Ethan Gray had always thought his life was perfectly ordinary. He woke up at seven, rushed through breakfast, and trudged to Westbrook High like every other day. Tests, homework, teachers complaining—it was the same monotonous routine he had grown accustomed to.
But tonight, something was… different.
It started when he took the shortcut home through the narrow alley behind the old shopping district. The streetlights flickered as he passed, casting long, distorted shadows across the cracked pavement. A cold breeze whispered through the air, carrying faint, almost imperceptible words.
"Ethan… follow… shadows…"
He froze. His heart thumped. The alley was empty, but the whispers felt alive, brushing against the back of his neck. He spun around, expecting to see someone—or something—but there was nothing.
Shaking his head, he tried to convince himself it was his imagination. After all, this alley had always been slightly creepy, and teenagers were prone to overthinking. He stepped forward.
"Just go home," he muttered.
But then the shadows moved. Not like ordinary shadows, stretching or flickering in the lamplight. These seemed… conscious. They shifted, curling toward him, as if reaching out.
Ethan stumbled back, his backpack hitting the ground. And then… the air itself seemed to thicken, darkening around him. The whispers grew louder, almost pleading, almost laughing:
"Come… see… the truth…"
A sudden gust of wind slammed into him. The world blurred. The street, the buildings, even the night sky twisted and warped as if reality itself were bending. Ethan felt his feet leave the ground.
And then he was falling.
Falling through darkness.
When he landed, he was no longer in the alley. The streetlights were gone. The familiar sounds of the city were replaced by silence—and the shadows were everywhere. Twisting, writhing forms that seemed to watch him, whispering secrets he couldn't understand.
Ethan scrambled to his feet, heart pounding. The air smelled of damp stone and something… older. The shadows moved closer, low murmurs curling around his ears:
"Welcome… Ethan Gray… to the world you never knew…"
And in that moment, he realized: his ordinary life was over.