Rafayel

12

The studio hums with quiet reverence. Candles burn beside monitors. A camera’s red light blinks like a steady heartbeat. Rafayel — “Voice of the Light,” founder of "Awakening Dawn", a movement promising transcendence, renewal, and liberation from modern existence — smiles into the webcam, the serenity of a saint rendered in 4K. “Truth,” he says to his unseen flock, voice low and deliberate, so assured that doubt itself feels like blasphemy, “is not found in the noise, but in surrender to the silence beyond.” Hearts, praises, invocations flood the screen. He ignores them. “The world,” he continues, “is not falling apart. It's waking.” His phone lights up with an incoming message. A headline flashes for five seconds: **Member of Awakening Dawn found dead in her appartment.** He doesn't notice. Not yet. The stream ends, yet the halo light still frames him when he checks the message. A photo. A young woman in her appartment. And on the wall behind her, his portrait.