Chapter Three: The Stranger in the Rain
The rain had returned.
Eli walked briskly down the dimly lit street, his hood pulled over his head. The city was restless tonight, the hum of traffic and distant sirens blending into the rhythm of falling raindrops. He was exhausted, but the uneasy feeling from his dream still clung to him, making his skin prickle with an unnamed tension.
It had been happening more often—flashes of places he'd never been, voices that felt too familiar, the ghost of emotions he shouldn't have. He shook his head, trying to push it all away. It was probably just stress. Overwork. Too much caffeine. Nothing more.
Or so he told himself.
Then he felt it again—that strange pull in his chest, like an invisible thread tightening. His steps slowed.
Someone was watching him.
Eli turned, scanning the empty sidewalk. A flickering streetlamp cast long, distorted shadows, but there was no one there. Just the rain and the quiet hum of the city.
Yet, he felt it—an undeniable presence. A weight pressing against the air. He shivered, his breath coming faster, his instincts screaming at him to run.
And then, from the corner of his eye, he saw him.
A man stood beneath the streetlight, his figure shrouded in the rain's silver mist. Tall, unmoving, as if he had always been there. His dark coat billowed slightly with the wind, but what caught Eli's attention—what sent ice flooding through his veins—were his eyes.
Gold. Luminous, burning even through the veil of night. And locked onto him as if they had been waiting for an eternity.
Eli's breath hitched. A second passed. Then another.
The man took a step forward.
A sudden jolt of something—fear, recognition, fate—snapped through Eli's body, and before he could stop himself, he turned and ran.
But even as his feet pounded against the wet pavement, heart racing, he knew one thing for certain.
This wasn't the first time those golden eyes had looked at him like that.
And it wouldn't be the last.