"Ethan. Where are my fish?"
The voice slid through the vision — honeyed, deadly. Ethan saw through the eyes of Ethan-prime, terror coursing through the veins of his future self.
"I... forgot, Mom." Future Ethan's voice wavered.
"Forgot?" The thing that wore his mother's face twitched. His smile glittered like a bad AI. "Oh Ethan...you're just a little lamb."
Frozen, Ethan watched it happen again—
Gnarled green hands grabbed Future Ethan's throat. Eyeballs popped out of their sockets on bloody tendons—
CRACK.
Darkness.
Back in the present, Ethan gasped.
Death condition: No fish until 11:30.
His future self had died because he'd been too scared to leave the house. Idiot. Now he had two options:
Hide (sure, but damn).
Call the police (taking a chance in a world full of these things).
A door slammed shut. "Off to work, honey!"
Ethan forced an answer and waited 30 agonizing minutes before slipping out.
9:32 AM. Two hours to go.
His eyes of doom would recharge at 10:02. The fish market was a 30-minute sprint there and back. One shot.
10:02 AM.
"Activate the eyes of the damned!"
His consciousness was torn away—
Vision #2: Police trap
Ethan from the future gasped into a phone, "My mom is a monster! Green fur, works at Huidong Textile—"
A deeper voice answered, "This is Chief Zhang. We'll send officers to your apartment."
Thank God. The watching Ethan relaxed — until the policemen arrived.
Their smiles matched Mother's. Plastic. Wrong.
"You reported a monster?" one asked, his lips growing even wider.
The future Ethan backed down. "Wrong place!"
Green fur sprouted on her cheeks.
"So just a lamb after all."