Chapter 1 The Collapse

The sound of retching echoed through the thin walls of our apartment, followed by the terrifying, wet slap of liquid hitting porcelain.

I froze, my hand hovering over the half-packed lunch I was preparing for my double shift at the diner. The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating, and wrong.

"Mom?"

I dropped the sandwich and rushed toward the bathroom, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

The air in the hallway smelled stale, a mix of old plumbing and the metallic tang of something I tried desperately to deny.

I found her hunched over the sink, her small frame trembling violently. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the counter’s edge, as if the ceramic were the only thing tethering her to the earth.

"It’s nothing, sweetheart," she wheezed, her voice a rough, wet scrape against the silence. She reached for a towel with a shaking hand, trying to wipe the basin before I could see.

But she wasn’t fast enough.

Bright, crimson droplets stained the white porcelain. It wasn't just a cough; it was a purge. It was stark, terrifying, and impossible to ignore.

"This isn't nothing, Mom." My voice cracked, betraying the calm mask I tried to wear for her sake.

I stepped into the cramped bathroom, the fluorescent light buzzing overhead like an angry insect. "You’ve been sick for two weeks. The cough, the fatigue... and now this?"

She turned to look at me, and the devastation in her eyes stopped me cold. My mother, Rachel, had always been the strongest person I knew.

She was my anchor in a world that had tried to drown us since I was five years old. But now, her skin was the color of old parchment, translucent and gray.

"We can't afford a hospital, Evelyn," she whispered, the shame in her voice cutting deeper than the fear. "The rent is due on Tuesday. If we miss it again—"

"I don't care about the money!" I shouted, the panic finally bursting through. "You are coughing up blood. That is not a cold. That is not something we can sleep off!".

She tried to argue, tried to raise her hand to comfort me, but her body betrayed her. Her knees buckled.

I lunged forward, catching her just before she hit the linoleum. She was terrifyingly light, like a bird with hollow bones. "Mom?"

"Evelyn..." she gasped, her eyes losing focus. She gripped my wrist with surprising, desperate strength. "Listen to me...".

"Save your strength. We’re going to the emergency room. Now." I looped her arm around my neck, gritting my teeth as I hauled her up.

"No... You don't understand," she slurred, her head lolling onto my shoulder. "They... if we go... they might find us."

"Who?" I asked, struggling to guide her toward the door. "Mom, you're delirious."

"Promise me," she mumbled, her feet dragging heavily on the carpet. "Promise me... you'll run."

"Just a few more steps, Mom. Please."

But she didn't take another step. Her body went suddenly, horrifyingly limp. It was a dead weight, heavy and unnatural, pulling us both down.

We collapsed together in the narrow hallway, her head thumping softly against the wall.

"Mom?" I shook her shoulders. "Mom!".

Her eyes were half-open, staring at nothing. The rise and fall of her chest was shallow, barely there.

Panic, cold and sharp, flooded my veins. I scrambled for my phone, my fingers slick with sweat and trembling so hard I could barely unlock the screen.

dialed 911, my voice sounding like it belonged to a stranger as I screamed our address into the receiver.

The waiting room of St. Jude’s Hospital was a purgatory of beige walls and flickering televisions.

Three hours. I had been pacing the scuffed linoleum floor for three hours.

Every time the double doors swung open, my heart jumped into my throat, only to crash back down when the doctor walked past me to speak to someone else.

I checked my bank account app for the tenth time. Balance: $342.18.

It wasn't enough. It wasn't enough for a consultation, let alone whatever treatment my mother needed.

We had no insurance. We lived in the shadows, off the books, just the way Mom had always insisted.

I never understood why she was so paranoid, why we moved every few years, why I had no birth certificate until I was eighteen.

“To keep us safe,” she always said. Safe from what? Poverty? Because that seemed to be the only thing chasing us.

"Miss Hellboud?"

I spun around. A young doctor with tired eyes and a clipboard stood near the nurses' station.

"I’m Dr. Martinez," he said, his expression carefully neutral. "I’ve been treating your mother."

"How is she? Is she awake?" I rushed toward him, desperate for good news. "Please tell me it’s just pneumonia or something we can fix."

Dr. Martinez sighed, signaling me to follow him into a small, quiet corridor away from the other patients. That was never a good sign.

"Your mother is stable for now," he began, but he didn't look at me. He looked at his chart.

"However, her symptoms are... aggressive. We’re seeing rapid organ deterioration that doesn't match any standard infection."

"What does that mean?"

"It means all our tests came back normal," he said, looking baffled. "According to her blood work, she’s healthy. But physically? She’s dying."

The world tilted on its axis. "Dying?" The word tasted like ash. "You’re saying she’s dying and you don't know why?”

"We suspect it’s a rare degenerative condition, possibly genetic, but it’s beyond our current capabilities to treat here," he admitted softly.

"There are specialists…private facilities, but..."

He trailed off, his eyes flickering over my worn-out uniform and cheap sneakers. He knew. He knew I couldn't afford a specialist.

"Can I see her?" I whispered.

"Of course. She’s in Room 304. But Miss Hellboud... she’s been agitated. Confused. Don't take anything she says too seriously."

I pushed past him and ran to the room.

My mother looked tiny in the hospital bed, swallowed by wires and tubes. The rhythmic beeping of the monitor was the only sound in the room, a countdown clock I couldn't stop.

"Evelyn?" Her voice was a ghost of a whisper.

"I’m here, Mom." I pulled a plastic chair to her bedside and took her hand. It was ice cold. "I’m right here."

"I tried..." she gasped, her eyes darting around the room as if she expected monsters to jump out of the shadows. "I tried to hide you. To keep you safe from them”

"Mom, you need to rest. The doctor said—"

"No!" She gripped my hand with sudden, frantic strength. "Listen to me! I ran to protect you! I was a witch, Evelyn! A witch!"

My heart broke. The fever was eating her mind. "Mom, please..."

"And your father... he was—" She coughed, a violent, hacking sound that brought up more blood. "We were forbidden. They killed him. They... she killed him."

"Shh, shh." I wiped her mouth with a tissue, my hands shaking. She was hallucinating. It was the madness of a dying brain.

"Promise me..." she choked out, her eyes rolling back. "Don't let them take you. Don't let them take you."

Suddenly, the machines around the bed went haywire. The steady beep turned into a frantic, high-pitched alarm.

"Nurse!" I screamed, backing away as white-clad figures rushed into the room. "Help her!"

I was pushed against the wall, helpless, watching them work on her. My world was ending. My mother was dying, raving about magic and monsters, and I was completely alone.

And then, the air in the room changed.

It wasn't a sound. It was pressure. A sudden, heavy static that made the hair on my arms stand up. The temperature dropped ten degrees in a second.

I turned toward the doorway.

A man was standing there.

He wore a suit that cost more than my life’s earnings, tailored to perfection. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and radiated an aura of power so intense it felt like a physical weight pressing against my chest.

But it was his eyes that terrified me. Cold. Calculating. Predatory.

He wasn't looking at the doctors. He wasn't looking at my dying mother.

He was looking straight at me.

"Excuse me," I said, my voice trembling despite my best efforts to be brave. "This is a restricted area. Family only."

He stepped into the room, and the chaos seemed to quiet down, as if even the air obeyed him.

"Hello, Evelyn," he said. His voice was smooth, dark, and rich, like expensive whiskey poured over jagged ice. "My name is Kane Hellboud."

My mother’s heart monitor spiked. On the bed, her eyes flew open, wide with pure, unadulterated terror.

"No..." she moaned, a sound of utter defeat. "You found us."

Kane smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I did. And just in time, it seems."