The ship’s bow cut across the mist-draped waters of San Francisco Bay.
Fog rolled in thick curtains, swallowing the horizon, leaving only the jagged silhouette of a prison standing alone like a giant’s tombstone.
Alcatraz.
The fortress of stone, steel, and silence—the cage where monsters were locked away, not to be rehabilitated, but to be forgotten.
On the deck, four figures stood, each carrying their own weight of thought.
Sulaiman sat shackled in reinforced restraints, arms bound in steel cuffs, legs clamped with weight that clinked whenever he shifted.
His expression was unreadable, his eyes as distant as the fog.
The others knew better than to relax.
Even caged, Sulaiman radiated danger.
“Cheerful place, huh?” Rolf muttered, forcing a grin as he leaned on the railing.
His blond hair whipped in the sea breeze.
“Nothing screams welcome like a prison carved into rock.”
Marcus adjusted his glasses, his rifle case strapped tightly to his back.
His eyes scanned the island through the mist, unease etched into his face.
“This place doesn’t welcome anyone.
It swallows them.”
Aria stood apart, her whip coiled at her side.
The mist seemed to cling to her, swallowing her frame in shifting white.
She hugged her arms, her mind heavy with doubt.
“Why do I feel like we shouldn’t be here…?” she whispered.
But Touya said nothing.
He leaned casually against the railing, eyes locked on the dark outline of Alcatraz rising from the waters.
The faintest smirk tugged at his lips.
Destiny… it really was like a magnet.
First the file, then the assignment.
The island was calling him, and he would answer.
The ship moored at the dock.
Guards in black uniforms with heavy weaponry lined the pier, rifles gleaming under floodlights.
Their discipline was sharp, their movements precise, but even so, there was tension in their eyes.
At the center of the dock stood a man who dwarfed them all.
Warden Elias Kane.
Tall, broad-shouldered, with the bearing of a war general and the scars of battles long past.
His dark hair was streaked with gray, his jaw square and lined, his presence alone enough to silence the bay.
He waited, arms folded, eyes like steel.
As Touya’s group disembarked with their prisoner, Kane stepped forward.
His gaze swept over them, pausing just long enough on Touya for something unspoken to pass between them.
Not suspicion.
Not hostility.
Recognition.
He looked at Sulaiman then, his eyes narrowing.
“Welcome to your new home.
No one leaves Alcatraz.
Not alive.”
Sulaiman chuckled under his breath.
“We’ll see.”
Kane’s fist twitched, but he didn’t rise to the bait.
Instead, he gestured to his men.
The prisoner was hauled forward, chains clinking as they dragged him up the dock.
Marcus’ sharp eyes flicked to Kane, then to the guards, then back to the fortress.
“Both.”
Aria swallowed hard.
Her gut told her this wasn’t going to be a simple delivery.
Touya?
He just smirked wider.
Deep within Alcatraz, in a solitary cell lined with reinforced steel, sat James Ferrison—Zero.
He was still.
Too still.
His dark eyes stared at the wall, unfocused, yet sharp all the same.
The guards whispered when they walked by.
“That’s him…”
“The Killer…”
“Don’t make eye contact.
He doesn’t need a weapon.”
But Zero didn’t acknowledge them.
Instead, he tilted his head slightly toward the wall.
His voice was quiet, almost gentle, as he spoke to the inmate in the neighboring cell.
“They call you a leader, don’t they?
A man your people respect… yet here you are, caged like an animal.
Tell me, does that eat at you?”
A grunt came from the other side.
Zero’s lips curled into the faintest smile.
“I can hear it in your silence.
You want out.
You want revenge.
You want the world to feel the same chains you wear right now.”
The other inmate growled.
“Shut up.”
“Oh, I will,” Zero said softly, almost kindly.
“But remember my words.
Storms start with whispers.
And tonight… the storm is coming.”
He leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes.
A man with no psychic power.
No supernatural gifts.
And yet, the entire prison already bent toward him.
Kane led the group through Alcatraz’s reinforced corridors.
Every inch reeked of discipline and violence contained by iron.
“Alcatraz doesn’t reform criminals,” Kane said as they walked.
His heavy boots echoed on the stone.
“It holds monsters so the rest of the world can sleep at night.”
They passed rows of cells where gang leaders, mercenaries, and rogue operatives watched from the shadows.
Their eyes burned with hatred, but none dared move when Kane passed.
Marcus muttered under his breath, “It’s like walking through a zoo where every animal wants to eat you alive.”
“Correction,” Kane said, not breaking stride.
“These aren’t animals.
They’re people who threw away their humanity.
That makes them worse.”
Rolf tried to lighten the mood. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“And you keep them all in check by glaring at them?”
Kane stopped, turning just enough for his cold eyes to cut through him.
“If I wanted, I could break every bone in your body before you blink.”
Silence.
Then Kane smirked, just slightly, and turned back toward the path.
Rolf forced a laugh.
“…Yeah, figures.”
Aria shivered.
She couldn’t tell if Kane was joking or not.
Touya, however, grinned wide.
This was the kind of man he liked.
A lion among men.
Night fell over Alcatraz.
The prison seemed to breathe with the tides, the waves crashing against its jagged rocks like the growls of some ancient beast.
In the warden’s quarters, the team rested.
Kane stood by the window, arms crossed, watching the lights on the cell blocks flicker in the mist.
He didn’t trust the silence.
He never did.
Touya stepped out onto the balcony, staring at the sea.
His mind wasn’t on the waves—it was on the file he had read.
Subject Zero.
Detained.
Alcatraz.
He smirked to himself.
“So you’re here… Zero.
Let’s see what kind of monster you really are.”
Meanwhile, in the solitary wing, Zero whispered again through the walls.
“You want chaos.
I can give it to you.
All you have to do… is open the door.”
The other inmate’s breathing quickened.
His fists clenched.
He didn’t know why—but he wanted to obey.
The seed had been planted.
A guard burst into Kane’s quarters, face pale.
“Warden!
Unusual movements—Cell Block C.
Prisoners are restless, starting to riot!”
Kane’s eyes narrowed.
He cracked his knuckles, the sound like gunfire.
“Finally.
Let’s see who still remembers why Alcatraz is unbreakable.”
Touya leaned against the wall, his grin sharper than ever.
“Perfect.
Show me what kind of monsters this prison holds.”
The fog thickened outside, swallowing the fortress whole.
The storm was about to break.