Crimson Bloomed: Ascend

Chapter 1: Before the Static

Aria Solenne had a talent for being unnoticed. Not out of fear or shyness — more like quiet resistance. The city moved fast, loud, and unforgiving, but she'd learned how to drift through its cracks, like fog slipping between streetlights.

Morning started the same as always: too early, too gray. Light crept through her blinds like it was tired, stretching across the linoleum floor in fractured gold. Her apartment smelled faintly of lavender and stale tea, dust curling in corners no one else noticed. She shuffled into the kitchen in mismatched socks, her oversized cardigan sliding off one shoulder. The kettle hissed, warming water she probably didn't need. But ritual mattered.

She spooned sugar into her chipped ceramic mug — three heaps, always — and dropped in a pinch of rose petals from the jar above the sink. Her fingers paused, as they always did, on the faded label: For Mom. They weren't fresh anymore, but the scent still clung. Still meant something.

She sat on the edge of her loveseat, knees tucked up, steam curling around her face. Outside, the world sounded… heavy. Not loud. Just dense. Tires on wet pavement. The metallic screech of the subway two blocks away. Her neighbor's window slamming shut like it was mad at the wind.

Her phone buzzed once — Jules.

Library still standing. Barely. You coming by today?

She texted back without looking at the screen.

Maybe tomorrow. Dust dragons await.

Jules sent back a thumbs - up emoji followed by a gif of a yawning cat. She smiled. Just a little.

By 7:10, she was dressed: soft black hoodie, frayed jeans, her favorite scarf wrapped twice around her neck even though it wasn't that cold. She always layered. Something about the weight made her feel more… real.

The walk to the bookstore took thirteen minutes. She counted the cracks in the sidewalk like always. Forty - seven. Same as yesterday.

The flower shop on the corner opened as she passed. The bell jingled and Mrs. Leva waved through the fogged glass.

"Morning, sweetheart," the old woman called, pushing open the door with her elbow. "You need something bright today?"

"Maybe tomorrow," Aria said.

"You say that every day."

"And one day I'll mean it."

Mrs. Leva laughed, her breath clouding the cold. "Be careful. Weird air today."

"Isn't it always?"

The bookstore was still dark when she got there. Niko was already inside, crouched behind the counter and cursing softly.

"Forgot the freaking breaker again," he muttered as she opened the door.

"You okay?" she asked.

"I'm fighting a war with old wiring. Losing."

She flicked on the front lights. "Need backup?"

He looked up. "You bring coffee?"

"No."

"Then no."

They worked in easy silence after that. The store was narrow, crammed with secondhand fiction, occult guides, poetry chapbooks, and weirdly specific memoirs no one asked for but somehow still sold. Aria loved it. The smell, the hush, the way time bent in corners when you were surrounded by too many lives stacked on dusty shelves.

A box waited behind the counter. Niko tapped it. "From some estate guy. Might be haunted."

"Everything in here might be haunted."

"Yeah, but this one's got weird energy."

She sliced the tape and flipped the flaps open. A mix of hardcovers and leather - bound journals, yellowed at the edges. One smelled like cloves and mildew. Another had pages stuck together with something she didn't want to name. She set them aside, one by one, cataloging quietly.

Piper — cat, queen, bookstore menace — stalked over the counter like she owned it and plopped herself on the pile.

"You're in the way," Aria said.

Piper blinked at her, stretched, and knocked a paperback to the floor.

"You're fired."

The bell above the door rang just before noon. A woman stepped in, tall, sharp, her coat the green of frozen leaves.

"Do you have anything that feels like winter?" she asked.

"Genre?"

"Poetry. Something cold."

Aria nodded, stepping toward a shelf. She traced the spines until she found it: The Book of Hours by Rilke. She handed it over without a word.

The woman flipped it open. "Mm. You're the quiet kind."

Aria shrugged. "Guess so."

"That's good. The loud ones never know where the magic is."

After she left, the stillness thickened. Aria cleaned the counter. Watered the snake plant. Reorganized the occult section by color just because.

Around two, a child wandered in alone. Couldn't have been older than eight. No jacket. Bare feet. Dirt on her palms.

"Hey," Aria said softly, kneeling. "Are you okay?"

The girl looked up, eyes huge and glassy. "They're waking up."

"Who is?"

The girl pointed toward the window. "Underneath."

Aria blinked — and the girl was gone.

She checked the street. Empty. No footprints. No voice calling after her. Just the wind threading through traffic like it knew something she didn't.

She didn't tell Niko. What would she even say?

Later, as she locked up, the streetlights flickered. Once. Twice. Then stayed dark. The city dimmed around her. Not a blackout — just… hesitation. Like the power wasn't sure it should keep going.

She took the long way home.

In the alley by the flower shop, she saw it again — heat shimmer where there shouldn't be heat. Like the air was holding its breath.

She turned sharply. Nothing. Just shadows and a dead pigeon.

That night, Aria sat in front of the bathroom mirror, hair damp, hoodie still on. The reflection didn't feel like hers. It looked right. Same tired eyes. Same soft mouth. But off. Like someone playing her in a dream.

Then, the mirror fogged.

She hadn't breathed on it.

Her reflection tilted its head.

She didn't.

Then it smiled.

Aria bolted upright, stumbling out of the room, heart hammering. Piper hissed from the windowsill, tail twitching.

She didn't sleep.

The next morning, there was a flower.

A crimson bloom curled out of an old book spine — Myths of the Hollow Earth. She hadn't touched that book in months. No soil. No root. Just the flower, perfectly formed.

She crouched, breath shaking, and reached out.

Warm.

Alive.

The petals twitched like they were breathing.

She didn't call anyone.

Instead, she opened her laptop and typed in:

Unnatural flower growth indoors + hallucinations + mirror smiling

Click. Click. Scroll.

Forums. Reddit threads. One mentioned thin places. Another linked it to collective dreaming.

She shut the laptop.

Piper stayed hidden all day.

The dreams got worse. Fire under her skin. Oceans above her head. Names whispered in languages that didn't belong on human tongues. She'd wake up breathless, mouth full of smoke, heart trying to escape her ribs.

Jules texted again:

You okay? You've gone full ghost mode.

She replied:

Just tired. Something's weird lately.

Weirder than usual?

Yeah.

Then:

Want company?

Aria stared at the screen.

Maybe tomorrow.

But tomorrow didn't come.

That evening, as she turned the bookstore lights off, the city went silent.

No engine noise. No phone buzz. No footsteps.

Everything just… paused.

The air trembled.

She felt it in her teeth.

A pressure, low and rising.

She turned to the window.

And the sky split.

A vertical tear, like lightning drawn slow and deliberate. Light poured out — but not golden, not white. It was blue. Deep blue. Ocean - at - night blue.

Shapes moved behind it. Like something looking back.

Then darkness again.

Just like that.

Power surged back. The lights flickered on. Traffic returned. A horn honked.

Aria stood still, keys in hand, unsure if she'd screamed.

No one else seemed to notice.

The news called it a power grid anomaly.

She didn't believe that.

Not anymore.

Back in her apartment, the flower had bloomed again. Three now. All red. All leaning toward the mirror.

She sat down on the couch. Hugged her knees to her chest.

The kettle hissed on the stove, untouched.

In the mirror across the room, her reflection watched her like it was waiting.

Waiting for her to remember.

Waiting for something to end.

Or begin.