The peaceful dawn over Tai Po shattered in an instant.
At 5:12 a.m., a violent blast ripped through Wang Fuk Court, hurling fire through the windows like a beast unleashed. Within seconds, flames roared up the tower’s spine, swallowing homes, dreams, and memories faster than families could fully wake. Smoke billowed through hallways, thick enough to blind, toxic enough to choke. Mothers clutched toddlers to their chests. Elderly residents stumbled through darkness, coughing, screaming, praying the next step would lead them toward life instead of into the inferno behind them.
The courtyard below filled with chaos—sirens, cries for help, frantic calls to loved ones who weren’t answering. Firefighters charged into the building with only seconds of visibility and no guarantee of safe return. They battled collapsing ceilings, burning doorframes, and stairwells so hot their boots softened. And yet, room by room, they pulled survivors from the smoke: a trembling boy wrapped in a blanket, a couple who had passed out by the elevator, an elderly man barely conscious but still breathing.
But as the team reached the final corridor on the 23rd floor, everything changed.
The blaze had burned strangely there—too controlled, too deliberate. A door was charred in perfect symmetry, unlike the others melted out of shape. The lead firefighter pressed forward, pushing through a haze that felt unnaturally still.
Then they saw it.
Inside the ruins of what had been a small apartment, the fire had spared one thing: a wall covered in symbols scorched into the plaster, blackened but untouched by collapsing debris. Beneath it lay a metal box—melted on the outside, but unnervingly intact at its core. And beside it, arranged with impossible precision, were three burned candles standing upright in the ash.
Every firefighter froze.
This wasn’t an accident.
The room didn’t match the chaotic destruction of the rest of the building. It looked prepared—almost staged—like someone had wanted the flames to hide something… or deliver a message.
One firefighter, a veteran of twenty years, whispered the only words that made sense:
“Someone planned this.”
With the blaze still roaring outside, the team realized the terrifying truth: they weren’t just fighting a fire—they were walking into the beginning of something far darker.
And whatever started in that small Tai Po apartment was only the first spark.
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