It's 3 AM at Brighton Beach in New York City.
The beach is calm after all the disturbances from the previous day; the moonlight paints silver lines across the waves. Will sits alone on the sand, letting the sound of the water and its peace within drown out his thoughts.
And then, suddenly, without warning, the sky split open like a magic portal. one that has never been seen before, only whispered of in stories and etched in books.
A streak of light tears downward like a spear of fire, whistling through the early morning. For one breathless second, Will assumes, "Maybe it's a falling star."
It's coming straight toward him.
"No, no, no!" His legs move before his mind does, scrambling backward across the sand.
The impact strikes the beach. Sand erupts into the air, raining back down as smoke curls from a deep, smoldering crater. Sparks of blue lightning arc inside it.
Will's chest heave, but his eyes stays lock on the crater. His body screams to run, yet something stronger pulls him closer, not of will but of curiosity.
He steps forward. One step. Follow by Another.
Peering inside the crater, he sees it.
An artifact carve in the shape of a lightening flash.
It shimmers with veins of blue light, runes etch across its surface. Electricity dances over it like living fire. Will's hand trembles as he reach down. Against all reason, his fingers close around it.
The moment he touches it, his skin begins to burn with strange markings. Black tattoo lines crawls across his arm, spreading fast, writing themselves into his flesh. and then the tattoos begin to shine blue all over.
He yanks off his hoodie, horrifically, watching as the markings etch across his chest, his neck, down to the remaining visible part of his body.
"What,.... what's happening to me?!" His voice cracks, fear choking him.
The air shifts.
He begin to feel the presence of another pressing down on him, heavy and suffocating. Will stumbles back .
And then it appear out of thin air.
A strange figure dark and terrific like monster from books cloak in black, with a mysterious fabric material unknown by earth itself, its presence like a monster from nightmares. Its face hides in the hood, its eyes burning lively beneath.
Will's heart stops for a moment with his eyes widely open.
The strange figure's voice roars like thunder, deep.
The Aetherfang!.
Its gaze lock into the glowing object in Will's shaking hands.
"Oh, you mea....you , you mean this?" Will struggles with words.
The strange figure responds with a heavy, fearful exhale. Instinctively, Will hurls the artifact towards it, but somehow the object find its way back into his grasp.
The strange figure steps closer to Will and once more utters, "The Aetherfang."
Unsure of what to do next, Will immediately sprang to his feet, and breaks into a run, but he's yet to cover any distance before the strange figure appears before him, swift as a flash of light, sending him crashing back to the ground.
"The Aetherfang it repeats" in a more urgent tone of demand.
"OMG!, you can have it" Will cries, hurling the artifact toward the being. Yet, as before, it finds way back into his grasp.
After throwing the artifact continuously for the fourth time, it's obviously clear that it is somehow already deeply bound to Will, for even the strange figure itself is unable to grasp it
"Thou must yield it of thine own will," the strange figure speaks once more.
"How the hell am I suppose to do that? I don't even want it in the first place!" WILL yells, his voice breaking under the weight of fear.
Will drops the artifact to the ground and crawls backward in terror. It lay motionless upon the sand, and there, without warning, the strange figure disappears into thin air.
He freezes in a spot, now totally consume by even greater confusion and fear as to what is happening.
Will rise to his feet, and begin to move slow toward the edge of the beach, glancing back every few steps to see if the artifact Will follow, or the strange figure will appear. When it didn't, he breaks into a sprint, running faster and faster until he reaches the city road.
The city is quiet, as it should be in the early morning, with only a few cars driving by, Streetlight mounted alongside of the road beautifying the city with its bright shinny lights.
Even with no sign of the strange figure, or the artifact, Will didn't stop running. His destination is clear, he's heading home.
He run and run until he reaches a quiet street, where a nearby house came into view, one that appear to be his.
He approaches and push open its short wooden gate. Inside, the yard is lined with flowers that decorates the edges of the low blue painted fence all around.
He walks to the main door and slid the key into the lock, turning it until it clicks open. Quickly, he dash inside and shut the door behind him, then drive the key back into the lock, securing it firmly from the inside.
It is a small house with few belongings, and though the lights were turned off, Will manage to find his way to his room. Once inside, he collapse into his bed with a heavy exhale.
With everything that has just occur, Will's mind isn't at rest. He is even afraid to close his eyes, haunted by the fear that the strange being will appear the moment he does. The wild thought clings to him, heavy and unrelenting.
He lies there, staring at the ceiling. His breathing slowly begin to steady, but the fragile peace he is feeling didn't last.
Something crash through his room window, shattering the glass, and lands hard on the tiled floor.
He pushes himself upright, every movement lace with the sting of glass biting into his flesh. The silence of the room press in on him as he edge towards the far wall, eyes fix in the dark breach in the window, desperate to see what has forced its way inside.
From the measure weight of his steps, it's clear he is already anticipating what awaits him in the room.
And there it lies, the Artifact from the beach. veins with a current of light that shimmers like living electricity.
The moment his eyes falls upon it,Will drops to the cold tiled floor of his own accord, his gaze fix unblinkingly at the Artifact.
And in an instant, a thought strikes him., If it is here, then that means… His words died within as he slowly turns, only to find the very strange figure from the beach standing behind him, its presence more dreadful than before.
Will didn't run this time around, he remains seated on the cold floor as the markings upon his skin begins to glow, radiating sharp light brilliance so intense it spills through his shattered window and lit the world beyond.
"What tha living hell is going on"