Chapter One: The First Whisper
The town of "Darling Hollow" slept with a deceptive calm, masking strange pulsations deep within the earth.
Marcus, with his pale eyes, woke for the fifth time this week to the same sound—a faint whisper creeping from within the walls.
At first, he thought it was a dream, then a figment of his imagination, then a delusion. But tonight, he opened his eyes to find the clock striking exactly 3:03. And the whisper was clearer.
*"You hear me, don't you?"*
He jolted upright, glanced at the mirror, and saw his reflection... but the smile wasn't his.
Something in his features had changed. His eyes were deeper, his lips trembled as if trying to form words... but he couldn't speak.
He stepped out of the room slowly, his feet dragging. The wooden floor groaned as if in pain with every movement.
The house had never felt welcoming. Since moving in a month ago, he'd felt as though someone had lived there before him.
He entered the kitchen and flipped the light switch... but nothing happened.
Suddenly, he heard the front door creak open on its own. There was no wind. No one there.
Footsteps echoed above him.
In the bedroom he'd just left, something was now moving.
Marcus tried to scream, but his voice vanished as if swallowed whole.
He approached the stairs... and climbed. Each step felt like it was pulling him backward through time.
When he opened the bedroom door, he found nothing... only walls covered in scorched words:
*"Wake up. The Tower has begun calling you."*
Then, a whisper brushed directly against his ear:
*"Welcome, Marcus... We've been waiting for you for so long."*
His blood ran cold.
And he knew he was no longer in his own world
But on the threshold of something far greater... and far more dangerous.