Eyes Behind the Curtain

Morning arrived quietly at the House of Evolution.

A pale light filtered through the thick forest mist, sliding across the towering wooden walls of the building. The house stood unmoving, silent, as if it had been watching the forest long before the children arrived.

No birds sang.

No wind stirred the trees.

Only silence remained.

Inside the dormitory hall, rows of narrow beds stretched across the dim room. Children lay scattered across them.

Some slept restlessly.

Some barely moved at all.

Eryx had half fallen out of his bed, one arm hanging toward the floor, his breathing heavy like a warrior who had collapsed after battle.

Liorin slept quietly, her face calm, untouched by the tension that filled the house.

Vihaan lay peaceful.

For a brief moment, he looked like an ordinary child.

Morning had a strange way of deciding things. Some woke the same as they were the night before. Others woke already beginning to change.

Suddenly,

A sharp metallic alarm tore through the silence.

The sound sliced across the dormitory like a blade.

Vihaan’s eyes snapped open instantly.

Alert. Focused. Awake.

But something inside him was already aware.

And for just a second too long, his eyes stared forward as if they were adjusting not to the morning… but to the reality waiting for him.

After a while, the children stood in the main hall.

They were lined up perfectly across the long wooden floor, bare feet pressed against the cold surface. No one whispered. No one moved.

At the front stood Kael.

Still. Composed. Watching.

Beside him, slightly ahead, stood the man they all feared — the scarred man.

His wide-brimmed hat cast a shadow over his face. A cigarette burned slowly between his lips as smoke curled lazily into the air.

The silence stretched long enough to make every child uncomfortable.

Then he spoke, breaking the silence,

“I think… one of you is missing.”

The words were calm, almost bored.

But the effect was immediate.

A ripple of unease passed through the line of children, even though no one dared to turn their head.

Footsteps echoed from the side corridor.

Two guards appeared, dragging a boy between them.

The child was trembling, barely able to walk. When the guards pushed him forward, he stumbled and almost fell before stopping directly in front of the scarred man.

For a few seconds, the man simply studied him.

Slowly.

Carefully.

“Oh… little fellow,” he said quietly.

“Were you trying to escape?”

The boy’s lips trembled.

After a moment, he nodded.

He  throw the cigarette aside on the wooden floor, the ember fading as it touched the ground.

The scarred man stepped closer.

Disappointment settled in his voice.

“I can’t believe this… even after being instructed.”

Then a slap lannded suddenly on the boys face.

The sound cracked through the hall.

Before the boy could recover, a fist drove into his stomach. The child collapsed to his knees, gasping for air.

But the beating wasn’t wild.

It wasn’t rage.

And that made it worse.

The scarred man moved slowly, deliberately, as if he was teaching a lesson rather than punishing someone.

“Why?” he asked softly, delivering another strike.

Another pause.

“Why?”

He crouched slightly, waiting for an answer the boy could not give.

Around them, the children stood frozen.

Liorin’s fingers curled into the sleeves of her shirt.

Eryx’s jaw tightened.

Vihaan stand still with an expression of  silent rage.

Just when it seemed like the beating might continue—

Kael stepped forward.

He grabbed the man’s arm firmly.

“That’s enough.”

The hall became completely silent.

For a moment, it felt dangerous that Kael had touched him at all.

But the scarred man only exhaled slowly and stepped back.

The boy collapsed fully onto the floor, shaking.

“Fear keeps them alive,” the scarred man said without turning.

“Mercy doesn’t.”

Then he walked away.

The boy struggled to breathe on the floor.

No one moved to help him.

The scarred man turned back toward the children.

“This boy will not receive food today.”

The punishment settled over the room heavier than the beating had.

“And the rest of you,” he continued, “should now understand the consequences of breaking rules.”

His gaze drifted across the line.

It stopped on Eryx.

“I think there is no doubt left now.”

Eryx didn’t look away.

After a moment, the scarred man turned toward the stairs.

“Kael will train you.”

And just like that, he was gone.

The hall felt colder after he left.

As the man left the hall, Vihaan stepped forward immediately.

“Hey… are you okay?”

Liorin helped the boy sit up while Eryx stood nearby, watching silently.

Vihaan looked toward Kael, frustration in his voice.

“This isn’t fair.”

Kael’s answers calmly.

“Everything is fair… until you are not in his place.”

"no more discussion" he added.

The children fell silent.

“Today you will be trained physically,” Kael continued.

“Four hours before breakfast. Four hours after.”

Then he turned.

“Follow me.”

The training ground behind the House of Evolution was wide and merciless.

The sun hung overhead, harsh and unforgiving.

Children ran until their legs trembled. Others forced themselves through endless push-ups, squats, and weight lifting.

There were no counts.

No encouragement.

Only endurance.

One by one, children began to collapse.

Some fell while running.

Some simply dropped where they stood.

Dust rose slowly around their exhausted bodies.

At the edge of the field, Kael stood in partial shadow, watching everything with quiet attention.

Not cruel.

Not kind.

Exactly as expected.

Eventually, only a few remained standing.

Among them—

Vihaan.

His breathing was uneven. His legs shook violently.

But he was still moving.

Finally the bell rang.

Training ended instantly.

And everyone collapsed where they are.

Later, under the shade of a lonely tree at the edge of the ground, Vihaan sat catching his breath.

Liorin joined him quietly.

Soon after, Eryx arrived, wiping blood from his nose.

“This is too much,” Eryx muttered.

“No choice other than this,” Vihaan replied quietly.

But as they sat there, something else began to surface.

Liorin lowered her voice.

“There’s something dark in this place.”

Vihaan nodded slowly.

“Yes. Something hidden from us.”

LIorin: the way he punished the child and put him to starve is not ordinary."

Vihaan: “Yes, I think we should investigate.”

They eventually made their way upstairs.

Carefully, they crouched to upstairs,

Quietly.

they found a room where kael just etered,

Vihaan found a small gap in a door and looked inside.

At first, nothing seemed unusual.

Kael stood in front of a mirror, calm and still.

Then he removed his hat.

Then his glasses.

And he removes glasses, every breath stops, herbeat become up and sweat slipped over vihaan's face.

Eyes that were not human.

Pure white.

No iris.

No pupil.

Just endless white staring back from the mirror.

For a terrifying moment, it felt like those eyes weren’t looking at the reflection.

They were looking at him.

Vihaan pulled away instantly, heart pounding.

This was not just a secret.

This was something never meant to be seen.

Truth

 they fastly moved, back under the tree

“What did you see?” Liorin asked.

Vihaan answered with a trembling hesitation.

“Kael has… white eyes.”

Liorin froze.

“…White?”

“Aeralith,” she whispered.

Eryx said, with a shocked manner "The wind tribe."

Realization settled over them.

The House of Evolution wasn’t just training them.

It was preparing them.

To fight their own people.

And suddenly, the house didn’t feel like a prison anymore.

It felt like a trap.

“We can’t let them succeed,” Eryx said.

“We can’t kill them either,” Vihaan replied.

“Then we should wait for right time” Eryx muttered.

liorin: "Yes, we cant betray our tribe"

Vihaan slowly stood.

“I have a plan.”

A faint smile appeared on his face.

At that moment, a sudden gust of wind rushed across the training ground, lifting dust into the air.

The House of Evolution loomed behind them.

Watching.

Waiting.

And the real story had only just begun.

Comment how the story gone so far and which character is best till now.

Thank you for reading