"Do not remove the hood.
Do not free him."
The words struck like a blade.
So simple. So cruel.
The man groaned softly — the sound low and human and wrong.
He stirred, wrists tugging weakly at his bonds.
Alive. Suffering. Helpless.
Aarav stood frozen, his body paralyzed between two selves — the dreamer and the coward.
His skin crawled. His throat closed.
His shadow on the wall looked like it belonged to someone else.
This was the price.
Obedience over compassion.
Ambition over mercy.
The first crack in his soul.
He backed away slowly.
The man's breathing followed him down the stairwell like a ghost that refused to be exorcised.
Outside, the city's cold night air hit him like a slap.
His lungs dragged in oxygen like water.
His legs moved on instinct — away from the building, away from the truth he didn't want to name.
He didn't look back.
Later, alone in his room, he found another envelope beneath his pillow.
This one was black and glossy, the paper thick like it had been pressed in oil.
Inside was a single card, embossed in silver with a strange, coiled serpent devouring its own tail — the symbol twisted into an infinity loop, like a promise that couldn't be undone.
Beneath it:
"Welcome to the Order of Helix."
And smaller still:
"You have passed the first test.
More will follow."
Aarav stared at the card until the letters blurred, until the walls seemed to lean closer, pulsing, listening.
Outside, the night deepened.
Somewhere in the city, behind the walls of some forgotten place, someone smiled.