The rain wasn't falling straight.
Adrian didn't notice it at first. What he caught was something simpler: the rhythm of the windshield wipers was off.
They cleared the glass, yet the world outside stayed messy. It wasn't that the view was blurry; it was as if it had been drawn incorrectly.
The lane markings were there. The headlights were coming from the opposite side. Everything looked normal, but a small unease crawled under his skin.
It was late. He had been driving away from the city for nearly forty minutes.
The road was empty. The radio was dead, and his phone's battery had run out.
Inside the car, there was only the hum of the engine and the annoying tick of rain hitting the roof.
Adrian gripped the wheel with both hands. His shoulders were tight, but his face was blank.
It usually was. People always called him distant. Cold. A wall.
In reality, he usually wasn't thinking about anything. Or rather, he was trying not to.
As the headlights lit the road, a single drop hit the glass and slid down. Adrian's eyes followed it.
The path it took was curved. It was subtle, but it was wrong.
It wasn't the wind. It was as if the laws of physics had simply changed their mind.
His brows knit together. Then came another drop, and another.
Every single one of them slid at that same impossible angle.
"Ridiculous," he muttered.
His voice sounded strange in the quiet car. He hadn't spoken to anyone all day.
Something appeared on the road ahead.
At first, he thought it was a truck. It looked like a dark, heavy block in the middle of the night.
But as he got closer, the shape didn't get clearer. Instead, it became more confusing.
Adrian eased his foot off the gas. His heart began to race.
The sound of the rain faded. The engine felt like it was miles away.
The shape ahead wasn't a vehicle. It was a hole in the middle of the road.
Adrian slammed on the brakes.
The tires skidded on the wet asphalt. The car slowed, but he knew he was too late.
He didn't feel fear. He felt... acceptance.
Finally, a small part of him whispered.
His mind went completely still as the headlights were swallowed by the black void.
There was no crash. No sound of metal bending. No glass shattering.
Only pressure. A ringing in his ears.
Then, absolute silence. And darkness.
When he woke up, he wasn't on the ground.
He was suspended in a hollow space. There was no up or down, no heat or cold.
Around him was a blackness as thick as tar. And it was watching him.
Adrian tried to breathe. That was when he realized he wasn't breathing at all.
His heart wasn't beating either. Still, he wasn't suffocating.
His thoughts felt unnervingly sharp.
"Am I dead?"
No sound left his throat, but something heard him anyway.
Thin, reddish lines appeared in the dark. They twisted into something that almost resembled a face—but stopped just short of becoming one.
Adrian tried to look away. He couldn't.
The thing moved. No—it was suddenly just there. Close. Too close.
It had no eyes, but Adrian felt it watching him. Not looking at him—looking through him.
Then the voice came. Dry. Deep. Ancient.
"You are late, Adrian."
He froze. It knew his name. It felt like it had always known.
"The gate opened anyway."
"What are you?"
Silence. Then more shadows appeared. Red dots flickered into existence in the distance.
Watching. Waiting.
Adrian felt something inside him being peeled open. Memories. Thoughts. Fear.
"Things with names are small," the voice said. "You are not a name."
A pause.
"You are a mistake."
Adrian's jaw tightened. This wasn't a dream. It was too structured. Too aware.
"What do you want from me?"
The darkness stilled. Then the voice whispered right behind his ear. Cold. Intimate.
"Nothingness wants nothing. But gates have a price."
The world broke.
Images flooded him. A kitchen table. Rain against a window. A voice he hadn't heard in years.
Fragments of a life he barely held onto.
"These can be taken from you."
The darkness surged. For the first time, Adrian felt it. Fear. Sharp. Real.
"No."
"'No' is a word that comes too late."
"I didn't choose this."
The red lines flared.
"Wrong. The thing inside you chose long ago. Death only turned the key."
Something shifted. Not pain, but worse. Something was being moved. Replaced.
Adrian's vision went black. Then he saw his own hands.
Fading. Transparent.
Thin white lines pulsed beneath his skin. Slow. Unnatural.
A lock of his hair lost its color, turning an ashen white.
"The first mark is set. Wake up, little ghost."
The world shattered. Adrian fell.
Cold air tore past him. Pressure crushed his ears.
Then—impact.
He gasped. Air burned his lungs as he choked on it.
Earth. Wet soil. Stone.
He was back. Alive.
Adrian pushed himself up, coughing. His body trembled for a moment—then stopped.
That was wrong. It should have kept trembling. It didn't.
The rain was gone. The air was cold, but it felt normal.
He stood slowly. The sky was filled with too many stars. No city lights. No traffic.
Only trees. Tall. Dark. Watching.
Adrian looked at his hands. Steady. Too steady.
He touched his hair. One strand had turned ash-white.
"...Fine."
He didn't know where he was. Thinking about it too much would break something.
Water first. People... later.
A sharp crack came from the bushes. Adrian turned instantly.
His body moved before his thoughts did. That was new.
Something crawled out of the darkness. Four legs, but wrong.
No skin. Just slick muscle stretched under a thin membrane.
Its head was too narrow. Its eyes were too big. Too aware.
Adrian didn't move. Neither did it.
Silence.
Why am I not running? he wondered. Why am I still watching it?
The creature tilted its head. A cold sensation slid down his spine.
Then it moved. Fast.
Adrian threw himself to the side, grabbing a jagged stone.
"Stay back," he said. It sounded weak.
The creature lowered its body, ready to spring.
And then—Adrian saw it.
Thin, pale lines in the air around the beast. Like cracks. Like reality was barely holding together.
"Break it… you know you can."
The voice came from inside his head.
The creature lunged. Adrian moved.
This time, he didn't just dodge. He reached.
A claw tore into his shoulder, exploding in pain. But his hand passed through the crack.
The world trembled. A deep vibration rippled through the air.
The creature shrieked—a sound too human, too wrong.
It was thrown back violently, slamming into a tree. It hit the ground and didn't move.
Adrian staggered to his feet, breathing hard. Blood ran down his arm.
But he didn't look at the wound. He looked at the creature.
It was still alive, but its eyes were filled with something new.
Fear. Not of death, but fear of him.
The pressure in Adrian's chest returned. Cold. Deep.
The darkness around the creature was moving. Pulling. Toward him.
He looked at his hand. The white lines beneath his skin glowed.
Soft. Alive. Wrong.
I'm not supposed to be here, he realized.
The creature flinched. Then it turned and ran.
It wasn't running like prey.
It was fleeing a predator.
Adrian stood alone, listening to his own heartbeat.
Slow. Heavy. Unfamiliar.
"What did you do to me...?"
The forest didn't answer.
Adrian looked at the blood on his hands and realized one thing.
Something had been taken from him.
And worse—he couldn't remember what it was.