(POV – Emily Parker)
As she walked down the hallway, Emily couldn't shake a strange sensation that seemed to seep into every fiber of her body. The silence there wasn't just the usual quiet of shift change; it was heavier, almost tangible, as if the air itself had been instructed to stay still, suspended, waiting for something she couldn't identify.
Each of her steps echoed faintly against the flawlessly clean walls, yet it seemed absorbed by a stubborn quiet. She moved slowly, eyes scanning every detail—the doors lined up with almost surgical precision, the framed pictures on the walls seemingly watching her back, the cold sheen of the floor reflecting her image with minimal distortion.
The more she looked, the stronger the feeling that something was off became, a subtle unease brushing against her skin like a whisper she couldn't decipher. With her face marked by nearly tangible confusion, Emily stopped in front of a cold, imposing metal door.
A soft click echoed as the door opened, and she stepped inside hesitantly. The observation room was silent, save for the rhythmic tapping of keyboards. Three researchers typed, their fingers dancing over the keys with near-mechanical precision.
Every movement followed a uniform rhythm, all hands pausing exactly two seconds before continuing, as if following an invisible metronome. The air carried a faint ozone smell, and the fluorescent white light reflected off metal surfaces, accentuating the almost clinical, detached atmosphere.
She stood at the doorway, watching closely. Emily honestly couldn't explain why the scene felt so strange. Something inside her insisted that everything was fine, that there was no reason for concern.
Still, a deeper, older intuition whispered that something wasn't right. Could it be coincidence... three different people, not even exchanging glances, all keeping exactly the same rhythm? The idea seemed impossible.
"Director General? Need something?" one of them asked, without lifting his eyes from the monitor. His fingers kept gliding over the keyboard with mechanical precision. The tone was neutral, uniform.
Emily froze, her eyes fixed on the scene. The longer she watched, the stranger the discomfort grew, a sense that something was out of place, though she couldn't pinpoint what.
Her normally restless thoughts slowly quieted, as if the environment were absorbing her attention. Finally, taking a deep breath to compose herself, Emily answered softly, hesitantly: "No... nothing."
On one of the screens, she saw a document being filled out at an almost hypnotic speed. No mistakes, no backspaces, no hesitation revealing doubt. Each sentence unfolded with surgical precision, as if copied from some invisible source, a silent font no one there seemed to notice.
The cold monitor light reflected in her eyes, amplifying the feeling that everything there was too orderly, too meticulous. Stepping back, she tried to ignore the growing weight in her chest, but the sense of unease wouldn't leave her.
Every detail, every gesture seemed artificially perfect—not just carefully arranged, but impossibly human. And the more she tried to rationalize it, the more the perfection unnerved her, echoing in her mind as something that could never belong to the real world.
After that, Emily resumed her walk through the cold, silent corridors of the facility. Her footsteps seemed to echo endlessly, bouncing off metallic walls. Seconds passed until, suddenly, she noticed something unsettling: the guards, standing at attention with weapons in hand, looked strangely different.
Each maintained flawless posture, as if following an invisible choreography. Heads tilted at exactly the same angle, arms rigid, weapons aligned with near-obsessive precision, reflecting a discipline bordering on perfection.
"Director General!" they called in unison, each voice carrying the same intensity, at the exact same moment, as if they were a single entity speaking.
The alien sight made Emily flinch for a moment before her mind struggled to regain composure. Yet the longer she observed, the deeper the sense that something was profoundly wrong crept into her thoughts.
From her perspective, everything around her seemed absurdly artificial, as if every detail had been meticulously crafted to achieve an almost irritating perfection—too perfect to be real, too perfect to be natural.
***
(POV – Protagonist)
Things in the facility returned to normal, resuming the previous routine. The containment cell that last held the anomaly I had absorbed—one that could have destroyed the entire Earth—seemed to be occupied again, this time by another anomaly.
According to Laura, this new presence wasn't nearly as dangerous as the previous one. Of course, she meant specifically in terms of the risk of human extinction. That didn't necessarily mean the new anomaly couldn't cause extreme damage; only that if it attempted something of the same magnitude, it would probably face far more challenges.
Well, putting that aside, my days had become relatively quiet. Yet there was one thing I couldn't shake from my mind: the sensation I felt days ago. It clung to me like an insistent shadow, a memory that seemed just within reach but refused to fully reveal itself.
Since then, I've been lost in attempts to recall where I had felt something similar. It was like being on the tip of my tongue, pulsing there, close enough to torture me with its elusiveness, yet far enough away to frustrate me. Even when I asked Nekra, Althea, or Nyrara, their answers were always insufficient, though each offered a slightly different perspective.
Nekra, for example, when I pressed her about that feeling that clearly had affected her too, said nothing. She just furrowed her brow and looked away, as if speaking might break something inside her. Then, with a mix of irritation and barely contained shyness, she muttered, almost grumbling: "Don't... mind her... sister..."
I'm not entirely sure what her words truly meant, but the simple "Her" sparked a curiosity I couldn't ignore. Nekra, in a way, confirmed it wasn't just a fleeting feeling—it was a being, someone concrete, who had provoked this reaction in me.
Even though I can't identify exactly who is responsible, the sense that something or someone manipulated my emotions is undeniable. In any case, when I questioned Althea and Nyara, their answers were clear, though each carried its own mystery.
I vividly remember Althea's playful expression as she spoke, her eyes twinkling with a mix of confidence and mischief: "Hehe, don't worry, dear sister" she said, tilting her head slightly and giving a fully confident smile: "I'm sure you can handle it—after all, nothing in this creation could defeat you!" Her words carried an almost palpable certainty, as if each syllable was imbued with pure conviction.
Putting aside why Althea turned the situation into a potential future battle, I honestly didn't know what to say to her; much of what she said simply didn't make sense to me.
Nyara... well, with her I really don't know how to react. Unlike Althea, who seemed to enjoy the absurdity of it all, Nyara shrank slightly when the feeling was mentioned, as if trying to shield herself from something invisible.
Her eyes wandered, and she only let out a few disconnected words, almost a whisper: "The two of us... never got along... we have completely opposing authorities and existences"
In short, Nyara seemed visibly uncomfortable discussing it, at least from my perspective. I honestly didn't want to force her to talk about something that clearly bothered her, so I decided to postpone the conversation. Anyway, it didn't seem like I'd get any useful information from them at that moment.
***
(POV – ???)
Atop a massive building overlooking the entire city, she remained motionless, as if part of the structure itself. The morning was foggy, and a subtle chill hung in the air, wrapping the metropolis in a gray veil that softened the edges of buildings, streets, and even the distant movement of cars.
The lights still shining through the mist flickered timidly, creating small points of brightness that shimmered in the haze. Even so, she felt no cold; her skin seemed impervious to the chilled air.
Her breath escaped in small puffs of vapor, floating in front of her lips and slowly dissolving into the mist, as if the world itself had learned to obey her silent presence.
The wind gently brushed strands of her hair but couldn't disturb the absolute serenity of her body, fixed and unshakable, as if time itself had slowed just to behold her.
The view from above wasn't merely panoramic; it was deeply analytical. Every street, every building, every line meticulously drawn by urban planning was etched in her mind as a perfect pattern, a symmetry only she could perceive in its entirety.
To others, the city might appear blurry, a confused mass of concrete and glass, even under the clear sunlight. But to her, there was always an invisible cadence, a silent music guiding the flow of avenues and the placement of towers.
Even the traffic seemed to dance according to a secret logic, and the faint reflections on the building facades resonated like subtle signals of urban harmony, bending under her gaze as if the entire city breathed under her watchful eyes.
Her eyes scanned every detail with almost supernatural precision. People went about their routines, oblivious to the world unnoticed around them, while cars glided along streets in a calculated flow, as if following an invisible score.
The city's life unfolded before her in a silent choreography of minimal gestures, hurried glances, and rhythmic steps. No sound escaped her perception: the distant clink of a bicycle, the whisper of wind between buildings, the constant hum of electricity in the wires. Nothing existed beyond her reach; everything was captured, recorded, understood.
The pride she carried wasn't mere veneer; it was absolute, unshakable, rooted in every fiber of her existence. Everything her eyes took in, everything her mind reached, reinforced an unbroken certainty: the world's order, as she perceived it, was perfect and unquestionable.
The streets, the buildings, the beings crossing her path, even the unnoticed gestures of others, all seemed to move to a silent rhythm only she could hear.
Every detail—the light reflecting off metallic surfaces, the whisper of wind in the city corners, the constant flow of lives passing unnoticed—confirmed her conviction that everything was exactly where it belonged.
And in this bright, sunlit world, her confidence had no cracks; nothing and no one could challenge what she knew to be absolute order.
She fixed her gaze on the foggy horizon, where the sun struggled to pierce the mist with a pale, diffuse light. Its timid rays kissed the glass of buildings, turning every surface into a delicate mosaic of cool, light tones, as if the city were wrapped in a luminous silence. A slight smile curved her lips, nearly imperceptible.
The fog lingered, enveloping the building like an ethereal veil, doubling and blurring her silhouette on reflective surfaces, turning glass and metal into rippling mirrors. Motionless, proud, vigilant, she remained atop, eyes fixed on the city below, a living board of patterns and routines.
Every street, every shadow, every flicker of light was absorbed by her relentless attention, recorded with the precision of an invisible metronome. The world pulsed in a silent symphony, and she effortlessly deciphered every note, every pause, every hidden refrain unnoticed by anyone else. Small details didn't escape her gaze.
It was the perfect day. The diffuse sunlight spread gently across the streets, reflecting off the city's glass and metal below, perfect under her absolute gaze. Nothing moved without her permission, though the city's life pulsed like a silent, precise gear.
She was in no hurry. She didn't need to be. Everything was exactly as it should be. Every detail, every shadow, every sparkling reflection seemed to obey her silent will.
Amid the silence enveloping everything, the entity shifted her gaze with almost instinctive precision, focusing on a distant point, as if seeing something only she could perceive.
A calm, serene, delicate smile appeared on her lips, carrying a quiet, almost tangible confidence. Her voice, low and firm, cut through the air naturally: "I found you, Zentharys"