Vision in Red by Sajjad Rasool - HTML preview

Vision in Red

Omar collapsed.

The pressure vanished. The wind died instantly. The other watchers, seeing their leader destroyed, shrieked in unison and dissolved into the shadows, retreating back into the cracks and corners.

The overhead lights flickered back on with a loud buzz.

Silence returned to the room —but this time, it was natural silence. The silence of shock. The silence of twenty teenagers breathing hard, staring at the empty space where the monster had been.

Amal and Yasmin rushed to Omar. He was lying on the floor, unconscious, breathing in shallow, ragged gasps. Yasmin checked his pulse.

"He's alive," she said, her hands shaking as she touched his face. "Just exhausted. His heart is racing."

Amal looked up at the teenagers surrounding them. They were terrified, shaking, some were crying. But they were alive. And for the first time, they looked awake. The listlessness was gone. They had seen the enemy. And they had seen that the enemy could be fought.

"We need to get him to the clinic," Yasmin said. "It's safer there. Al-Shahid..."

"Al-Shahid keeps the others away," Amal finished. "Yes. Let's go."

As they lifted the boy, Amal noticed his sketchbook lying open on the table. The last drawing—the giant figure —was still there. But Omar had added one final detail before the lights went out.

A crack.

A jagged line running down the center of the giant's chest, right through the box of voices.

And written next to it:

IT CAN BREAK.

Amal touched the paper. It felt warm.

"It can break," she whispered.

She looked at the window. Outside, the night was dark, and she knew the watchers were still out there—millions of them, gathering, building, waiting. The giant she had seen at the checkpoint was just one piece of a larger machine.

But they had a weapon now. They knew the weakness. The silence wasn't invincible. It could be broken. And when it broke, the walls would come down with it.

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