Night fell like a warning rather than a comfort.
By seven o'clock, the city no longer felt like a place where people lived—it felt like a battlefield preparing to remember its past. Streets were flooded with military vehicles, their engines growling low and constant. Soldiers stood in clusters beneath harsh white lights, rifles resting against their shoulders, eyes scanning rooftops and shadows. Barricades sliced roads into unfamiliar paths. Above it all, drones hovered like mechanical insects, blinking red and blue.
Reporters and vloggers swarmed everywhere.
Cameras were raised, microphones shoved toward empty air, voices rehearsing panic in advance. Some whispered about monsters, others shouted about curses. A few spoke of divine punishment, while conspiracy theorists screamed about secret government experiments gone wrong. Every theory contradicted the last, yet all of them fed the same fear.
No one knew the truth.
Only the masked man did.
And the monsters.
At exactly seven, three figures sat at their regular table in the café on the corner of Elm Street. The place was half-empty—chairs stacked, lights dimmed to conserve power. The owner kept glancing at the door as if expecting it to burst open at any second.
Henry leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, eyes sharp. Lily sat opposite him, fingers wrapped around her coffee cup, restless. Chris sat between them, quiet, watching the reflection of streetlights flicker in the window.
"So," Henry said finally, breaking the silence, "what did you hear?"
Lily glanced around first, making sure no one was close enough to listen. She leaned forward, lowering her voice. Instinctively, Henry and Chris leaned in too.
"They said," Lily began slowly, "that the mask guy isn't normal."
Henry scoffed. "I think the entire city figured that out."
Lily shot him an annoyed look. "I didn't finish."
Chris rolled her eyes, impatient but curious.
Lily took a sip of her coffee, buying time, then continued. "They said the government is hunting him. Not to arrest him. Not to kill him." She paused, letting the tension stretch. "They want to experiment on him."
The table went quiet.
Chris straightened. "Experiment… as in?"
"As in," Lily said, "they believe whatever he is—whatever power he has—can be recreated. Controlled."
Henry clenched his jaw. "That never ends well."
Chris nodded slowly. "I was researching him too."
Both of them turned to her instantly.
"You?" Henry asked.
Chris hesitated, then spoke carefully. "After… after I was attacked, I couldn't stop thinking about him. So I searched. Forums, hidden blogs, deleted posts. People who survived attacks—many of them mention someone in a mask. Always in the dark. Always gone before anyone could thank him."
Lily whispered, "So he's real."
Chris nodded. "He's a savior in the dark."
Henry frowned, trying to process it. "Savior how? He doesn't show himself. He doesn't take credit."
"Exactly," Chris replied. "That's what makes him different. He saves people quietly. Like he doesn't want to exist."
For a moment, none of them spoke. Outside, a convoy of military trucks rolled past, rattling the café windows.
Chris broke the silence. "Where's Twilight?"
Henry leaned back again, eyes drifting toward the ceiling. "He's been weird lately. Distant. Silent. Like his mind is somewhere else."
Lily nodded. "He looks… scared. But not like us."
Chris's voice softened. "Should we call him?"
Henry shook his head. "No. He needs space. You know him—he hates when people hover. Let him breathe."
Chris didn't look convinced, but she nodded anyway.
Still, the worry stayed.
Across the city, Twilight shut the door of his house the moment he stepped inside. The lock clicked, loud in the silence. He leaned against the door, forehead resting against the cold wood, breathing hard—as if he had been running for hours.
The lights were off. The house felt too big. Too empty.
Tiny footsteps padded across the floor.
Rony.
The little bunny hopped toward him, ears twitching. She stood on her hind legs, placing her small paws against Twilight's leg, nudging him gently. Comforting him in the only way she knew how.
Twilight slid down the door and sat on the floor. The moment he wrapped his arms around Rony, everything broke.
He sobbed.
Not quietly. Not politely. His shoulders shook violently, breaths hitching, tears soaking into Rony's soft fur. He cried like someone who had been holding the weight of the world alone for far too long.
"I'm tired," he whispered between sobs. "I don't want to go back. Please… I don't want to go back."
Rony made a soft sound, pressing closer.
Outside, sirens wailed in the distance.
The night had only begun.
Midnight.
The sirens screamed again—louder this time.
At Lily's house, Henry, Chris, and Lily shot awake at the same time. The windows rattled. The bed bounced. A deep, violent tremor shook the floor beneath them.
"Earthquake?" Chris gasped.
"No," Henry said, already on his feet. "This is… different."
The shaking stopped as suddenly as it started.
Silence followed.
Then—
BOOM.
Something massive moved in the distance.
Across the city, cameras snapped to life. Reporters ran toward the sound instead of away from it. Vloggers climbed onto cars, rooftops, anything that gave them a better view.
Military tanks rolled forward, engines roaring.
From the darkness, it emerged.
A monster.
Its body was massive, unnatural—skin like cracked stone, eyes glowing with a dull, hungry light. Each step it took cracked the ground beneath it. When it reached the first tank, it lifted its arm and smashed it aside like a toy.
"Fire!" a commander screamed.
Bullets rained down.
They did nothing.
The creature didn't even flinch.
Grenades followed—explosions lighting up the night, smoke filling the streets.
Still nothing.
The monster roared, a sound so deep it vibrated through bones, and charged.
People ran. Cameras shook. Soldiers screamed orders over each other.
Then—
A shadow moved.
From above.
From nowhere.
A figure dropped between the monster and the tanks, landing with impossible grace. A mask gleamed briefly under the streetlights.
The masked man.
Reporters gasped. Cameras zoomed in. Social media exploded in real time.
"He's here!" someone shouted.
The masked man didn't look at them. His attention was locked on the monster.
For a moment, the city held its breath.
The savior in the dark had arrived.
And this time, the world was watching.