"Where am I…"
Beep. Beep.
The sound didn't belong to the world they were in.
It echoed like a leftover signal from another reality—thin, repeating, slightly distorted.
Jhonathan slowly pushed himself upright.
His armor was still cracked from the previous battle, pieces of it hanging loosely like it had forgotten how to stay together. Dust drifted off him with every movement.
Around him, the rest of the party was scattered across the middle of an unfamiliar road.
Broken pavement. Silent buildings. No civilians. No movement.
Just emptiness stretching too far in every direction.
---
A man in blue uniform stepped forward from the distance.
Police.
But his presence felt off—too structured, too artificial, like he was following instructions instead of instinct.
He raised his weapon immediately.
"This is the police. Put your hands up!"
The command echoed.
But before anyone could react properly, Jhonathan had already moved.
Not aggressively.
Casually.
He bent down, picked up a small stone from the road, and flicked it upward.
It spun once.
Then—
the stone shattered mid-air into fragments of compressed force.
Every gun in the officer's hands exploded instantly, disintegrating into harmless metal dust before even discharging a shot.
The officer froze completely.
His mouth opened slightly.
Then closed again.
He stepped backward without speaking.
And slowly disappeared into the distance as if retreating from something that wasn't supposed to exist.
The sirens stopped.
The street went silent again.
---
A shift happened.
Not physical.
Structural.
The world around them reset position.
One moment they were on the road.
The next—
they were inside a building.
---
A school.
---
The air inside was colder.
Still.
Like it hadn't been disturbed in years.
Dust covered every surface. Chairs were neatly arranged but untouched, like the room had been prepared for students who never arrived.
On the chalkboard, written in faded white chalk:
11 – SATURN
The writing looked old.
But not erased.
More like forgotten.
---
Jhonathan stepped further inside.
The sound of his boots echoed too loudly, as if the room was amplifying his presence.
Leerooey entered next, scanning the room cautiously.
Sophia followed, her chains loosely coiled but still alert.
Ralph stayed near the doorway, arms crossed, watching the hallway instead of the room.
Something about this place felt wrong in a different way than battlefields did.
Not dangerous.
Not peaceful.
Just… unresolved.
---
Leerooey broke the silence first.
"How did we get here?"
His voice sounded smaller than usual in the empty room.
No one answered immediately.
Even Jhonathan didn't respond right away.
Because the truth was simple.
None of them knew.
And that was worse than an enemy they could identify.
---
"I don't really know," Ralph finally admitted.
His tone was blunt, but not careless.
Just honest.
Sophia walked toward the window, peering outside.
Nothing moved beyond the glass.
Not even wind.
"I don't like this," she said quietly.
Jhonathan sat down on the edge of a desk, the wood creaking under his weight.
"We need someone who can help us here," he said after a moment.
His voice was steady, but tired.
Not from battle.
From uncertainty.
---
The silence stretched.
Longer this time.
The school didn't respond.
But it also didn't ignore them.
It felt like something was listening from behind the walls.
---
Then—
a sound.
Not inside the classroom.
In the hallway.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Not hurried like a threat.
Not cautious like fear.
Just… approaching.
---
The fluorescent lights in the corridor flickered once.
Then again.
Then stabilized.
As if the building itself had acknowledged movement.
Ralph shifted slightly toward the door.
Sophia's chains tightened.
Leerooey stepped back instinctively.
Jhonathan stood up slowly.
---
Outside, the school gate creaked open.
Long.
Deliberate.
Metal scraping against itself like it hadn't been moved in years.
The sound carried through the entire building.
Through every hallway.
Every empty classroom.
Until it reached them.
---
And at that moment—
something changed in the atmosphere.
Not hostility.
Not safety.
But awareness.
Like the school had finally noticed that the 11 – SATURN classroom was no longer empty.
And whatever had just entered…
was not supposed to leave unnoticed.