June 14, 2001
Ravenwood Creek, Oregon
The air inside the abandoned satellite station tasted like copper and old dust. It was the kind of smell that stuck to the back of your throat, ancient and heavy.
Kenji Sakai pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and shone his flashlight at his wrist. The digital numbers on his black Casio watch read 9:14 PM.
"We shouldn't be here," Kenji muttered, aiming his light at the rusted metal ceiling. "If Sheriff Miller sees the lights up here, he's going to call my mom. Again. I'm already grounded for the C I got on that history paper."
"Relax, Kenji," Marco said. The big boy was sitting on a dusty crate, loudly crunching on a bag of Cheetos. He was wearing an oversized t-shirt that looked like a tent on him. "Miller is busy patrolling the quarry. The high schoolers are having a bonfire tonight. We're invisible up here."
"Besides," Leo called out from under the massive control desk. Everyone called him Aris because his last name was Aristos and he acted like a Greek philosopher, if philosophers hacked radios. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime alignment. The atmospheric interference is zero. If this station can still receive a signal, tonight is the night we hear it."
Sarah Vance groaned loudly. She was leaning against the wall, tossing a small pocket knife from one hand to the other. She wore her usual denim jacket and looked bored out of her mind.
"You guys are such nerds," Sarah said, though she didn't leave. She looked at Kenji. "I could be at home watching a movie. But no, Kenji said we had to come support Aris. So here I am, covered in dust."
Kenji felt his face get hot. He looked away from Sarah quickly. "I didn't say you had to come. You followed us."
"Whatever," Sarah smirked, looking back at her knife.
Maya Lin, who was sitting quietly on the floor next to Kenji holding the heavy lantern, shifted slightly. She looked up at Kenji with big, worried eyes.
"Do you really think it works, Kenji?" she whispered. "My dad says this place has been dead since the eighties."
"It's probably dead," Kenji admitted softly so Aris wouldn't hear. "But let him have his fun. It's better than him trying to hack the school grades again."
"Got it!" Aris yelled.
A spark showered down from the underside of the desk. Aris scrambled out, grinning like a mad scientist, holding two stripped wires together.
"I bypassed the main breaker," Aris said, wiping grease on his shorts. "Watch this."
He slammed a heavy plastic switch upward.
For a second, nothing happened. The silence in the concrete room was deafening.
Then, a low hum began. It started in the floor, vibrating up through the soles of Kenji's sneakers. The massive wall of machinery groaned. A row of amber lights flickered on, buzzing angrily. The analog needles on the gauges slammed all the way into the red zone.
"Whoa," Marco stopped chewing. He stood up, the Cheeto bag crinkling. "Is it supposed to shake like that?"
The humming got louder. It wasn't just a sound anymore; it was a physical pressure. The air in the room felt heavy, like the moment before a lightning strike.
"Aris, turn it off," Sarah said, standing up. Her boredom was gone, replaced by tension. "Seriously, turn it off. My teeth hurt."
"I... I can't!" Aris yelled over the rising noise. He was frantically flipping switches on the panel. "The controls aren't responding! It's pulling power from somewhere else!"
"Kenji!" Maya grabbed Kenji's arm. Her grip was tight. "Look at the main screen!"
Kenji looked up. The main circular radar screen, which had been gray and dead a moment ago, was now glowing. But it wasn't showing a map or a green line.
It was showing a swirling vortex of deep, electric blue static.
The noise spiked. It wasn't a radio signal. It was a screech—a tear in the fabric of the world, blasted at maximum volume.
Every glass dial in the room shattered simultaneously. The lantern Maya was holding exploded.
"Get down!" Kenji screamed.
He didn't think. He just moved. He threw himself over Maya, shielding her head with his chest as shards of glass rained down on them. He heard Marco tackle Aris. Sarah dove behind the wooden crates.
The blue static on the screen flared brighter than the sun. It surged out of the console, not as light, but as a physical wave of blue energy. It washed over them, hot and electric, smelling of ozone.
Kenji felt a sensation like being pulled through a straw. His stomach lurched. For a split second, the room dissolved. He saw a landscape of grey ash, black lightning, and a sky with no stars. He felt a burning sensation in his chest, right next to his heart.
Then, the world went black.
Kenji gasped, sucking in air like a drowning man.
He sat up violently. Darkness. The emergency red lights of the station were strobing weakly, casting long, spinning shadows.
"Maya?" he croaked. His throat felt dry and scratchy.
"I'm... I'm here," a small voice whimpered from the floor.
Kenji scrambled to his knees. "Are you okay? Did the glass hit you?"
"I think I'm okay," Maya whispered.
"Is everyone alive?" Sarah's voice cut through the dark. She sounded shaky.
"I'm good," Marco groaned from the corner. "I think I fell on my Gameboy though. Mom is gonna kill me."
"Aris?" Kenji called out.
"Here," Aris replied. His voice was trembling. "Guys... look at the console."
They all turned. The massive machine that had been there a moment ago was gone. In its place was a scorched, melting hole in the concrete wall. But that wasn't the scary part.
The scary part was the thing standing in the corner of the room.
It looked like a wolf, but it was wrong. Its fur was patchy and slick with oil. Its front legs were too long, bent at awkward, broken angles. And where its face should have been, there was just smooth, pale skin. No eyes. No nose.
Just a mouth that split open vertically, filled with needle-teeth.
"What is that?" Sarah whispered, stepping back until her back hit the wall.
The creature twitched. It turned its eyeless head toward Sarah. It let out a clicking sound.
Click. Click. Hiss.
"It can hear us," Aris whispered. "Don't move."
The creature lunged.
It moved impossibly fast, a blur of shadow aiming straight for Sarah.
"Sarah!" Kenji screamed.
He was ten feet away. There was no way he could reach her in time. He pushed off the ground, desperate, his mind screaming one single command: Be there.
The world twisted.
Zzzzt-Pop.
In an instant—literally zero seconds later—Kenji wasn't by Maya anymore. He was standing directly in front of Sarah, his arms raised in defense.
He hadn't run. He had warped.
Blue particles drifted off his clothes like dust. The monster collided with him, but before its claws could tear into Kenji's skin, Kenji's hands instinctively shoved forward.
"Get BACK!"
A pulse of deep blue energy exploded from his palms. It wasn't a beam, just a raw, chaotic burst of force.
BOOM.
The shockwave hit the monster in the chest. The creature was blasted backward, flying across the room and slamming into the concrete wall with a sickening crunch. It slid to the floor, screeching in confusion, blue smoke rising from its chest.
Silence fell over the room.
Kenji looked at his hands. They were trembling violently. Faint trails of electric blue energy were arcing between his fingers, buzzing like a broken neon sign.
He looked at his watch. The screen was glitching, flashing 12:00 AM over and over again.
"Kenji..." Marco whispered, his eyes wide as saucers. "Did you just... teleport?"
Kenji stared at the smoking monster, then at his glowing hands. He looked back at Sarah. She was staring at him, terrified, but alive.
"I don't know," Kenji whispered, the blue light reflecting in his glasses. "But we need to run."