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  • The Second Fever

    Chapter by barackobrahma · 31 Jan 2026
  • In a world gripped by the mysterious disappearance of a fallen object at Blackwood Peak, Daniel remains eerily calm as authorities fail to find the "impact" he uniquely understands. While the news reports a baffled search for debris, Daniel realizes they are looking for physical wreckage rather than the internal change he is experiencing. The silence of his secluded life is interrupted by a sharp knock at the door, revealing a formidable woman with a commanding, tactical presence.
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  • The sun didn’t rise the next morning so much as it bruised the sky—a dull, sickly white that bled into grey. Daniel sat at his kitchen table, the silence of the cabin now feeling less like a friend and more like a witness.

    He clicked on a small television. The screen flickered to life, showing a panoramic shot of Blackwood Peak. It was crawling with black SUVs and figures in neon-yellow windbreakers.

    "Local and federal authorities remain baffled this morning," the news anchor said. "Despite reports of a high-velocity impact, search teams have found no debris, no scorched earth, just a crater. It’s as if whatever fell simply vanished."

    Daniel leaned back, his thumb tracing the rim of a cold coffee mug. He felt a strange, detached calm. They were looking for metal and fire. They weren't looking for a man who knew what it felt like to have a heartbeat that wasn't his own.

    Then came the knock.

    Standing on his porch was a woman who looked like she’d been plucked from a high-stakes recruitment poster. She was a petite Afro-American woman, barely five-foot-three, but she carried a concentrated, kinetic energy that made her seem twice her size. Her skin was the color of deep espresso, smooth and flawless against the stark white of her collared shirt peering out from under her tactical windbreaker.

    She was strikingly slender, her frame built of wiry, lean muscle—the kind of body forged by thousand-meter sprints and tactical drills. Her face was a study in sharp, elegant angles: a high, narrow nose, cheekbones that looked like they could cut glass, and a jawline that stayed set in a permanent line of professional skepticism. Her hair, a dense, dark texture, was slicked back into a ponytail so punishingly tight it looked like it was pulling at the corners of her flint-colored eyes, giving her a perpetual look of fierce, feline alertness.

    "Mr. Miller?" she asked, flashing a badge. "Special Agent Chloe Diallo, FBI. We’re canvas-searching the ridge. Did you see or hear anything unusual around 10:00 PM last night?"

    Daniel leaned against the doorframe, projecting the image of a tired mountain local. "Heard a hell of a noise. Thought a transformer blew. Didn't see much through the mist, though."

    While he spoke, the pressure returned.

    It wasn't a dull throb this time; it was a white-hot needle behind his left eye. Through the haze …
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