(PH 2)
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Anie had almost reached the entrance.
Her umbrella was open again, rainwater running from its edges in thin streams.
She stopped.
Something had changed she couldn't explain it.the building behind her was still silent.the corridor she'd just left was empty.The strange crack on the upper floor was no longer visible from here.
Everything looked exactly as it should.
Yet the pressure in her chest had returned.stronger anie slowly lowered the umbrella.the rain struck her hair and shoulders.She looked back at the building.
"...What is that?" Nothing answered.
Then click anie turned the sound had come from somewhere inside.A door
her eyes narrowed.she stepped back beneath the broken entrance.
"Hello?"
Silence she waited nothing then she felt it.a fracture not the faint instability she'd sensed upstairs.this was different
It was moving.anie's heartbeat accelerated she closed her eyes.
Her awareness spread through the building.
For a moment, she felt the old structure as something more than concrete and broken glass.
Tiny irregularities spaces where reality seemed thinner small hesitations.
Then one of them moved anie's eyes opened.
"Someone's here."
A voice came from the darkness.
"You're finally here." anie froze. the voice was unfamiliar.
Low exhausted and close she slowly turned toward the corridor.a figure stood at the far end he wasn't completely visible.only his silhouette
dark clothes.wet hair one hand resting against the wall.he seemed completely still.anie tightened her grip around the umbrella.
"Who are you?"
The figure didn't answer.instead, he looked at her for several seconds.then his expression changed not surprise.
recognition but anie had never seen him before he took one step forward.
"You followed me."anie frowned
"I don't know you."another step
"Don't lie."
"I'm not lying."his eyes narrowed
"You Hunters are getting better."anie's expression changed.
"Hunters?"the man suddenly disappeared.Anie's chest tightened.she moved backward.a fraction of a second later he appeared beside her.anie barely had time to turn.
al hand reached toward her shoulder.she instinctively ducked the hand missed.the man twisted anie's awareness screamed.Move she jumped sideways.the concrete wall behind her exploded with a sharp crack anie stumbled into the corridor.
"What the hell?!"
The stranger appeared several meters away.for the first time, Anie saw his face clearly.he looked young perhaps only a few years older than her.black hair hung wet against his forehead.his clothes were worn and soaked through.
There was a thin scar near his eyebrow.
But his eyes his eyes were frighteningly alert.he looked at Anie as though she were something he had been searching for.
"You're not even going to pretend?"
Anie stared at him.
"Pretend what?"
"That you don't know."
"I genuinely don't know what you're talking about!"he laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"That's exactly what a Hunter would say."anie's confusion turned into frustration.
"I'm not a Hunter!"the stranger's gaze sharpened.
"Then prove it."
"How?"he attacked again anie barely avoided the first strike.she stepped backward the stranger moved forward.
fast, far too fast his foot touched the floor and suddenly he wasn't there anie's eyes widened.
"What?"he reappeared behind her.
She sensed him before she saw him.
she dropped his arm passed over her head.anie rolled across the wet floor.
the stranger landed silently anie scrambled backward.
"You're teleporting."
"No."he disappeared,anie's eyes widened.he reappeared on the other side of the room.
"No," he repeated.
"I don't teleport."anie stared.
"Then what are you doing?"
He looked at her.
"I step where the world forgets to close."the sentence made no sense.
but something about it did fractures.
Anie's breathing slowed he was using them.not creating them using them
The stranger moved again.this time Anie was ready.her awareness caught the instability before he appeared.
She turned.he emerged from a distortion beside the wall.anie raised her arm.his fist came toward her she twisted.the punch missed she struck his chest.the impact was weak he barely moved.his hand caught her wrist.
"You're slow."he pulled anie lost her balance.she slammed against the floor.
pain shot through her shoulder.
"Ah !" the stranger stepped toward her.
"You've been trained."anie pushed herself up.
"I haven't!" he stopped.
"What?"
"I said I haven't!"
She wiped rainwater and blood from her lip.
"I don't know how to control any of this!"for the first time the stranger hesitated.anie saw it confusion not trust.but confusion she took the opportunity.her hand touched the floor.
something inside her reacted.the air trembled.the stranger's eyes widened.
A sudden pressure exploded outward.
BOOM.
The old floor cracked.the stranger was thrown backward.he hit the wall hard.
anie stared at her own hand.
"I..."her breathing became uneven.
"I didn't..."the stranger slowly stood.
blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.he touched it looked at his fingers.then looked at anie.
"You're new."anie frowned.
"What?"
"You're newly Called."the words struck her harder than the attack.
Anie stared at him.
"How do you know?"he didn't answer.
Instead, he looked around the building.
his expression became increasingly suspicious.
"You don't even know what you're doing."
"No."
"You don't know what Hunters are."
"No."
"You don't know what the Fractures really are."anie swallowed.
"...No."he looked at her for a long moment.
Then,
"Then why are you here?"anie hesitated.
"I was looking for someone."
"Who?"
"I don't know her name."his eyes narrowed.
"That's not an answer."
"I know."anie lowered her voice.
"She knows about the Called."the stranger became completely still.
"She sent you?"
"No."
"Then why did you come?"anie looked around the abandoned building.
"Because I need answers."something in his expression shifted.not sympathy.
Something closer to recognition.he understood that sentence perhaps too well.thunder rolled across the sky the lights inside the building flickered.the stranger looked toward the windows.
"How long have you been aware?"
Anie frowned.
"Recently."
"Days?"she nodded.
"Then you're dangerous."anie stared at him.
"I'm dangerous?"
"Not because you're strong."he looked directly at her.
"Because you don't know what you're doing."
Anie felt anger rising.
"Then teach me."the stranger laughed quietly.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because people like you don't survive long."anie's expression hardened.
"You survived."his smile disappeared.
"That isn't the same thing."silence.
Rain hammered the broken windows.
anie studied him.
"Are you a Called?"he didn't answer immediately.
Then,,,
"Yes."the word felt strangely heavy.
Anie had heard the term from the mysterious woman.but hearing another person say it made it real.
"There are others?"
"More than you think."
"How many?"
"Enough."
"Are there others like you?"
"Unfortunately."anie frowned.
"Why did you attack me?"the stranger's face hardened.
"Because I thought you were a Hunter."
"Why?"
"Because Hunters have been finding people like us."anie remembered the woman's explanation.hunters a group that hunted the Called.but she still didn't know why.
"Why are they hunting you?"the stranger looked away.
"You don't know?"
"No."he studied her again.
"You really don't."
"No."his shoulders relaxed slightly.
The hostility in his posture weakened.
Not completely but enough.he stepped backward.
Anie didn't move.
"What's your name?"the stranger stared at her.for a moment, it seemed like he might refuse.then he said,
"Adrian."anie froze she remembered the name.not from this conversation.
From somewhere else the hospital
Mira.the stranger who had appeared there.the suspicious man,her eyes narrowed.
"Adrian?"his expression changed for the smallest fraction of a second.
Anie noticed.
"You know that name."he said nothing.
"Have we met before?"
"No."too quick anie stared he looked away.
"No."this time slower but the lie remained. anie didn't know why.
and Adrian clearly didn't want her to know.before she could ask another question his head suddenly turned.his entire expression changed.
"What?"anie felt it too something.
a distant pressure.a tremor passing through the building.adrian looked toward the entrance.
"They're close."
"Who?"he didn't answer anie stepped forward.
"Adrian."he looked at her.
"Don't follow me."
"Why?"
"Because if they're watching this building..."
He glanced at her.
"...they'll see you."
"Who are you talking about?" he didn't answer.instead the air beside him istorted.anie saw it clearly this time.
a thin ripple kike the world itself had been folded.adrian stepped into it anie reached forward.
"Wait!"his body disappeared not vanished not erased.
For a fraction of a second, Anie could see something beyond the distortion.a narrow space.
For a fraction of a second, Anie could see something beyond the distortion. a narrow space.dark,silent impossible.
Then he was gone anie stood alone.rain entered through the broken windows.the building returned to silence.she stared at the place where adrian had disappeared.
"...Fracture Step."
She didn't know how she knew the name.perhaps she had simply understood what she had witnessed.
She looked down at her hands her fingers were shaking.the fight had lasted only minutes.but she had learned more during those minutes than she had expected.the Called weren't simply people with strange abilities.their powers were different.their abilities came from how they interacted with fractures.and some of them had been living with this reality far longer than she had.
Anie slowly walked toward the entrance
,Then stopped something lay on the floor.a small piece of black fabric perhaps torn from adrian's coat.she picked it up.There was a faint symbol stitched into it.anie didn't recognize it
she turned it over nothing she looked toward the empty doorway.
"Who are you really, Adrian?"no answer.only thunder anie closed her fingers around the fabric.
Then,the pressure returned she looked toward the upper floor.the same Fracture she had sensed earlier was still there.but now it felt different as if something had disturbed it.
As if Adrian's presence had awakened something.
Anie stared into the darkness for a moment she thought she saw a silhouette at the end of the corridor she blinked.nothing her heart began beating faster. she didn't chase it not this time. she simply stood there listening.the building remained silent.but anie finally understood something.the woman had told her that the world wasn't broken it was tired.
and tonight for the first time,anie had met someone who looked like he had been surviving inside that tired world for far longer than she had.she opened her umbrella.stepped outside and disappeared into the rain.behind her
deep inside the abandoned building
the fracture remained open.just for a moment.and something on the other side seemed to move.....