MORAI

2:13 A.M.

The town of Morrow Creek was asleep.

It was the kind of place where nothing happened.

A few dozen houses.

One old gas station.

A diner that closed before midnight.

Fields stretching farther than the eye could see.

The nearest city was almost an hour away.

People came to Morrow Creek to disappear from the world.

Nobody expected the world to come looking for them.

Then the sky turned black.

Not dark.

Black.

A massive object tore through the clouds above the town, surrounded by flames that burned deeper than orange.

It wasn’t falling like a normal meteor.

It was descending.

Controlled.

Silent at first.

Then—

BOOOOOOM!

The ground shook.

Windows exploded throughout Morrow Creek.

Dogs began barking.

Car alarms screamed.

Birds erupted from the trees.

A column of smoke rose beyond the fields.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then the emergency sirens began.

MORGAN MOORE, a forty-three-year-old farmer, stood on his porch staring toward the horizon.

His wife, MONICA MOORE, stepped outside behind him.

“What was that?”

Morgan didn’t answer.

Another distant rumble rolled across the farmland.

Monica grabbed his arm.

“Morgan.”

“I heard you.”

“Then what was it?”

Morgan stared at the enormous black cloud rising into the night.

“I don’t know.”

He grabbed his jacket.

Monica immediately shook her head.

“Don’t.”

“I’m just going to look.”

“That’s what people say before they do something stupid.”

Morgan looked back at her.

“I’ll be five minutes.”

Monica sighed.

“You’re impossible.”

Morgan walked toward his truck.

Twenty minutes later, Morgan’s headlights cut through the darkness.

The farther he drove from town, the stranger everything became.

Trees were burned.

Grass was flattened.

Smoke drifted across the road.

Then Morgan saw something ahead.

A massive crater.

He stopped the truck.

For a moment, he simply stared.

The meteor had carved a hole nearly thirty feet across.

Black stone covered the bottom.

But something was wrong.

Morgan expected fire.

Heat.

Steam.

Instead, the crater was cold.

His breath appeared in front of his face.

“What the hell…?”

He slowly stepped out of the truck.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

His boots moved across the scorched grass.

He approached the crater.

Then he heard something.

A noise.

Small.

Almost impossible to hear.

Morgan froze.

“…Hello?”

Nothing.

He listened.

There it was again.

A faint sound.

Crying.

Morgan’s expression changed.

“No…”

He climbed carefully down into the crater.

The closer he got to the center, the louder the crying became.

Until he saw it.

A black, cracked shell sat in the middle of the crater.

It had split open.

Something was inside.

Morgan approached slowly.

“Hey…”

The crying stopped.

Morgan swallowed.

He reached toward the broken shell.

Inside was an infant.

A baby boy.

Completely naked.

Completely unharmed.

Morgan stared at him.

There wasn’t a scratch on the child.

Not even a speck of ash.

The baby opened his eyes.

Morgan stepped backward.

Those eyes weren’t normal.

For just a moment, they seemed almost completely black.

Then they became ordinary again.

Brown.

Human.

The baby looked up at him.

Morgan whispered:

“What are you?”

The infant said nothing.

He simply stared.

Then he began crying again.

Morgan looked toward the road.

There was nobody else around.

No ambulance.

No police.

No explanation.

Just him.

The crater.

And the child.

Morgan carefully picked him up.

The moment he touched the baby—

the entire crater went silent.

No wind.

No insects.

No distant animals.

Nothing.

Morgan looked around.

Then down at the infant.

The baby had stopped crying.

He was staring directly into Morgan’s eyes.

Morgan felt something he couldn’t explain.

Not fear.

Not exactly.

It felt like recognition.

As if the child already knew him.

Morgan tightened his grip.

“Okay…”

He looked toward the truck.

“Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

MORROW CREEK HOSPITAL

By 3:04 A.M., Morgan and Monica were standing inside the town hospital.

A nurse named Molly Morgan examined the baby.

Molly looked confused.

“He doesn’t have a scratch.”

Morgan sat beside Monica.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

Molly checked the baby’s heartbeat.

Then his temperature.

Then his eyes.

Everything was normal.

Almost too normal.

“Where did you find him?”

Morgan looked at Monica.

Monica looked back.

Neither knew how to answer.

Finally, Morgan said:

“Near the meteor.”

Molly stopped.

“The meteor?”

Morgan nodded.

“I found him inside.”

Molly stared at him.

“Inside what?”

“The crater.”

Silence.

Molly looked at the infant.

Then at Morgan.

“Mr. Moore…”

“I know how it sounds.”

“No. You don’t.”

Molly carefully picked up the child.

The baby looked at her.

For the first time, he smiled.

Molly smiled back.

“Well…”

She gently touched his tiny hand.

“You’re certainly a strange little miracle.”

The baby closed his fingers around hers.

Molly’s smile faded.

Because for half a second—

she thought she saw something moving underneath his skin.

A faint pattern.

Almost like glowing veins.

She blinked.

Nothing was there.

THREE DAYS LATER

The meteor was officially classified as an unidentified astronomical event.

The crater was sealed.

The government had begun asking questions.

But Morgan and Monica had already made their decision.

They wanted the baby.

They had spent years trying to become foster parents.

Years of paperwork.

Years of disappointment.

And now, somehow, a child had fallen from the sky and landed in their lives.

Monica held him against her chest.

“What should we call him?”

Morgan looked down at the baby.

The infant stared back.

Quiet.

Completely still.

Morgan smiled.

“Morai.”

Monica repeated it.

“Morai…”

The baby blinked.

Monica smiled.

“I like it.”

Morgan reached over and gently touched the baby’s head.

“Welcome home, Morai.”

Outside the window, rain began falling.

Morai remained perfectly silent.

His eyes slowly shifted toward the glass.

Far beyond the hospital…

deep inside the woods…

something burned.

A strange symbol had appeared in the dirt.

Three curved lines surrounding a single black circle.

The same symbol was etched into the meteor.

And beneath the hospital floor—

something answered.

THUMP.

Morai’s eyes opened wider.

THUMP.

His tiny hand tightened into a fist.

THUMP.

Then everything stopped.

Monica kissed his forehead.

“Goodnight, little one.”

Morai stared into the darkness.

He didn’t sleep.

He simply watched.

Waiting.

For something even he didn’t understand.

Something had fallen from the sky.

And Morrow Creek had no idea what it had brought home.

END OF CHAPTER 1