I ran.
Not because I thought I could outrun it — but because my body moved before I could think. The city around me twisted, shadows dancing where light should've lived. I didn't know where I was going, only that every corner I turned felt more unfamiliar than the last.
My lungs burned. My chest ached.
I ducked into a narrow alley between two buildings. The concrete walls loomed like cliffs, and the air smelled like metal and dust — like the aftermath of something terrible.
I pressed my back against the wall, trying to calm my breathing. My heartbeat pounded like a drum inside my skull. I slid down slowly until I was crouched low, hands shaking.
It was almost silent.
Somewhere far off, I could still hear the distant groan of something massive — like two gods tearing each other apart. I peered through a crack in the alley and saw them.
Two titans.
One crawled low, its body hunched and jagged, dragging limbs made of smoke and bone. The other stood taller, more humanoid, but its spine curved unnaturally, like it couldn't remember how to stand like a man.
They fought like the world was their arena — buildings collapsed around them like toys, the air splitting with each blow. The sound wasn't just loud. It was deep. It vibrated in my ribs.
I didn't know how long I watched them. Minutes? Seconds?
Then something brushed against my leg.
I flinched—ready to bolt—but stopped.
"…Aelric?"
There he was again. My cat. Calm as ever. He looked up at me with those strange silver-glass eyes, the spiral symbol above his brow faintly glowing. His fur shimmered in the shadow like moonlight on water.
"What the hell are you?" I whispered, half to myself.
He didn't answer, obviously. Just turned and padded deeper into the alley, tail flicking once like a silent order. I followed.
We emerged into a back courtyard — abandoned, but quieter. Like the chaos hadn't reached this far yet. Broken vending machines leaned against a wall. A few benches, rusted over. I sat, finally, letting my body slump.
It was the first time I could breathe.
"I don't get it…" I muttered to Aelric. "Why are you here? Have I really gone crazy?"
He just curled up at my feet.
I rubbed my eyes. Maybe the world really did end, and I slept through the warning.
But then I heard something — soft footsteps, hesitant, coming from the other side of the yard. I stood quickly, heart climbing back into my throat.
A girl.
She looked sixteen at most — black hair in a messy ponytail, hoodie two sizes too big, and a glass share clutched in her trembling hands, they were bleeding, but it didn't seem like she could understand her own pain. Her eyes locked onto mine… and widened.
"Wait—I'm not—" I started.
But she backed away fast, panic twisting her face. "Don't come any closer!"
"I'm not one of those things," I said quickly, raising my hands. "I swear."
But her breath hitched. She was already on the edge. "Y-You're like them… I saw you—your eyes were glowing!"
"What? No, I—"
Before I could explain, the air shifted again.
Colder. Heavier.
From the shadowed alley behind her… something stepped out.
Thin and wrong - almost so human.
It stood like a man, but moved like a marionette — each step jerky, twitching, but precise. Its face was a mask of stretched skin, no eyes, no mouth. Just a slit across its neck, constantly opening and closing like a gill.
[Echo Dweller.]
The Voice rang through my ear, though I didn't know the name yet — my body already understood.
The girl turned, screamed her glass shard on the floor.
It lunged.
The sound… wasn't a roar. It was a chorus. Her voice echoed from the creature. Her scream repeated — warped, distorted — inside my mind.
[I saw her memories — fractured, fast, burning behind my eyes. A birthday cake. Rain. The sound of her mother calling her name. Her fear. Her pain.]
"No—!" I moved. I didn't think. But I wasn't fast enough.
The creature twisted its arm like a whip — bone and muscle snapping as it stabbed through her stomach.
But her voice kept speaking. "Please… help me… I don't want to die…"
Except she was already gone.
She gasped and her eyes wide open. Then… nothing.
The whispers didn't stop.
They poured into me now. Her voice. Her fear. Echoes that didn't belong to me but bled into my skull like they were my own.
I turned to run away as fast as I could.
But the thing was already there — faster than it should've been. It had sent a sort of heavy impact within the air - strucking back towards the wall of the alley. Pain tore through my side as I slammed into the wall, coughing blood.
I staggered backward, hand on the wall, every nerve alight. My stomach churned like it was rejecting the reality around me. And then I heard it. A voice that wasn't hers. Wasn't mine. My breath caught somewhere between my chest and throat as I stared at the girl — collapsed on the floor, unmoving. Her eyes were still wide, frozen in that final moment of terror. But what sent a deeper chill down my spine was that I could still hear her voice.
It wasn't coming from her lips. It echoed inside my head, clinging to the edges of my mind like something oily and alive.
It cut through the noise like broken glass.
[Kill it.]
It wasn't a suggestion.
My body tensed. I opened my eyes, heart hammering. The creature stood just feet away, its body warped, twitching. Limbs made of bone and shadow. Its head tilted in unnatural jerks, observing me like a broken puppet. Its surreal movements disgusted me. I could feel my organs twisting, like they were trying to flee my body.
But my hand twitched and my fingers wrapped around my palm, encompassing a fist. My fingers cracked under the pressure, adrenaline pumping like fire through my veins. But something told me—there was no escape, no surviving this. The weight of my hand felt wrong, it felt heavier and dead.
"I can't … I should just run…" I whispered, trembling.
Every instinct screamed for me to run. But something else in me moved instead. My pulse pounded through my skull as the creature took a single step closer.
"…I'm dead."
I inhaled sharply, exhaled slow. My vision narrowed. And then, without another thought…
I stepped forward.
[End of Chapter 2 - The Whisper (2)]