They didn't stop moving.
Even when the street looked clear.
Even when the Hollows were fewer.
Aden knew better.
The web had reacted too quickly.
It wouldn't just give up.
Ibrahim walked beside him now instead of running. Still shaken. Still pale. But
keeping pace.
The city ahead looked almost untouched.
No overturned cars.
No fires.
Just streetlights flickering weakly on emergency power.
Too quiet.
Aden slowed.
The silence here felt… insulated.
Muted.
The resonance hum that had followed them since leaving the apartment—
Faded.
Not gone.
But distant.
Like something pulling back.
The presence inside him shifted faintly.
Not alarm.
Not instruction.
Observation.
They crossed the intersection.
Halfway through—
Ibrahim froze.
"Aden."
His voice was small.
Tight.
Aden turned.
"What?"
Ibrahim didn't answer immediately.
He was staring at something across the street.
At the roof of a pharmacy building.
"There's someone up there," Ibrahim whispered.
Aden followed his gaze.
Nothing.
Just rooftop shadows.
Broken billboard frame.
Smoke drifting.
"There's nothing," Aden said.
"There is," Ibrahim insisted, voice trembling. "It's standing right there."
Aden focused harder.
Threads.
He searched for the faint red resonance lines he had seen before.
None.
The web was absent here.
He stepped forward slightly.
"What does it look like?"
Ibrahim swallowed.
"…Tall."
"How tall?"
"Taller than the others."
Aden's pulse slowed.
"What else?"
"It's not moving," Ibrahim said. "It's just… looking at us."
Aden's eyes narrowed.
He saw nothing.
No distortion.
No threads.
No silhouette.
But Ibrahim wasn't guessing.
He wasn't imaginative.
He was terrified.
The presence inside Aden sharpened faintly.
External observation possible.
"Possible?" Aden thought.
No answer.
He stepped closer to the curb.
Still nothing.
"Its head just tilted," Ibrahim whispered.
Aden's stomach tightened.
He scanned again.
Then—
For half a second—
The air above the rooftop warped.
A flicker.
Like heat distortion.
Then gone.
The presence reacted sharply.
Higher frequency entity. Not integrated into web.
Not integrated.
Different.
"Is it a Hollow?" Ibrahim asked.
Aden didn't answer.
Because the resonance web had a pattern.
Threads.
Network.
Coordination.
This thing—
Had none.
It wasn't connected.
It wasn't broadcasting.
It wasn't being broadcast to.
It was isolated.
Studying.
And only Ibrahim could see it clearly.
"Why can you see it?" Aden asked quietly.
"I don't know," Ibrahim whispered. "I've been seeing… flashes since earlier."
Aden turned fully toward him.
"What kind of flashes?"
"Lines. Like thin cracks in the air. And when we ran through the alley… I saw you
blur."
Aden's eyes sharpened.
"You saw that?"
Ibrahim nodded slowly.
"You got darker."
The presence inside Aden pulsed once.
Secondary deviation detected.
The air above the rooftop shimmered again.
This time—
Aden saw it.
Barely.
A faint outline.
Humanoid.
But stretched slightly.
Its limbs too long.
Its head slightly elongated.
It wasn't solid.
It wasn't mist.
It was… thin.
Like something existing slightly misaligned with reality.
It did not move aggressively.
It did not signal others.
It simply watched.
Then—
It stepped backward.
And vanished completely.
Not into shadow.
Into absence.
The rooftop was empty.
The resonance hum did not return.
The web did not respond.
This thing was outside the system.
Aden exhaled slowly.
"That wasn't one of them," Ibrahim said.
"No," Aden replied.
"It wasn't."
The presence formed a word he had not heard before.
Clearer than any prior whisper.
Phase Two.
Aden's gaze hardened.
The Hollows were Phase One.
The resonance web was early organization.
But something else had arrived.
Something not bound to the web.
Something that didn't need it.
Ibrahim's fingers tightened around the knife.
"Is it coming back?"
Aden looked down the street.
Shadows felt normal again.
No thread tension.
No convergence.
But the silence felt deliberate now.
Like space being made.
"It didn't look like it wanted to kill us," Ibrahim said.
Aden shook his head slowly.
"No."
It looked like it wanted to measure them.
The presence inside him added softly:
Assessment ongoing.
Aden felt something settle into place.
He wasn't just marked by the web.
He was marked by something beyond it.
And now—
His brother was visible to it too.
He adjusted the backpack on his shoulders.
"We keep moving," he said calmly.
"Where?"
Aden looked toward the distant skyline.
Toward the faint glow of the meteor impact zone.
"Toward answers."
Behind them—
On a rooftop several blocks away—
The thin figure reappeared briefly.
Watching.
Not hunting.
Waiting.