Nine Months Later...
It was early September. The country felt different now. Like something ancient and heavy had settled into its bones. There was a thickness, a heaviness, that clung to everything. Rumors on base had grown from passing whispers to urgent, unshakable fears. Young men and women were disappearing.
Entire units unaccounted for. Files erased. No paper trails. Some said they were being trafficked, sold into black market systems so dark and well-funded, even military intelligence couldn't trace them.
Anika's stomach churned every time she overheard another name spoken in hushed tones. She used to believe science could explain everything. Lately, she wasn't so sure.
There were too many anomalies. Too many unexplained forces at play. And the numbers... they were still following her.
555. It showed up constantly. On parking meters. Lab reports. Screens. Dreams. Its presence was no longer a coincidence. It was a constant.
But now a new number had begun to follow her.
444.
She'd been wrestling with more than exhaustion since that New Year's night. She found out that following morning that Cory was being sent to Wisconsin for a special ops operation. Later that day her boss gave her a new complex case that also kept her mind occupied. Sleep had become a luxury.
She missed her husband and she felt his absence more deeply each day. However, she felt her husband didn't feel the same way. The multiple daily check-ins had faded into sparse, hollow calls every couple of weeks.
"It fed the fear she'd tried to deny ever since the vision." She felt the guards beginning to go up in her heart. When his name lit up her screen, she hesitated, half of her hoping he'd call, the other half hoping he wouldn't.
She buried herself in work. Late hours at the lab, nights poured into data, eyes bloodshot from chasing magnetic anomalies and trying to understand the irregularities of the genetics in the case file. She could barely distinguish obsession from purpose anymore.
But it was the silence. The emptiness in their apartment, that got to her.
The bed felt too big. The air too still.
She sat on the floor of the study one night, data prints scattered across the rug. Her eyes blurred as she scanned the charts again.
Every full moon since January, she recorded the same unexplained surge. Always at exactly 3:00 a.m. Nine spikes in total. She was also puzzled at the XYZ DNA coding from whoever this person was in her case.
"Overwhelmed, she pushed the charts away and checked her phone. Still no call from Cory." She reached for a manila envelope half-buried beneath a stack of folders.
Divorce papers.
She stared at them. Her signature already scrawled on page three."Silly me," she whispered, bitterly amused. "Maybe I'm being dramatic."
She stuffed the papers back into the drawer and slammed it shut.
But the ache in her chest didn't go away.
She leaned back in her chair, looking up at the ceiling. "If this is really my mission," she murmured to the silence, "why does it feel like I'm losing everything to gain it?" She sighed, a long, weary exhale, and turned back to her laptop...
Anika had unknowingly dozed off, head tilted against the back of her chair. The soft buzz on her wrist startled her awake.
4:44 a.m.
She groaned. "Why do I keep seeing this number?"
It wasn't the first time. A late-night coffee run—$4.44. The exact time she paused her YouTube documentary yesterday—4 minutes and 44 seconds. Even during a splitting headache, she glanced at her phone it was 4:44 p.m.
Too specific. Too frequent.
Reaching for her Angel Numbers Guide book, she flipped quickly to the section on 444.
In it read: Seeing 444 is a powerful and reassuring sign from the universe indicating divine guidance, protection, and stability. Your hard work and dedication will be rewarded.
Anika rolled her eyes and closed the book. "Hard work," she muttered. "Rewarded. Right."
Her voice cracked slightly, the sarcasm curling into something closer to grief. "All I feel is exhausted. Alone. Like I'm being hollowed out."
She pulled her blanket around her shoulders and hugged herself, tucking her knees in. Her breath slowed.
Another number. Another sign. Another weight on her already breaking back.
Eyes shut, she whispered into the dark, "Please... just let me rest," and drifted off once more—into the silence that always followed the numbers.
It was now the morning of September 11th.
Anika sat cross-legged on the living room floor, her laptop open, graphs glowing across the screen. Her eyes narrowed. 8:40 a.m. A sharp dip in the magnetic chart. 8:46 a.m. a text from her coworker. TURN ON THE TV. NOW!!!
She grabbed the remote. Clicked.
And there it was. The impossible. The world frozen in time.Two planes. Twin Towers. New York. Her heart sank into a pit of static. She ran to her laptop to check the data. The chart showed a massive dip in the signature fluctuation she'd been tracking all year.
Staring at the screen, her thoughts spinning, Anika ran her fingers through her locks, and paused. She noticed The white strand had grown longer and was now accompanied by two more white strands.
She couldn't carry this weight alone anymore.
Sliding to the floor, she pulled two clear quartz crystals from her altar and held one in each palm. Closing her eyes, she whispered:
"Spirit guide... if you can hear me, please. I need answers." Deep breaths. One heartbeat. Then another, and then, energy. Heavy and warm. A soft pulse entered in the room. The world around her dimmed, and suddenly... she was there again. The ethereal realm.
A radiant figure stepped forward, it was her, but not quite. Her higher self, glowing with quiet power.
"So... you finally got curious enough to return," her higher self said, gently smiling.
Anika nodded, her voice trembling.
"Yes. I need to understand what's happening. My heart... it's heavy. So much going on in the world, my hair is changing colors. I'm afraid."
"Fear not! You've seen my message. 444. You are divinely guided and protected dear."
But I feel so alone..and I'm confused!
Her higher self extended her palms.
"Ask, and you shall see. Seek, and you shall find."
Anika placed her hands atop hers and took a deep breath.
"What is the truth behind these magnetic field spikes during the full moons at 3:00 a.m. every month. What is this phenomenon?"
"Close your eyes," she said, "See with mine."
The golden realm shimmered once more, then shifted. The glowing figure of her higher self turned and lifted a hand. Above them, the sky peeled back like paper, and the stars rearranged themselves into a rotating zodiac wheel.
Twelve radiant lights flared, each one pulsing with the same magnetic rhythm and pattern she'd been tracking for months.
Anika's eyes widened as she watched the chart play out in front of her like a living constellation.
"Wait," she gasped. "Those are the energy spikes I've been seeing in the data—"
"Yes," her higher self nodded. "They mark the birth of one of the chosen." There will be twelve chosen starseeds. Each encoded with a rare cosmic genetic mutation known as The Z Gene. A gift of divine power, hidden in human form. When the Earth realigned at the blackout earlier this year, the birthing cycle began."
"Those readings every full moon at 3:00 a.m are not just random spikes in the magnetic field." Her higher self said softly. "They are cosmic timestamps... signs of arrival. You've already recorded nine. Three more are to come."
The vision swirled around Anika. She saw flashes of twelve children, each of them of different, ethnicities, locations, and lineages. Born under the full moon's gaze at the sacred hour. Each radiated a different light. A different power.
Anika's hands trembled. "And what is my role in this?"
Her higher self stepped closer..
"You are their guide. The Guardian. Only you can help them remember who they truly are... and what they're meant to do."
A silence passed between them. Then her higher self reached out, gently brushing her temple.
"When the final Starseed is born, your mission begins in full. But beware..." her tone darkened, "
"You won't be the only one on a mission to find the Chosen. You and the work you've been doing has been heavily monitored closely by your colleagues and higher up enemies. Be weary of your next moves. Stay diligent and keep this information confidential. Remember you are divinely guided and protected"
A final surge of energy pulsed through her chest.
And just like that, she was gone.
Anika jolted awake, gasping for air.
Her eyes flew open, her body drenched in sweat. The crystals in her palms were glowing faintly, the amethyst around her neck still warm.
She stumbled over to her laptop. The data was still tracking.. Nine spikes logged over the last nine months, and according to my vision nine souls have already been born.
Her fingers hovered above the keyboard, realization washing over her like a crashing tide.
"I'm not crazy," she whispered. "Shit... It's real. All of it. I've been chosen... to guide the Chosen."
...It had been five days since the vision.
And five whole days of endless news coverage. Horrors, rescue efforts, clean-up footage. New York had become a wound playing on repeat across every screen in the country.
Rain tapped gently against the window of the lab. The soft pattering was the only thing grounding her.
"Hey, Pitman," one of the doctors called from down the hall, pulling on a raincoat. "We're heading out for lunch, you coming?"
Anika didn't look up from the charts in front of her. "Nah, I'm good. Thanks though."
Her phone vibrated.
Cory.
She stared at the screen for a second too long before answering.
"So," she said flatly, "another extension, huh?"
There was a pause in his voice. "No... I'll be home in the morning."
She leaned back in her chair, eyes tired, staring at the monitors blinking in front of her.
"Can't to finally see you! I've missed you" she said, emotion barely contained.
"Yeah. Me too" Cory said in an empty tone.
He didn't ask how she was. Didn't say he missed her. Just those three words. Hollow as the line between them.
Anika felt an unsettling pull in her stomach after ending the call. Saddened by the lack of emotion she received from her husband after months of barely communicating with each other.
That night, Anika didn't sleep. She laid in bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, counting the seconds between thunderclaps outside. Something in her spirit warned her, Cory may be returning home... but he wasn't returning the same.
The following morning, Cory finally arrived.
"Good morning," Anika said, her voice soft but distant.
"Morning," he replied plainly, dropping his bag by the door. "I see you've kept the place together."
She gave a tight smile. "Yeah... I've been thinking about moving."
"Moving?" Cory frowned. "Why? What's wrong with here? We've been here six years."
"Exactly," she said. "And most of the time, you're not even here."
Cory narrowed his eyes. "So?"
"So you wouldn't understand," Anika snapped. "You're barely present."
"What's with you?" he asked, a defensive edge in his tone.
"What do you mean what's with me?" she snapped again, stepping closer. "It's been months since I've seen you. Your calls got fewer, shorter... I felt—"
"You know how work is," Cory cut in. "Don't pull that shit on me. I just want to come home and relax. I've been a very busy man."
"And I haven't?" she fired back. "All you do is follow orders. I've been tracking data that could change the damn world"
"Oh come on," Cory muttered. "You stare at charts and overthink. That's not exactly global intel."
Anika stared at him, stunned. His words cut deeper than he knew.
Silence fell between them like a slammed door.
She exhaled slowly, walked to the drawer, and pulled it open. Her wedding ring came off like a weight being released. She placed it on the table beside the divorce papers.
"You know..." she whispered, "I thought I was being dramatic. But now I see it clearly."
"Anika, wha—"
"Don't," she snapped.
She grabbed her coat. "I'll be out by the weekend."
Without another word, she walked out the door, leaving him standing there, silent and empty.
Two months passed.
The silence between them had turned to ash. And Anika? She had noticed two more energy spikes in the data. Two more Chosen had been born.
Which meant there was only one left.
She felt it rising in her chest, that tight, anxious pressure. The feeling of something looming.
"I need to go on a retreat," she finally told herself one night, the crystals on her altar faintly glowing.
She filed for vacation time and took a week off. No laptop. No charts. No lab. Just her, her journals, her crystals, and silence. A sacred pause before the next chapter of her life would begin.
She didn't know where this path would lead... but she knew it was hers now, and she wasn't turning back...
After separating from Cory, Anika began to notice she was being followed. The warning she'd received in that vision from her higher self all those years ago now echoed louder than ever. It was clear she was being monitored. Threatened, even. Her former bosses and colleagues demanded she report any and all new findings, especially those connected to the incident they all called "The Blackout."
All the days and weeks all began to blend together. Anika was exhausted, fighting with Cory in court in regard to their divorce was draining, and the pressure of her job was overwhelming.
That night, as Anika meditated beneath the stars, a jolt of energy pulsed through the Earth. 3:00 a.m. A new spike. The final one.
The 12th has arrived...
Two years had passed since that fateful day. With quiet conviction, Anika finalized her divorce and made the difficult but necessary decision to resign from her role as a Military Scientist. The settlement from her divorce provided her with a financial cushion, and without drawing attention, she left New York behind retreating to a remote sanctuary deep in the Tennessee mountains.