The City That Sleeps Only Once a Century

Chapter One — The Moment the World Went Quiet

The first thing I noticed was the silence.

Not the usual kind — not the soft hush of midnight traffic or the distant hum of late-night neon.

This was total silence.

The kind that presses against your skull.

The kind that feels wrong.

I stood on the rooftop of my building, breath frosting in the cold night air, staring down at the city that had — moments ago — been alive. The lights had flickered once. Then again. Then… they died. Every lamp, every storefront, every window.

And then the people.

They fell.

All at once.

Everywhere.

Millions of them.

I watched my neighbor, Mrs. Harrow, collapse in her doorway below — groceries spilling around her like fallen constellations. Cars drifted to slow, quiet halts. A train beneath the city screeched once and never finished the sound.

My hands shook.

“It actually happened,” I whispered.

The Hundred-Year Sleep — the thing our ancestors spoke of in half-believed myths — wasn’t a myth at all. It was real. The whole city had entered the Great Slumber.

Everyone… except me.

Chapter Two — The One Awake

I stayed frozen for a long minute, my breath sharp, my pulse ragged. The sky above was glowing — a strange alignment of planets forming a perfect, straight line like a cosmic crack.

A shimmer of light pulsed from it, descending toward the city like a slow exhale.

My skin tingled as it passed through me.

“Why am I still awake?” I said aloud, instantly regretting the sound of my own voice. It felt too loud in the dead stillness.

A quiet voice behind me replied:

“Because you weren’t supposed to be.”

I spun around.

A man — early thirties, dark coat, silver hair at the temples — stood on the rooftop access door. But his eyes… his eyes were glowing faint blue, the same shade as the mist crawling between the skyscrapers.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

“Someone who’s been awake before.”

Chapter Three — Rules of the Sleeping City

His name was Kael.

Or at least, that’s what he said.

He walked to the edge of the rooftop beside me and looked over the sleeping city with something like grief.

“This happens once every century,” he said. “A cleansing. A reset. But this time… something went wrong.”

I swallowed. “Why am I awake?”

“Because the city chose you.”

“That’s not an answer.”

He turned to me fully, the blue in his eyes brightening.

“It’s the only answer I can give without lying.”

I stepped back. My heart thudded painfully. Something about him wasn’t human. I didn’t need to ask to know it.

“Look,” he said softly, maybe sensing my fear. “Tonight, this city is not what it seems. And you’re in danger. We both are.”

“From what?”

He pointed downward.

Beneath the city streets, something rumbled.

Deep. Slow. Ancient.

My stomach flipped.

“From whatever is waking up beneath us,” he said.

Chapter Four — Beneath the Streets

We descended into the subway tunnels — the only place, Kael said, where “it” would first stir.

The deeper we went, the more wrong everything felt. The air vibrated with a low frequency. The lights flickered with ghostlike blue pulses.

And the sleeping people.

God.

The train was full of them — slumped in seats, lying on the floor, leaning against one another like mannequins dropped mid-motion.

I paused beside a child clutching a stuffed bear.

“They’re breathing,” I whispered. “They’re okay.”

“For now,” Kael said.

“For now?”

He didn’t respond.

We reached the maintenance door Kael insisted on opening. Beyond it lay a spiral stairwell that tasted of earth, dust, and something electric.

“What’s down there?” I asked.

“The reason the city sleeps,” he said. “The reason it survives.”

“And the reason I’m awake?”

This time, he hesitated.

Then: “Yes.”

Chapter Five — The Heart of the City

The underground chamber was impossibly large — cavernous, ancient, carved in shapes no modern tool could have made. At the center was a crystalline structure glowing the same blue as Kael’s eyes. It pulsed like a heartbeat.

“That is the Somnus Core,” Kael whispered. “It renews the city. Heals it. Protects it.”

“And you?”

“I am its guardian.”

I stared at him, stunned. “You’ve been alive for centuries?”

He didn’t deny it.

But before I could ask more, the ground trembled violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across the floor. A deep roar — muffled, monstrous — echoed from below the chamber.

“What is that?” I breathed.

“The Core … is dying,” Kael said. “And something else is replacing it.”

Suddenly, the blue light dimmed.

And a red glow seeped up from beneath the cracks.

Kael grabbed my wrist. “Run!”

Chapter Six — The Truth

We fled through the tunnels, but the red light followed, crawling like veins through the stone.

“What’s happening?” I screamed over the rising roar.

“The city didn’t choose you,” Kael shouted. “I did.”

I stumbled. “What?”

“You’re awake because you’re the only one who can stop this.”

“Why me?!”

He stopped suddenly, forcing me to face him. His eyes — glowing, frantic — locked onto mine.

“Because one hundred years ago, when the last Sleep happened… you were there.”

My breath vanished.

“That’s impossible.”

“No,” Kael whispered. “It’s buried in your memory. The Core touched you as a child. It marked you — hid the truth until it needed you.”

“I don’t remember.”

“You’re not supposed to. But you’ll remember when it matters.”

Before I could speak, the tunnel behind us exploded with red light. A towering shape emerged — something skeletal, stone-like, crawling with molten cracks.

Kael pushed me behind him.

“The Devourer,” he said. “A failed Core from a forgotten age.”

It screeched — a sound like metal tearing through bone.

“Kael, we have to run!”

“You have to run.” He met my eyes. “I’m buying you time.”

“No!”

“You’re the only one who can reach the Core. Go!”

Chapter Seven — Awakening

I ran.

Down the tunnels, up the spirals, back into the heart chamber — now shaking violently, the blue crystal fading fast.

My lungs burned. My legs shook. The city above trembled like it was breathing its last breath.

The Core flickered.

And suddenly—

A memory flashed.

Me, six years old. Blue light touching my forehead. Kael kneeling beside me.

“One day,” he had whispered, “you’ll wake when no one else does. And you’ll save them.”

I stepped forward, tears blurring my vision.

“I’m here,” I whispered. “Tell me what to do.”

The Core responded — its light reaching toward my chest, resonating with something inside me. Something old. Something waiting.

The chamber brightened.

My heart pounded.

And then—

A voice inside me spoke:

“Awaken the city.”

I placed my hand on the Core.

Chapter Eight — The Century Breath

Light exploded.

Blue light.

White light.

Light that felt like memory, warmth, pain, childhood, truth.

It surged through me — through the chamber — through the earth — through the streets.

I felt the Devourer freeze mid-roar.

I felt Kael’s presence — fading, but proud.

I felt the city inhale.

And then—

The world erupted in sound:

Car horns.

People shouting.

Doors slamming.

Birds screaming from the rooftops.

The city woke.

Millions gasping awake at once.

The light faded.

The Core hummed gently.

The chamber stilled.

And Kael…

Kael was gone.

But the last echo of his voice lingered:

“You were never alone.”

Final Chapter — The Last Awake

I climb the rooftop again before sunrise.

The city breathes — alive, unaware of the terror beneath their feet. Of the Devourer. Of the near collapse. Of me.

But the sky above holds the last trace of the celestial alignment — slowly fading like a closing eye.

I whisper to the empty air:

“This time, someone stayed awake.”

And the city — my city — exhales peacefully.

For now.

But I know the truth:

In a hundred years, it will sleep again.

And if the Core ever calls…

I will wake again too.

Because I am the city’s memory.

And it is mine.