Chương 157: Chapter 157
The night fell like a sheet of ink, a quiet, empty blackness that stretched far beyond what the eye could see. The stars above shimmered faintly, distant, indifferent. Beneath them, the small village of Asen lay, the homes crumbling, the air thick with the smell of burning wood and wet earth. People kept to their homes, not daring to venture into the open, for the Sky People were known to come on nights like this.
Jarek stood at the edge of the field, his heart pounding. He had heard the stories all his life—the ones passed down in whispers, the ones that made children hide under their blankets and adults keep their eyes to the ground when night fell. But tonight was different. He had no choice but to face it. The Sky People were coming, and he had no idea how to stop them.
They lived in the floating islands far above, unreachable to humans. No one knew exactly how they kept themselves aloft or how they could live in the thin air, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that they believed themselves above everyone else. The Sky People looked down on the humans as if they were insects, pests to be wiped away when the mood struck. They were cruel. No mercy. No compassion.
The stories had been clear: the Sky People only came when they wanted something. And tonight, Jarek was the one they were after.
He turned and glanced back at his home. His sister, Kira, was waiting inside. He had promised to protect her. But promises didn't matter when the Sky People came for you. They didn't take kindly to defiance, and it wasn't long before they arrived.
The ground trembled. The sound of wind howling through the trees broke the silence, a high-pitched screech cutting through the night like nails on a chalkboard. The air seemed to freeze as something heavy descended from the sky. Jarek swallowed hard, his mouth dry as sand. His heart raced faster now, the pressure building in his chest.
Then they appeared. The first of them—a figure in flowing robes, tall and thin, almost skeletal, but with limbs too long, too spindly to be human. Their eyes—black and wide, glassy, with no pupils—fixed on Jarek, and he felt the weight of their stare. It wasn't just a look; it was as if they were looking through him, seeing something deeper, something more. Something they could take.
Behind the figure, others appeared, dozens of them, descending silently from the sky. They seemed to glide, their feet never touching the ground, their robes billowing out in the cold wind as if they were floating on some invisible current.
"Jarek," the figure said, its voice a high, trembling echo, thin and fragile like the sound of breaking glass. "Come with us."
His legs moved of their own accord, taking a step forward before he could stop them. The others around him remained still, watching. Waiting. They never spoke. They never asked questions. They just took what they wanted.
He tried to speak, but his voice was lost in his throat, strangled by fear. He could hear his own heartbeat, pounding in his ears, drowning out everything else.
"You have something we want," the figure said again, its voice an endless, unnerving hum. "Something we need."
Jarek's legs stopped moving. His mind screamed at him to turn and run, to save himself, to protect Kira. But his body betrayed him, frozen in place. He felt his skin crawl as the figure floated closer, its long fingers reaching toward him.
"Please," he finally whispered. "I don't have anything. I don't have anything you want."
The figure's face twisted, a thin smile curling beneath its eyes. "You are wrong. You have everything we need."
And before he could react, the figure touched his forehead.
Pain.
It was like a thousand knives stabbing into his skull, slicing through his brain. He screamed, but no sound escaped his lips. The agony swelled, suffocating him, consuming him from the inside out. He dropped to his knees, clutching at his head, trying to tear away the invisible hands that gripped him, pulling him apart, piece by piece.
In the distance, Kira screamed. It was a sound that tore at his heart, a shrill cry of terror that pierced the black sky. She was still inside, still waiting, still hoping he could somehow stop this. But it was too late.
The Sky People watched as Jarek's body twitched and writhed on the ground. The air around him crackled, thick with an unnatural energy, as if the very world had bent to their will. His eyes bulged, his mouth opened in a silent scream. His chest tightened as though something inside him was being torn free, ripped away, something vital, something that could never be returned.
It felt like years had passed, but it was over in seconds. His body collapsed. The pain vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving him hollow. Empty. His skin was pale, his body stiff. His fingers twitched as if trying to move, but they could not.
The figure who had touched him was now standing over him, its head tilting slightly as it observed his lifeless body. There was no satisfaction in its eyes. No joy. Just a cold indifference that sent a chill deeper into Jarek's soul, even in death. The others simply watched, silent and unmoving, as if he were nothing more than a discarded tool.
A few of them turned toward Kira's house, their heads moving in unison, their long limbs gliding toward the door.
Jarek wanted to scream. He wanted to rise up, to fight, but it was too late.
And then he felt it. A faint tremor beneath his chest. A spark of warmth, just a flicker, rising from the place where his heart should have been.
He couldn't see it, but he felt it.
Kira.
She was running, barreling through the front door, her feet pounding the earth beneath her as she fled into the night. She didn't stop. She didn't care that the Sky People were coming for her. She just kept running, her arms outstretched in front of her, as if trying to reach for something that would never be there.
But she wasn't fast enough. They were faster. They always were.
The ground trembled again, and Jarek felt the sky press down on him. His vision blurred, and he could see her now, her face twisted in terror as the others surrounded her. She was too close. Too close. She wouldn't make it.
He wanted to call out, to tell her to stop, but his voice was gone. It had been taken, stolen by the Sky People. And there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Kira's screams were muffled, swallowed by the wind. The figure that had touched him earlier floated toward her, its thin arms extending. She reached out, her hands trembling as she begged for help. But there was no help. Not for her. Not for anyone.
Her eyes met his one last time, but she didn't see him. She didn't see anything. Not as they pulled her apart, piece by piece, and took what they wanted.
Jarek's heart was already gone. Kira's heart was next.
And the Sky People would never stop.
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