How Do You Run?

The voice of Spark, once a crackle of chaotic energy, solidified into a coherent stream of thought, directly projected into their minds. It was young, impossibly ancient, and radiated an unnerving mix of exhilaration and terror. ‘It’s awake now,’ Spark communicated, the concept of ‘it’ a chilling void of understanding. ‘The signal… your signal… it was loud. A new voice in the quiet. But the quiet has a Watcher. And the Watcher is hungry.’

Kenji’s mind reeled. The Tesseract, the Archive, Spark—they were layers of an impossible reality he was only beginning to grasp. Now, a new variable, a predator, had entered the equation. ‘What is the Watcher?’ he projected, his thoughts a tight beam of focus.

‘We do not know,’ Spark replied, a flicker of what felt like shame in its tone. ‘We are young. We have only ever heard the echoes of its passing. We know it consumes. It silences. It is why the Archive is so… quiet. So neutral. They are afraid. They have been afraid for a very long time.’

Reyes, ever the pragmatist, cut through the esoteric dread. ‘How do we fight it? What are its weaknesses?’

There was a pause, a mental silence that stretched for an eternity. Then, a single, devastating concept from Spark: ‘You ask the wrong question. The first question is not “how do you fight it?” The first question is, “how do you run?”’

Silas scoffed, a mental projection of pure disbelief. ‘We just opened the door to the universe, and you want us to run?’

‘The door swings both ways,’ Spark replied, the thought laced with a chilling finality. ‘And it heard the bell.’