Chapter 131
- Evan -
Dawn hadn't even touched the sky when Duke's voice split the silence.
"UP. NOW!"
His command ripped through the camp like a gunshot. It wasn't loud. It was sharp. The kind of tone that meant run first, breathe later.
I jolted upright, my heart hammering out of my chest, vision still fogged with sleep. Around me, the others stirred—Josh fumbled to put on his boots, and Baby blinked hard as she had fallen asleep when Duke took the first watch. Micah and James rubbed cold from their arms, shivering in the chill.
"What's wrong?" Micah asked, voice already tight—because she knew.
Duke didn't answer with words at first. He was staring east.
The horizon was glowing. Sick violet and pulsing red, like a bruise spreading across the sky. The light wasn't natural—it moved, like something alive.
"A portal," Duke said. "Full-scale. And it's been building all night it's gigantic. We have not seen a large portal like this for far too long. The portal had been cooking up for a minute."
My stomach dropped.
We'd seen rips before, tears, summoning threads or others that allowed demons to move back and forth. But it's been a long time since I've seen a complete portal. I have never seen one this large.
By the time we reached the ridge of the fencing, the light had devoured half the sky. The construction site we left hours ago was now a roaring wound in the reality we faced.
Air twisted upward in a spiraling column. The ground shuddered. Machinery lifted off the earth, metal groaning and screaming as it stretched toward the light. Dust and gravel rolled uphill like gravity was confused. Workers—dozens of them—stumbled, awake or half-conscious, some still collapsed on the ground.
The sound was like the world tearing itself apart.
Josh didn't hesitate.
"We have to save them!"
"JOSH—!" Duke barked—but he was already gone.
We followed.
There were dozens, maybe a hundred, workers.
The pull grew stronger and more insistent as we approached it. Gravel rolled uphill, dust lifting off the ground. Baby threw her hands up and cast a barrier around a cluster of barely awake workers, anchoring them in place, but even Baby was trembling from the strain.
I dug my boots into the dirt, feeling it slide beneath me as if gravity itself had betrayed me.
"Micah!" Baby shouted. "Ground them—anything heavy!""
Baby nodded, slamming a bar into the ground. "I am trying," she said. 'We can't close it—not one like this; it's too big!
Duke's voice cut through the howling wind like steel. "Then we buy time. MOVE!"
We exploded into motion.
Josh and I hauled workers back while James and Micah scrambled for anything solid—chains, rebar, fallen steel beams—to drive into the ground as anchors. Duke ripped a cable from a half-buried generator, looping it through a row of pipes to form a barrier.
"If it moves, tie it down!" Duke shouted. "If it breathes—pull it out!"
The Waymakers moved fast, pushing people back and dragging some of the sleeping workers toward the perimeter. The air stung with static. Josh's flames cut through the metal bindings around one man's wrist. Another worker woke screaming, clutching his head, muttering words that didn't sound human.
"We can't tell who's still possessed!?" Micah yelled. "Some people must have been away from the area of coverage when Baby released them.
"DOESN'T MATTER," Duke snapped, hauling two men at once. "We save who we can. All of them count."
The sky churned harder; purple flashed in stutters. Every pulse sucked another ton of debris skyward.
"Come on!" Josh yelled, pulling a dazed worker from the dirt. "Get up! Run!"
One man tried—then slipped, screaming as he was dragged sliding toward the vortex. I lunged, grabbing him—my boots skidding, gravel ripping under me—
"EVAN!" Baby wrapped a cable around my ankle, bracing herself.
"Hold on!" I yelled at the man.
For a moment, the whole team strained against the pull—muscle, sweat, and raw will. The suction snapped, throwing them backward.
Then a familiar scream.
"JAMES!"
- POV Change Micah -
I spun around just in time to see James losing his footing. His anchor, which he used to spike himself down, tore loose from the ground. He was lifted clean off the ground, spinning upward towards the churning sky.
I saw the fear in his eyes—real fear—before he began to rise toward the swirling violet void.
"Hold on," I screamed, diving forward.
The wind was too strong. James's fingers slipped off the edge of the last girder.
Air slammed downward, a sudden violent gust, a hammer of wind. The pull snapped just long enough for James to fall. I caught him, both of them crashing hard into the dirt.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
The smell of ozone filled the air.
Duke blinked at me. "You've been holding out on us?"
I shook, staring at her hands where tiny sparks flickered. "I—I didn't. It was the weather. Pure coincidence. Had to be."
I can't say for sure, but it felt like I manipulated the weather for a second. But there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
"Less talking!" Josh shouted. "The portal's destabilizing!"
The swirling mass breathed—expanding and contracting. Every inhale dragged metal skyward. Every piece of machinery it swallowed made the glow stronger.
"It's feeding," James rasped. "They're erasing evidence—everyone and everything involved."
They lay there gasping, dust raining over them. The worker sobbed into Evan's jacket.
"Why isn't it stopping?" I cried.
Duke's eyes flicked toward the heavy equipment yard. "Because it's still feeding."
Duke pointed toward the equipment yard—the massive concrete mixers and cranes were being lifted piece by piece into the air, vanishing into the glow. Every bit of metal seemed to fuel the rift, making it grow brighter.
Evan's gaze darted between the sky and the half-toppled generator. "If it's feeding on energy If we cut the feed—"
"We starve it," I finished him.
We ran.
"We moved fast. James and Josh sprinted to the generator, hacking through cables with a crowbar. Sparks rained as the lines went dead. The lights across the site flickered and went out one by one. The portal flickered, too—shrinking, just slightly.
"It's working!" I shouted.
"Keep cutting!" Baby yelled.
Duke slammed his fist against the generator housing until the main relay snapped free. A burst of electricity surged through the ground, rattling our teeth and making our hair stand on end. The pull weakened. The light dimmed.
For a brief second, it pulsed then portal collapsed inward—
—and SLAMMED shut with a thunderclap.
Silence fell.
Josh dropped to his knees, chest heaving. "Tell me we're done."
"For now? Duke muttered, wiping grime and blood from his face. "But if that was just one site..."
"He looked toward the horizon.
"Then something bigger is coming."
And we all felt it.
I stare at my hands, still tingling from the storm I may have called. I don't understand how it happened—but I saw it, I felt something. James followed my gaze—saying nothing, looking at my hands as well.