Book 1: The Flicker
Prologue – Burn Marks
The city never slept — not because it was alive, but because it refused to die.
Sirens screamed like lullabies. Neon lights bled down cracked pavement. Somewhere above, the rich toasted to empires built on broken backs. Down here, in the guts of Sector Nine, we bled just to feel something.
Kai Moreno stood under the flickering sign of “NOIR,” a broken nightclub turned underground fight pit. His knuckles ached. His breath was fire. Blood dripped from his brow, a line of red like war paint sliding into his eye.
He had won — again.
No cheers. No smiles. Just whispers from shadows and a credit chip tossed at his feet like a bone to a starving dog.
“Clean him up,” muttered the voice of Jace, the pit owner, already counting bets. “He’s back in tomorrow. Crowd loves pain.”
Kai didn’t flinch. He didn’t speak. He just picked up the chip and stared at the city skyline beyond the smoke-stained glass.
He wasn’t fighting to win.
He was fighting because if he stopped, he’d remember.
Remember his mother’s screams. The fire. The scent of melting plastic and burning skin. The night everything was taken from him. The night they came.
He tightened his fists. Somewhere in that tower of glass and lies above, the people who destroyed his life were still living theirs.
He promised himself: One day, they’d remember him too.
