Chapter One: The Spider at 5:17 A.M.

When the police arrived, witnesses filmed only a soot-blackened stranger handing the boy to paramedics before vanishing into the morning fog. Back home, Lu Chen found his shoulder already sealed with new skin. In darkness, he tossed a coin and knew precisely which finger it would touch before it landed. Another photograph waited on the desk. The silver markings on the spider's abdomen formed words: FIRST TIME. DON'T CELEBRATE YET. On the back, someone had written in handwriting identical to his: “Every person you save brings you one step closer to me.”