Chapter 2
Eren Vale sat hunched on the edge of the cracked steps until the first hints of dawn smeared the sky in pale gray.
He hadn't moved in hours. Couldn't.
The shard was still in his hand, glowing faintly like a dying ember.
It wasn't hot. It wasn't cold. It just… was.
He turned it over, watching the light bend unnaturally along its jagged edges.
It didn't reflect the world around him.
It reflected something else—a place of sand and shadows, a broken sky.
The Eclipse.
That's what the voice had called it.
The word throbbed in his skull, echoing long after he thought it should have faded.
He tried to convince himself it had been a nightmare, some trick of exhaustion and hunger.
But the shard in his hand refused to let the lie take root.
Nightmares didn't leave souvenirs.
A car sped by at the far end of the street, its engine backfiring like gunshots.
The sound snapped Eren out of his daze. His body ached, his stomach twisted with hunger, and yet, beneath it all, there was a new undercurrent in his veins. A restless energy.
Whatever that fragment of light had done to him—it hadn't left him the same.
He clenched the shard tighter.
What now?
He couldn't exactly walk into a police station and say, Hey, I fought shadows in another world last night and brought back a magic rock. They'd laugh at him, or lock him in a ward, or worse.
People like him didn't go to the cops anyway.
He needed answers. But where the hell did you even start with something like this?
The only thing he knew for certain was that the world outside looked the same, but it wasn't. Not anymore.
The morning moved slowly. The city came alive with the sound of traffic, vendors shouting, people arguing in the distance. Life went on as if nothing had changed. Eren walked the streets with his hood up, keeping the shard hidden in his pocket.
His eyes darted everywhere. The corners of buildings, the shadows between parked cars, the faces of people passing by.
Nothing looked unusual. And that unsettled him more than if the world had been obviously broken.
He ducked into a convenience store and spent his last coins on a stale bread roll and a bottle of water. The cashier barely looked at him. That was good. Eren didn't want attention.
He sat outside on a bench, tearing the bread into small pieces. Each bite tasted like cardboard, but it eased the ache in his stomach.
As he chewed, he noticed a girl across the street. She was around his age, maybe a little older, with a backpack slung over one shoulder. She looked exhausted, her eyes ringed with dark circles. She leaned against a lamppost, rubbing her temples like she was fighting off a migraine.
Then she froze.
Her eyes widened, scanning the street as if she'd just seen something move in the corner of her vision. She clutched the strap of her backpack and staggered forward, almost tripping.
Eren's heart skipped.
He knew that look.
It was the same way he must've looked when the shadows had first risen in front of him.
The girl steadied herself and walked on quickly, disappearing into the crowd.
Eren stared after her, his mind racing.
He wasn't the only one.
Back at the tenement, he locked himself in the small room he called home. A mattress on the floor, a cracked window, a few scavenged books and clothes. That was it. His kingdom.
He pulled the shard from his pocket and set it on the floor. Its faint glow filled the room with an otherworldly haze.
"What are you?" he whispered.
The shard pulsed once, faintly, as if in response.
Eren jerked back. His pulse quickened, but curiosity anchored him in place. He reached out, fingertips brushing the surface.
A jolt shot through him, and for an instant, he wasn't in the room anymore.
He was back on the black sand.
Shadows shifted at the edges of his vision, distant, watching. The fractured sky bled crimson light. And then, just as suddenly, he was back in the room, gasping for air.
The shard lay still on the floor, its glow fading again.
Eren wiped sweat from his brow. His hands shook.
It wasn't just a weapon. It was a key.
A key to that place.
That night, he didn't want to sleep. He paced the room for hours, the shard on the table catching the moonlight through the cracked window. His mind chased itself in circles.
If he slept… would he go back? Would the shadows be waiting?
But exhaustion won eventually, as it always did. He drifted, the world slipping away.
Darkness swallowed him.
The black sand crunched beneath his feet.
Eren cursed under his breath. He was back.
But this time, he wasn't alone.
He saw her—the girl from the street. She stood a few meters away, barefoot like him, clutching a shard of her own. Her eyes darted around wildly until they landed on him.
For a moment, they just stared at each other, the silence thick between them.
"Y-you…" she stammered. Her voice was thin, shaking. "You can see this too?"
Eren swallowed hard. His mouth was dry.
"Yeah," he said finally. "Welcome to the Eclipse."
T O. B E. C O N T I N U E D...