Night passed, but Kayden never truly fell asleep.
His friend lay on the floor, breathing softly, unaware of the invisible lines tightening around the city. The room was dark except for the faint silver glow of moonlight slipping through the window. Every few minutes, Kayden's eyes drifted toward the sky outside—expecting, fearing, anticipating something.
The world felt too still.
Like the pause before a storm touches land.
His mind replayed the system's final line:
Prepare yourself.
Those two words clung to him more heavily than any warning.
At 3:12 AM, the air shifted.
It wasn't sound.It wasn't light.It was something deeper—an instinctive tension rippling across his skin, as if reality held its breath again.
Kayden sat up slowly.
Stillness wrapped the room, heavy and dense.
Then—The temperature dropped.
A faint, unnatural cold.
Kayden's gaze snapped to the window.
Something was wrong with the sky.
The City Holds Its Breath
Outside, the clouds were stretched thin—too thin—like they had been pulled apart by invisible hands. A faint pulse of light shimmered across them, subtle enough that no one else would notice.
Kayden did.
A tightening sensation spread through his chest.
It's starting.
He stood quietly, careful not to wake his friend.
As he approached the window, the world outside seemed to dim—not darken, but lose color, as if drained by something just beyond perception.
A ripple crawled across the clouds—silent, slow, unnatural.
Kayden's breath caught.
And then—
bzzt—
A small flicker sparked in the corner of his vision.
Not the full system.Not the stable interface from earlier.
A warning.
Weak.Strained.Urgent.
APEX Alert: Anomaly FormingLocation: Within 0.9 MilesClassification: UnknownVisibility: Restricted
Kayden's pulse quickened.
"Already…?"
The system flickered again—A single line this time, spoken in a voice quieter than a whisper.
Commander… do not look directly at the breach's center.
Kayden exhaled shakily.
That advice alone told him enough.
This breach was different from the crack in the sky.More unstable.More dangerous.
More real.
His friend shifted in his sleep, mumbling something incoherent before rolling over. The innocence of that moment struck Kayden sharply.
The world he knew was splitting open…and everyone but him slept peacefully through it.
He stepped back from the window—but stopped when he saw something else.
Movement.Far away.Slow and heavy.
Streetlights flickered along a distant road, one by one, as if something passed beneath them.
Kayden's fingers curled against the cold windowsill.
"What is that…?"
Another ripple shuddered through the sky.
The system responded instantly—
Sensory Field Expanding…Commander Optic Filters Engaged.Observe Safely.
Kayden blinked.
Colors in the sky shifted—Not physically, but through the system's filtering.
A shape appeared within the clouds.
Not an object.Not a creature.
A distortion.
A trembling point where the sky bent inward, pulling itself into a spiraling fracture barely the size of a coin—but growing.
Slowly.Quietly.As if testing the world for weakness.
Kayden's breath trembled.
This was the first true sign of the anomalies the system warned him about.
A breach.
The start of whatever cosmic unraveling had chosen him as its unwilling witness.
The system flickered again—
Breach Stability: DecayingManifestation: In 3–7 MinutesNearest Commander: You
Kayden's throat tightened.
He wasn't a soldier.He wasn't trained.He had no weapons, no strength, no answers.
All he had was instinct.
And a system that expected him to act.
He whispered, "What am I supposed to do?"
There was a long pause—long enough to feel like the system itself was restraining something.
Then—
"Observe. Not intervene.This is a Level 0 breach.You must learn before you face one directly."
Kayden's breath eased slightly.
He wasn't expected to fight.Not yet.
But the system's next line froze him.
"However… something inside the breach has noticed you."
A chill ran up Kayden's spine.
He stepped back from the window.
The breach flickered—a faint pulse of light piercing the clouds like a heartbeat.
The distortion twisted.
Turned.
Aligned toward him.
Kayden's entire body went rigid.
His voice came out in a whisper.Barely audible.
"…It's looking at me."
The system responded with the faintest tremor in its tone—not fear, but a recognition of something ancient.
"Commander… step away from the window now."
Kayden did.
Slowly.
Quietly.
The room felt colder.The shadows felt longer.The silence felt… aware.
His friend continued sleeping on the floor, unaware of the breach hovering above the city—unaware of the invisible gaze that had found Kayden in the dark.
Kayden pressed his back gently against the wall, breathing softly.
The system dimmed.
"The breach will close soon.This was only a probe.A test of the world's surface…and a test of you."
Kayden swallowed hard.
Silence settled again.
Outside, the faint light in the clouds weakened—flickered—and vanished.
The city exhaled.Color returned.Warmth trickled back into the room.
But the tension remained.
Kayden slid down the wall slowly until he was sitting on the floor.
Another anomaly.A real one.The first of many.
Something had looked through the breach…and recognized him.
The system spoke one last line before fading completely:
"Commander…they know your world is waking."
Kayden closed his eyes.
Tomorrow would not be normal.
Nothing ever would be again.