Ethan – New York City
The sky was wrong.
Bruised, veined with black and crimson, it stretched across the horizon like something wounded. Ethan Cole stood frozen on the street, caught in the tide of gawking strangers and raised phones. No one spoke above a whisper. The air buzzed with a low vibration, as though the city itself had developed a pulse.
Then the whisper began. Faint. Everywhere at once.
The first seal is broken.
---
Mara – Los Angeles
The ER was drowning.
Stretchers jammed the hallways, bodies coughing blood, fevers spiking so fast thermometers shattered. Mara Vasquez pressed a mask to her face, but the stench still cut through. Patients’ skin blistered, black veins spiderwebbing under the flesh.
It had started two days ago—a handful of strange cases. Now, entire blocks were infected. Officials muttered about “mutated flu strains,” but Mara knew better. This wasn’t flu.
One patient grabbed her wrist with burning strength, eyes rolling white. “The horseman rides,” he rasped, before his body convulsed and went still.
---
Adrian – Geneva, Switzerland
Adrian Veyra smiled for the cameras.
The summit hall glittered with banners of unity, world leaders seated in neat rows like obedient schoolchildren. They looked at him with weary hope, the kind born from desperation. Economic collapse, border wars, and now this—the plague. They needed a savior.
“My friends,” Adrian said, his voice smooth as oil, “we stand at the edge of chaos. But out of chaos, a new order is born. We will not only survive—we will lead humanity into its next age.”
Applause thundered.
Only Adrian heard the hiss beneath it, the whisper coiling like smoke in his skull:
You are chosen. You will conquer.
---
Jonah – Chicago
Rain lashed the pavement. Pastor Jonah Reed stood on a crate, Bible in one hand, megaphone in the other. People hurried past, throwing insults, coins, or pitying glances.
“The seals are opening!” he shouted. “The signs are written plain! Repent, for the end is near!”
A teenager recording him snickered, “Crazy old man.”
Jonah’s voice cracked, but he did not stop. Because when he looked up at the bleeding clouds, he knew—at last, after years of ridicule—he wasn’t crazy.
This time, the world would have no choice but to believe.
