Two years passed quietly — or at least, it seemed that way from the outside.

  The city carried on its endless rhythm: cars, lights, laughter spilling from cafes, the chatter of students walking home from school. And in a modest house on the west side, Denis still woke each morning to the sound of clattering dishes, Luna’s soft humming, and Sabrina’s endless teasing about who took longer in the bathroom.

  It was, on the surface, a normal life.

  But beneath the laughter and the daily routine, something had begun to shift.

  Sabrina and Luna had grown. Sixteen and fourteen now, they no longer had the carefree energy of children. Their gazes lingered longer on the horizon. Their smiles, once spontaneous, were sometimes rehearsed — masks perfected over months of pretending.

  For the past two years, the System had kept them busy.

  Small assignments at first — mischief and minor sabotage, like graffiti over hero patrol checkpoints, shorting power to surveillance grids, or spreading misinformation across the digital channels of the city. Harmless tasks that could almost be seen as pranks.

  Then, gradually, the missions darkened.

  The targets became people.

  The rewards became higher.

  And the nightmares, longer.

  Melisandra’s influence had grown like a shadow over their lives. She appeared rarely, only when the System itself requested her evaluation, but her voice — that honeyed, venomous whisper — sometimes slipped into their dreams, shaping their thoughts, feeding their ambition.

  Yet somehow, the sisters still managed to smile when they came home.

  They laughed with Denis. They listened to his stories. They celebrated birthdays and watched old films together. Denis had no proof — only instinct — that the girls’ world was not as innocent as they made it seem.

  He told himself that he was imagining things. But deep down, he knew.

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  There were moments when Luna’s shadow seemed to linger too long on the wall after she walked away.

  Moments when Sabrina’s voice could quiet an entire room, making even the neighbor’s barking dog fall silent.

  He noticed. He always noticed.

  But he said nothing.

  That morning, the sunlight filtered weakly through the blinds, painting the kitchen in pale gold. Sabrina was leaning against the counter, scrolling through her device. Luna sat at the table, staring into her cereal as if lost in thought.

  “Something wrong?” Denis asked as he entered, tying his work jacket.

  Luna blinked and forced a smile. “No, just tired. We had a late night.”

  Sabrina smirked. “Homework. You know how teachers are.”

  Denis chuckled softly, though the lie was obvious. “Right. Homework.”

  The conversation drifted on, normal as ever. But when he turned to leave for work, he caught a flicker of light from under the table — a quick pulse from one of their devices. Red. Urgent.

  He froze at the door.

  “Did your… school send another message?”

  Sabrina quickly hid the screen. “Uh, yeah. Group project. Due next week.”

  He nodded, pretending to believe her. “Then I expect an A.”

  As the door closed behind him, the sisters exhaled in relief.

  Luna whispered, “That was close.”

  Sabrina nodded. “Too close.”

  They glanced down at the message glowing on their devices:

  Phase: Advanced Tier, Month 9

  Task: Infiltrate Hero Patrol Sector 7. Plant surveillance crystals. Report any movement.

  Warning: Interference or delay will result in memory strain and physical deterioration.

  The message faded after ten seconds, replaced by the familiar sigil of the System: a balanced scale, half white, half black — forever tipping, never still.

  Luna turned the device over in her hand. “When do you think it’ll stop?”

  Sabrina looked out the window, toward the horizon where the city ended and the wastelands began. “When the world finally breaks.”

  That evening, Denis sat alone in the living room, sipping tea that had gone cold hours ago. The house was quiet — too quiet. He looked at the framed photo of the three of them on the wall: himself in the middle, the girls hugging him from each side, all of them laughing.

  He smiled faintly — then sighed.

  “The end of the good days,” he murmured to himself, not knowing why those words had come to mind.

  Outside, thunder rumbled over the city.

  And in the distance, two silhouettes stood under the neon glow of the patrol towers — Sabrina and Luna, faces hidden, eyes sharp — stepping further into the dark.

  The days of pretending were almost over.