Introduction: Support me by buying the ebook version here:https://a.co/d/7YgmleV***It began with silence.Not the absence of sound——but its annihilation.Kael Mercer leaned forward, hands braced on the metal table, the suspect mid-sentence—And then the world stopped.The fluorescent lights went mute.The old ceiling fan froze mid-spin.Even the air refused to move.It was like time itself had inhaled… and refused to exhale.Then—pop.Every screen blinked out.Lights shattered overhead.The one-way mirror spiderwebbed with a crack like a sniper’s shot.And then it appeared.Floating in the center of the room, untouched by gravity or law or reason——a card.Black as a collapsed star.Etched in glyphs that shimmered and slithered, alive with alien madness.Kael's instincts screamed for his sidearm. But his body?Frozen. Trapped between heartbeat and breath.The glyphs pulsed. Shifted. Spoke.“Bound.”...