Maddie was screaming beside him, but her voice came through warped and distant. He could only catch fragments:
“YOU’RE BLEEDING!”
“CALL 911!”
A sharp pain stabbed through his skull, like someone had driven a nail straight into his brain. Between high-pitched ringing, his hearing began to return. His body was stabilizing—either he was actually getting better, or his pain receptors had just given up.
Maddie was holding her phone, fingers trembling.
“No signal,” she said, desperate, staring at the screen. “Why the hell is there no signal?!”
Kai could barely understand her, but somehow he could hear
everything
.
He heard her breathing. The crunch of leaves beneath her boots. The distant whisper of the wind. He could smell the soap on Maddie’s skin, the metallic scent of his own blood—even the dirty snow had a distinct smell. His airways were clear like never before.
His lungs filled with air like it was the first time he’d ever breathed properly.
Carefully, he began to push himself up.
“Hey!” Maddie shouted, more terrified than ever. “Don’t move, you idiot! You could be having a stroke!”
“Strokes don’t cause this kind of bleeding,” Kai said, still hunched over, his reasoning kicking back in.
“Do you think
this
is the time for facts?!”
He got why she was yelling. Bleeding from your eyes and ears wasn’t exactly a daily occurrence.
But somehow… he felt
okay
. Still weak, sure—but something in his body was changing. He felt more present. More… functional.
Or at least he
had
, for fifteen glorious seconds.
Then came the spasms. A violent series of twitches and jolts surged through his body, blood flowing again as everything from his fingertips to his jaw went numb.
“Ugh…” he groaned, curling over once more.
“See?!” Maddie ended the failed call. The no-signal beeping rang loud and clear in Kai’s ears.
“DAMMIT! Okay. Just—don’t move. We need to get you to—”
She stopped dead.
“What?” Kai’s voice wavered. Panic creeping in. “What is it?”
“Your ears… they just… they just—”
Maddie was screaming beside him, but her voice came through distorted—warped and far away. Kai could only make out fragments.
He brought his hands to the sides of his head.
The blood was still flowing, but something felt wrong.
The shape wasn’t right.
They were… longer. Thinner. Slightly pointed.
“You look like a freaking
elf
!” Maddie blurted out, taking a step back, her brain desperately trying to make sense of something that had no logical explanation.
“Do you have a mirror?” Kai asked, swallowing hard.
Shaking, she pulled a compact mirror from the pocket of her coat and handed it to him.
Kai looked at his reflection.
Maddie was right—his ears were different. But it wasn’t just that. Something was off about his entire face.
His hair felt heavier, draping completely over his face and jutting out in wild directions.
He felt a sting on his lip. He touched it—carefully.
His fangs. They’d grown. He could feel them grazing his lower lip like they were trying to break through.
The headache was still there, but it was slowly fading.
His eyes. They had changed too.
The colors were sharper, glowing with unnatural intensity. His pupils—wide, feral.
Kai was trembling—not from the cold, but from confusion.
A
crack
behind him.
A subtle sound, but unmistakable.
His new ears picked it up instantly, twitching instinctively—animal-like—toward the noise.
When they turned, they saw the strangest thing they’d ever seen.
A bald man, barefoot in the snow, wearing a robe that left half his chest exposed, was walking toward them.
Kai, on reflex, felt a twinge of envy at the man’s tolerance to cold…
until he realized—he wasn’t cold either.
Another side effect, maybe, of
whatever
was happening to him.
The man wore layers of necklaces and bracelets, his body wrapped in tattoos of demons, like they formed some kind of living cloak.
But the worst part was his face.
He was
smiling
. A grotesque, bone-bending smile that literally stretched from ear to ear, warping his features like his skull had no structure at all.
He looked like a living cartoon.
Maddie grabbed a fistful of Kai’s coat, yanking him back in fear.
Maddie was shouting beside him, but her voice was still distorted. He could only make out fragments.
“Oh, today must be the luckiest day of my life,” said the monk, his mouth contorting grotesquely with every word. “This is
definitely
going to earn me a seat in nirvana, right next to Buddha.”
He raised his arms to the sky, eyes bulging with a feverish, twisted devotion.
Kai didn’t need any more warning. Ignoring the spasms rattling his body, he bolted—and Maddie followed without hesitation.
Behind them, the monk’s laughter echoed after them, bouncing off the walls like a rotting echo.
They ran for blocks. He didn’t seem to be following. But that
smile
, that
voice
, clung to their minds like rot.
They were almost home when Kai collapsed. His legs just gave out beneath him.
Maddie tried to lift him, but no matter how hard she pulled, it was like trying to move a dresser. She used to be able to drag him easily. Why not now?
With great effort, she managed to drag him to a narrow intersection between two streets, trying to keep them out of sight. A few minutes passed. Nothing but the hush of falling snow.
“We lost him… What the hell
was
that?” Maddie said, still catching her breath.
“Do I look like I know?” Kai shot back, just before breaking into a brutal coughing fit.
The sound echoed down the empty street. Maddie leaned over, covering his mouth to muffle the noise.
When Kai finally calmed, she pulled her hand away. It was soaked in blood.
“Shit… what’s happening to me?”
Maddie wanted to answer, but she had no idea.
“It’s what my order calls the
Fǎ Xiè
… or the ‘Golden Hour’ in barbarian tongues,” came a familiar voice.
Maddie whipped around.
The monk was standing in front of them—exactly as before. Moving slowly, his bare feet sinking into the snow.
“When the reincarnation is undergoing mutation—or using its powers—the body becomes fragile,” he continued, with a bright, almost childlike tone, as if he were talking about candy instead of death. “What a blessing I happened to be nearby.”
“I think you and I have
very
different definitions of ‘blessing,’” Kai muttered, weak but still sarcastic.
Maddie looked at him—he was barely conscious.
Then she turned back to the monk, who… smiled
even wider
. If that was even possible.
Maddie was still yelling at his side, but her voice came through warped. He only caught pieces:
“Hey, girl… are you a virgin?” the monk asked casually, stepping forward.
“What…?” Maddie recoiled in disgust, slipping a hand inside her coat. Her dad
never
let her leave the house without her taser. For the first time, she was actually glad about it.
She locked eyes with the monk, watching his movements closely. He didn’t look strong—just some creepy old man—but something about him made every nerve in her body scream.
“Forget it. Doesn’t matter,” the monk continued, still smiling. “I don’t need a sacrifice for Buddha today. I’ve already found what I came for: the reincarnation.”
He took another step. He was barely three feet away now.
“Tell you what, girl. If you walk away right now… I’ll let you live. Sound fair?”
“You’re Buddhist?” Kai asked, trying to buy time—looking for an opening.
“We’re the true deer of the Lord of Nirvana, yes,” the monk replied, his eyes still locked on Maddie. She was shaking but held her ground while Kai struggled to sit up.
“Isn’t Buddha supposed to stand for universal balance? Compassion for all living beings?”
The monk shifted only
one
eye toward Kai—the other stayed glued to Maddie.
“So how exactly do virgin sacrifices and harassing teenagers fit into that?”
A twitch flickered across the monk’s face. Now he turned fully toward Kai. Maddie glanced at him, seeking a signal. Kai nodded slightly:
“Give me a sec.”
“Come on, answer me, dumbass,” Kai pushed, gasping for breath. “Wasn’t Buddha just a state of mind?”
The monk let out a laugh that made Kai’s skin crawl. He frowned in confusion.
“Buddhahood
is
a state of mind… the same way you’re just a regular teenager,” he replied, stepping closer. “Buddhahood is becoming one with the universe. It means surpassing the gods. Something
you
nearly achieved… until you betrayed the master.”
“What the hell are you—”
He didn’t finish.
The monk moved again—and Maddie, fed up, yanked out the taser and slammed it into his back.
Electricity surged through the monk’s body. He convulsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Maddie smiled in relief as he dropped to his knees.
Kai gave her a look like
“Are you serious?”
But then—something changed.
A soft giggle rose from the monk’s hunched form.
And in the blink of an eye—before either of them could react—he twisted his torso
a full 180 degrees
and drove a punch straight into Maddie’s side.
She flew like a rag doll, slamming into the wall with a sickening crack.
She hit the ground. Her arm dangled at an unnatural angle. The wall behind her cracked open with her silhouette stamped in the plaster. She spat blood and let out a muffled groan, tears spilling out without control.
Kai froze. Fear. Helplessness. Fury. It all crashed down on him at once.
“Son of a bitch!” he roared, pushing himself up like the pain didn’t even exist. He ignored the spasms—ignored everything—and charged.
The monk turned to face him. His eyebrows were still smoking from the blast, but his grotesque grin hadn’t moved an inch. Kai threw a punch with all the strength he had left, and it connected.
The monk’s head twisted violently with a dry crack, like a badly built puppet. A splash of blood hit the floor. But his body stayed perfectly still—standing upright, head facing the wrong way, neck contorted.
A few drops of blood dripped from his misshapen mouth.
Kai lowered his fists, stunned. He stared down at his hands like they belonged to someone else. He’d just broken someone’s neck in a single hit. He wasn’t even sure that was physically possible—at least not for
him
. But one thing was certain: that wasn’t normal.
“What… what the hell is going on…?” he gasped.
Maddie looked at him from the floor. It was impossible to tell if she was horrified, confused… or both. Kai tried to take a step toward her
“You really don’t know, do you?” said the monk’s voice.
Then, with one hand, he reached up to his broken head and turned it back around. It cracked like splintering wood.
Kai didn’t move. He couldn’t. He just watched, and one thought kept screaming in his mind:
What the hell is he?