Coastal City High buzzed as the students gossip as their golden boy walked down the hallway.
The moment Jackie James walked through the classroom door, the room erupted—girls giggled, guys clapped him on the back, and even the teacher sighed in resigned amusement.
Jackie flashed his million-watt smile, running a hand through his sun-bleached hair, "Alright, alright, settle down!" He flexed, and blue-white lightning crackled across his knuckles, "Letting you guys know, my Hero Analysis Test was confirmed. Next month, LightningEdge will become the future number one hero in the making."
The class erupted again.
In the back corner, Miles Thomas kept his head down, his pencil scratching quietly against his notebook. His dark, unkempt hair fell over his eyes like a curtain, shielding him from the chaos.
Suddenly an eraser bounce of his head, "Hey, Freak!" Jackie called, leaning over Miles' desk, "Heard you signed up too. What, gonna summon your little monster to scare the judges?"
Laughter rippled through the room.
Miles didn't answer. He just gripped his pencil tighter.
The bell rang.
Miles bolted—but not fast enough.
Jackie's foot hooked around his ankle, sending him crashing into the lockers. The class howled as Miles scrambled up, his face beet red, and ran.
---
The bathroom stall door locked with a shaky click.
Miles pressed his back against the cold tile, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Then—it appeared.
A grotesque, serpentine figure coiled out of the shadows—half-woman, half-wyrm, her elongated jaw unhinging as she circled Miles protectively.
"Who hurt you?" her voice hissed directly into his mind, "Tell me. Let me feast."
Miles shook his head violently, "N-No one. It's fine."
But his denial only agitated her. The wyrm's tail lashed out, shattering the mirror. Then the sinks. Then the stalls.
And then—the shadows moved on their own.
Dark tendrils erupted from the corners of the room, smashing everything in sight.
Miles clutched his head, trying to rein it in, but the wyrm kept whispering:
"They'll all burn. Every last one."
---
Hollow City's perpetual fog clung to the iron gates of the Blackwood Estate. Inside, the air smelled of old roses and decay.
Gwen Scarlett a red-and-black pigtails lay across her parents' coffins, her legs swinging idly as she hummed to herself.
The skeletons inside were still dressed in their finest—her mother in a moth-eaten wedding gown, her father in a suit now gray with dust.
"I'm taking the Hero Exam tomorrow," she chirped, poking her father's skull, "Gonna make so many friends!"
A rustle in the dead oak tree outside.
Gwin head snapped up—her crimson eyes glowing.
*FWSSSH!*
A beam of concentrated blood lanced from her fingertip, piercing straight through the tree—and the crow perched on its branch.
The bird exploded in a mist of feathers and gore.
Gwin giggled, wiping a speck of blood off her cheek, "Oops. Better clean that up before Mom sees."
She hopped off the coffin, skipping toward the door—leaving behind the skeletons, the shattered tree, and the eerie silence of the grave.