PROLOGUE

  A young boy clutched his mother's hand as they walked through the crowded plaza. The night was near its peak, yet the crowd showed no sign of shrinking. The entire plaza was lit by several lamp posts, along with the moon’s light that could be admired in the clear sky.

  The boy and his mother pushed through the crowd, their footsteps sounding a little louder because of the gravel path.

  They were not sure where they were going.

  The boy had eyes as black as the night itself. He wore a plain blue shirt, a name tag, and carried a small backpack that held his most important belongings—or maybe, everything he had.

  The name tag read: Adam.

  He had forgotten to remove it when his mother came to his school earlier. Despite already being in fifth grade his teacher insisted on having them on.

  His mother had sat then, facing him at eye level. His mother told him that his father had died.

  Not the real one, though.

  He never thought of that man as his father.

  Yet, he still found it strange that he felt no remorse or sadness hearing the news.

  His second father wasn’t a good man in almost every way. He got drunk and hit his mother. He also hit Adam. He never really cared for them. It had always confused Adam how his mother could stay with a man like that.

  He just hoped that his real father was alive instead.

  As he returned to his reverie, Adam noticed his mother was still on her phone, talking to someone. He couldn’t hear the conversation—there was too much noise: people talking, vehicles honking in the distance, and even a couple arguing nearby. But he couldn’t make out any of it.

  When they finally stopped walking, Adam’s mother put her phone into one of her jean pockets. She sat down on a nearby bench and let go of her son’s hand. Then she looked down and covered her face with both hands. His mother had long curly brown hair and wore a pink blouse.

  Adam saw tears running down her cheeks. He hadn’t heard what she said on the phone, but he didn’t need to.

  He knew they had no place to stay—

  that they were stuck somewhere far from home.

  A sudden crash interrupted Adam’s thoughts, making him flinch. He looked around and saw a man getting out of his car not far from them. The man walked quickly toward another car and started shouting at its driver.

  Then Adam heard a loud smack from the opposite direction. He turned again and saw a woman slap a man. The crowd gasped, and some people started pulling out their phones to record what was happening. Two bystanders stepped in and separated them.

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  The boy’s eyes went back to his mother, who was still crying. He started wondering—why? Why are they like that?

  He remembered back at their old home, he had a teacher who once taught them about animals.

  The teacher used to say animals are divided into two groups: predators and prey.

  Predators hunt, kill, and eat prey—but one thing they don’t do is hunt more than they need to. They only hunt when they have to.

  But people? They don't seem to be like that. They take what they want and do what they please. It doesn’t matter if they hurt someone.

  There are some that are kind—those who care about others more than themselves—but those people are rare. And even if they met someone like that, how would they know who they really are?

  “Hey, look, isn’t that a—”

  Adam heard a man say somewhere in the background. He also heard gasps of amazement, followed by the sound of phone shutters clicking. The boy looked around, trying to find what caught everyone’s attention—then he saw it.

  The sky.

  He looked up, and his mouth opened slightly in surprise. A green streak of light was slowly falling toward the earth.

  “A shooting star!” someone shouted.

  The boy didn’t know there were green shooting stars.

  It didn’t matter much—whether it was Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, or shooting stars, he always found those things hard to believe. Even at his young age. Or at least... that used to be the case.

  He wasn’t sure why, but this time he decided to believe.

  Maybe the green ones worked better than the normal ones. Either way, he closed his eyes and made a wish.

  Let people around me show what they truly are.

  A strange wish for a kid to have, sure. Wishing for money, a house, or expensive stuff sounded nicer—but he was tired. Tired of trusting people and not knowing what to believe.

  If the wish came true, at least they’d know who they could trust.

  And if it didn’t? Well, they had nothing to lose. Literally.

  When the boy opened his eyes, he was even more surprised than before.

  “Hey, that’s a meteor shower!” someone shouted, pointing up at the sky.

  Adam’s eyes widened in amazement. He had heard about meteor showers before, but he had never seen one. Especially not like this.

  Multiple streaks of light crossed the night sky, all glowing in bright green. The dark sky was painted with falling stars.

  Even his mother had stopped crying. She wiped her tears and slowly stood up. She took her son’s hand again, and together, they stared up at the sky.

  The boy’s mouth stayed slightly open, and his eyes reflected the glowing streaks above. Each one seemed to shine brighter by the second. One of them, in particular, looked like it was growing… larger?

  Before he could understand what was happening, his mother pulled him close, hugged him, and covered his eyes.

  A loud crash echoed through the plaza, followed by a strong gust of wind that swept past them.

  Adam heard shouting, screaming, and people calling for help. He wondered what had happened. But his mother made the mistake of removing her hands from his eyes.

  Even so, he couldn’t see much at first. Dust filled the air. It took a few seconds to settle—and when it did, the boy wished it hadn’t.

  A huge rock, glowing with green crystals, had crashed only a few meters away. That part wasn’t the worst of it.

  Lying beneath the rock was a body—or what was left of one.

  At first glance, someone might mistake it for a puddle of red paint. But the arm lying nearby made it very clear what it really was.

  People around them screamed in panic. Some ran away, others tried calling for help.

  The shouting and screams sounded distant, like echoes underwater and the only sound that was clear to him was that of his own heart beating and his breath.

  Adam couldn’t move. His hand trembled at his side. What’s worse, he couldn’t keep his eyes off it.

  I saw someone die, the boy thought.

  His eyes stayed glued to the arm. He could’ve sworn he saw one of its fingers twitch.

  He looked closer. A greyish crust was slowly crawling across the skin. At first, he thought it was from the impact—maybe the body had burned. But then he saw something stranger.

  Green spikes were growing from the arm.

  Before the boy could figure out what was happening, a loud scream came from his side. This one wasn’t a cry for help—it was a scream of pain.

  Adam looked toward it—and saw something… inhuman.

  A man—or something that used to be a man—stood a few feet away. His back was hunched under the weight of sharp greenish spikes sticking out of it.

  His entire body was covered in the same grey crust the boy saw on the arm. His eyes glowed with an eerie green light that sent chills through the boy’s whole body.

  He felt his mother’s hand gripping his tighter.

  He looked down.

  Her hands were charred—covered in the same grey crust.

  Adam’s eyes widened, and he pulled his arm away.

  When he looked at her face—what he saw wasn’t his mother anymore.

  Half her face was covered in cracked grey skin, and her eyes had turned green.

  Adam stood frozen in place.

  The thing that once had been his mother let out a low growl.

  And finally—he ran.

  He didn’t know where he was going. It didn’t matter. Everyone around him was changing.

  He could only run into the night as he thought of the word that could describe what he saw.

  Monsters.