I woke before my alarm, the room heavy with the kind of silence that made the edges of my thoughts feel too sharp, too real. I turned to the side of my bed where Edwin had been lying last night, but was met with cold emptiness, the sheets barely disturbed. The void of his absence somehow made the room feel darker.
With a sigh, I kicked off the blankets and rose from the comfort that had provided me with so many restless nights of sleep, more a false sense of security than real rest these days.
"This shouldn't be my problem," I muttered to the stillness of my room, though the words held no power, no conviction.
I began pacing, the soft creak of the wooden floor beneath my feet the only sound breaking the oppressive quiet. The truth was, this was my problem, whether I wanted it or not. Keres. Alex. My friends. They were all tangled up in something far darker than I ever imagined. It wasn't supposed to be like this.
I dropped into my desk chair, feeling the familiar coolness of the leather against my skin. "Who exactly is Keres?" I asked aloud, as if saying the name would somehow summon the answers.
Spinning slowly in the chair, I pulled my laptop in front of me and began typing into the search bar. Keres. The name felt heavy even on the keyboard.
As the search results populated on the screen, I scrolled through a flood of pages—scholarly articles, mythology websites, strange forums full of conspiracy theories. My fingers hesitated over the mouse. "Let's go to the classic source of questionable knowledge—Wikipedia."
The entry on the Keres loaded, and I skimmed through the familiar structure of mythology. But this time, it wasn't just a tale. This was real.
And Nyx (Night) bore hateful Moros (Doom), and black Ker (Violent Death), and Thanatos (Death), and she bore Hypnos (Sleep) and the tribe of Oneiroi (Dreams). And again, the goddess murky Nyx, though she lay with none, bore Momus (Blame) and painful Oizys (Misery).
I leaned in closer, my heart beating faster as I read further.
The ruthless Keres (Death-Fates), fierce, bloody, terrifying, fought over men dying on the battlefield, longing to drink their dark blood. They clasped their great claws around the fallen, dragging their souls down to the abyss. When their thirst for blood was sated, they would toss the empty bodies aside, returning to the battle, insatiable.
My stomach twisted. "Oh my God. What the hell..."
These beings weren't just harbingers of death—they craved violence, sought it out like predators, feeding on suffering and destruction. The more I read, the colder I felt. The Keres weren't just interested in death—they glorified it, bathed in it. They were drawn to places of bloodshed, to scenes of mass suffering.
If these were the entities we were up against, then... we were in serious trouble.
I scrolled down, scanning more and more. The articles painted a grim picture of the Keres' nature. They were agents of chaos, delighting in blood-soaked battlefields and the torment of the dying. And now, they were here. In my town.
"Why here?" I whispered to myself, closing my laptop with a soft click. My town wasn't exactly known for its rich history of bloodshed—at least, nothing I'd ever learned about in school.
I stood up, suddenly restless, the information swirling in my mind like a storm I couldn't escape. Showering might clear my head. I'd get dressed and head to the library. Maybe the local archives had something deeper than a Google search could reveal. There had to be more to this.
"If they thrive on bloody battles, something violent must've happened here to draw them back," I mused, the thoughts rattling around in my head as I walked downstairs. The house was quiet, but the familiar sounds of morning—the hum of the fridge, the soft creak of the floorboards—grounded me.

YOU ARE READING
The Day Death Died
ParanormalMaddison Sinclair had the perfect life. She was student body president, about to be homecoming queen, and dated the hottest guy in school. She had the perfect life. Until she almost died, killed death, and got stuck with his job. Now she has to lea...