The Kidron Valley – 5:14 P.M.
The sound of the trumpet did not fade.
It hung in the air, reverberating through the valley, through the walls of the old city, through the bones of the living.
Nate felt his chest tighten. The air seemed heavier, as if the weight of something unseen was pressing against him.
Leah stumbled back, gripping her temples. "Tell me I'm not the only one hearing that."
Lucien's hands trembled as he flipped through his manuscript. "This isn't just sound. It's something else—something woven into reality itself."
The two men—the Witnesses—stood unmoved in the valley. Their robes fluttered in the unnatural wind, their eyes fixed on something beyond sight.
Then, as if the earth itself had taken a breath, the trumpet ceased.
Silence fell.
And the world shuddered.
A low rumble rolled through the ground, deep and distant, like thunder that had yet to reach them.
Nate turned toward the city.
Then he saw it.
The sky over Jerusalem was bleeding.
Not rain. Not fire. Something worse.
The clouds cracked apart, revealing a sky devoid of color, like an unfinished painting. And through it, things moved.
Leah's breath hitched. "This is the first trumpet."
Lucien's voice was barely a whisper.
"No." He swallowed. "This is just the announcement."
The true horror was yet to come.
---
Jerusalem – The Mahane Yehuda Market – 5:22 P.M.
Chaos.
People ran, pushing past stalls and knocking over crates. Vendors screamed in Hebrew and Arabic, clutching their heads as if something was whispering inside them.
Car alarms blared. Power lines snapped, sending sparks raining onto the stone streets.
A shrouded figure stood at the heart of it all.
His robe was a deep crimson, his face hidden beneath a hood. He did not run. He did not panic. He simply watched.
And then he moved.
His presence seemed to bend the air around him, as if the very laws of nature recoiled at his existence. His footsteps left no sound.
He reached out toward a fleeing woman.
And with a single touch, her body convulsed.
Not in pain.
Not in death.
But in twisting, grotesque transformation.
Her eyes turned black.
Her veins darkened.
And when she turned to look at the people around her—
She screamed.
It wasn't human.
It was something ancient, something that had slumbered in the cracks of history.
And she was not the only one.
Others froze, their bodies seizing as if infected by something unseen. The crimson figure simply walked past them, allowing his presence to spread like an invisible plague.
Then, the possessed turned.
Their eyes locked onto the untainted.
And they began to hunt.
---
Near the Western Wall – 5:30 P.M.
Nate, Leah, and Lucien pushed through the crowds, moving against the current of panic.
"We need to get to the Temple Mount," Lucien said, breathless. "If this is the trumpet's doing, then the Witnesses will be the only ones who can stop it."
"Stop what?" Nate demanded. "The sky is breaking open, people are turning into—" He swallowed hard. "Into something else. What are we even dealing with?"
Lucien's eyes darkened. "The trumpet isn't just a call. It's a summoning."
Leah glanced back at the chaos. "Summoning what?"
Lucien hesitated.
Then, in the distance, the crimson figure turned his head.
And looked directly at them.
A cold wave rushed over Nate. His instincts screamed.
Lucien's face paled. "We have to run."
Nate had never seen fear in Lucien's eyes before.
That was enough to send him sprinting.
---
The Gates of the Temple Mount – 5:45 P.M.
The three of them ran through the Lion's Gate, breathless and sweating. The old stone steps were slick with the first drops of blood-rain, falling in slow, deliberate patterns.
They didn't stop until they reached the open plaza of the Temple Mount.
And then—
BOOM.
The ground split.
A chasm tore through the ancient stones, wide enough to swallow a building. From within its depths, a roar erupted—deep, guttural, inhuman.
The Witnesses stood on the far side, their hands raised. Their voices—one of fire, one of thunder—shook the air.
"They have answered the call!" one of them bellowed.
"And so the battle begins!"
From the depths of the earth, something rose.
And the First Woe had begun.