System Directive
Night pressed against the town like a damp blanket. Aiden lay awake, eyes fixed on the ceiling cracks. The whisper had been quiet since the Watcher's trial—too quiet. Silence from the System was never just silence; it was waiting.
Then it came.
Candidate status: Awakened. Assignment: Elimination of Rogue Shadow.
Target coordinates: District 3. Parameter: Subdue or terminate. Failure results in assimilation.
Aiden sat up. His throat was dry, his pulse jagged. Assimilation. The word carried images that weren't his: bodies dissolving into shadow, voices unraveling into static, faces vanishing as if erased by ink.
He touched the note in his pocket. DON'T QUIT.
Confession to the Girl
The next day, he found her—the girl who had given him the rune scrap—outside the utility shed again. She leaned against the wall, braid damp from drizzle, eyes sharp but not unkind.
"You felt it," she said before he spoke.
Aiden nodded, voice cracking low. "Mis...sion."
Her gaze hardened. "Rogue Shadows were once like you. Candidates who failed their trials. They... lose themselves. The System marks them dangerous."
He clenched his fists. "Why... me?"
"Because you survived." She slipped him another note, smaller, marked with the same three runes but a fourth one faintly drawn beneath. "Survive again, and maybe you'll start asking the right question."
"What... question?"
She looked past him, not at him. "Whether survival is enough."
The Hunt Begins
That night, Aiden followed the System's glyph trail. Violet runes flickered faint on wet pavement, leading him deeper into District 3—a forgotten stretch of warehouses and broken lamplight.
His shadow stretched long under flickering bulbs, twitching with restless anticipation.
Target proximity: 100 meters.
Wind scraped through shattered windows. Cats yowled, then silenced. The streetlight ahead buzzed, then blew out with a hiss.
The Rogue stepped from the dark.
The Rogue Shadow
It was human once—tattered hoodie, frame not much older than Aiden's. But the eyes were pools of static, and the shadow beneath writhed too thick, too hungry, as if a dozen voices fought to escape.
The System confirmed: Rogue Shadow identified.
The figure smiled without humor. "You're new." The voice was layered, male and female, old and young, broken pieces soldered together. "Let me save you the pain. Quit."
Aiden's jaw set. He whispered, broken but steady: "No."
The Rogue's grin widened. Its shadow lashed forward like black fire.
Clash in the Rain
Aiden's tendrils snapped up, intercepting. The impact rattled the air, spraying water from puddles like shrapnel. The Rogue moved fast—too fast—fists wrapped in snarling shadow. Aiden ducked, blocked, countered.
Every blow screamed temptation: to unleash, to tear, to end. But the whisper inside reminded him—Restrain.
He parried, forced the Rogue back, but it only laughed, voice shredding itself. "You think you're different? The System uses you. Then eats you."
The words stabbed, sharper than fists. Doubt pulled at him, slowed his reflexes. A fist caught his ribs—pain flared white. His knees buckled.
The Rogue loomed, shadow coiling like a noose. "Don't quit? Fool. Quitting saves you."
The Word That Saves
Aiden's breath rasped. He saw his brother's face, grinning on the field. The girl's steady nod. The note—two words, ink and blood: DON'T QUIT.
His throat burned, but he forced it open. "Stop!"
The word tore out, raw and hoarse—but it carried weight. His shadow surged, locking around the Rogue's tendrils, pinning them mid-strike.
The Rogue howled, twisting, fighting its own reflection. "No voice—no right—"
"Stop," Aiden repeated, stronger.
The glyphs beneath them flared. The Rogue's shadow shrieked, collapsing inward like a dying flame. The body crumpled, eyes dimming to human for the briefest instant. Relief, or regret—it was gone before Aiden could know.
Target neutralized. Mission complete.
Aftermath
Aiden collapsed against the wall, chest heaving, throat scorched. His shadow receded, curling calm beneath him for the first time since awakening.
The System whispered: First Hunt successful. Candidate progression: accepted.
But another voice lingered, faint and almost human—the Rogue's echo: The System eats you.
Aiden touched the note in his pocket. Rain blurred his vision, but the letters burned clear. DON'T QUIT.
He whispered, hoarse but certain: "I... won't."
And for the first time, his shadow whispered back—soft, low, like a friend:
Rise.