Ryu wiped the blood from his knuckles, but it only smeared darker across his skin. His breath was steady now.

  Ryu was an experienced fighter, so he had long forgotten how adrenaline felt, but after meeting—the thing, adrenaline hummed in his veins, and it was still running rampant.

  'Ah, how insidious.'

  The alley was silent except for the faint hum of the streetlamp and the distant thrum of the city.

  He stared down at the corpse—or whatever it was. Its body had already begun to change. The faint glow in its eyes was gone, and the strange tension in its limbs had faded, leaving behind a slack, pale husk.

  The scent of decay lingered, sharp and clinging.

  Ryu clenched his jaw. He wasn't one to flinch at the sight of death, but this? This was wrong in every conceivable way.

  He crouched beside the body, keeping his movements deliberate. The creature's skin was cold and waxy under his fingers. No pulse. No breath. Whatever life it had clung to was long gone.

  But it had moved. Fought. Screamed.

  He swallowed down the bitter taste rising in his throat.

  Maybe it was an actual puppet.

  "What the hell were you?" he muttered, voice low.

  There was no answer, of course. He didn't really expect the corpse to talk, anyway.

  It was silent, with just the oppressive weight of the alley pressing down on him.

  'Turns out I was wrong, this was not related to the damned nightmare at all!'

  Ryu stood, wiping his hands against his coat with a grimace. He needed answers, and he wasn't going to find them here.

  He retraced his steps back to the main street, muscles taut as he scanned the shadows. His instincts were on high alert, senses sharpened by the encounter.

  The city was as it had always been—bright storefronts, murmured conversations, the occasional rumble of traffic.

  But it felt wrong.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Ryu couldn't shake the feeling that something had shifted. The air was too thick, too heavy. The streetlights flickered faintly, their glow uneven.

  People moved past him, oblivious. He caught fragments of conversation—trivial and mundane.

  "...did you see that sale at—"

  "...he hasn't called me back..."

  "...game's on tonight..."

  Their words grated against his ears.

  'Fucking idiots!'

  How could they go about their lives when reality itself had fractured? Didn't they feel it, see it?

  He clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms.

  No. Of course, they didn't.

  Only he did.

  'Why is it only me? Am I crazy? But what explains the damned corpse?'

  As he walked, his thoughts circled back to the nightmare—the one he couldn't remember. It gnawed at him, relentless and sharp.

  What the hell was that thing in the nightmare? No—was it even a nightmare? Shit, what do I do? Can I even do anything? Think calmly. Come on. Calm down, idiot.

  His pulse quickened, and for a moment, he struggled to breathe. The weight on his chest pressed harder, a vice tightening around his ribs.

  He stopped in his tracks, leaning against a lamppost. The cold metal bit into his skin through his coat.

  His vision blurred.

  People walked past without sparing him a glance.

  He forced himself to focus, to ground himself. Breathe in. Breathe out. The rhythm steadied him, anchoring him back to the present.

  Ryu straightened, shaking off the lingering panic.

  This wasn't going to break him. He wouldn't let it.

  A sudden flash lit up the sky, bright and blinding.

  Ryu's head snapped up, eyes narrowing. The light flickered erratically, zigzagging across the horizon like fractured lightning.

  People gasped and pointed, their conversations shifting to uneasy murmurs.

  "What the hell?" someone muttered nearby.

  Ryu's breath quickened. The flicker was back—but it was worse now, stronger, more erratic.

  His instincts roared to life, the same primal warning he'd felt in the alley.

  Something was coming.

  The crowd's unease rippled outward, but no one moved. They stood frozen, mesmerized by the chaotic light show above.

  Ryu's jaw clenched. "Move," he muttered under his breath.

  No one listened.

  The flicker intensified, casting jagged shadows across the street. The air crackled with an electric charge, raising the hair on Ryu's arms.

  Then it happened.

  A deafening crack split the air, and reality fractured.

  This time, the world collapsed, for good.

  The street warped, twisting like a nightmare come to life. Pavement buckled and tore, buildings flickered in and out of existence, and the sky bled colors that didn't belong.

  Screams erupted as the crowd scattered, panic ripping through them like wildfire.

  Ryu's muscles coiled as he scanned the chaos. His mind worked fast—identify threats, find cover, assess escape routes.

  But there was no logic to this. No pattern he could predict.

  There was nothing he could do.

  He could only die.

  The flicker was everywhere now, tearing through the city like a living thing.

  A woman stumbled in front of him, her face pale with terror. "What's happening?" she screamed.

  Ryu didn't answer. There was no point.

  She too, would die.

  The air trembled, and a fissure opened in the ground with a guttural roar. Asphalt crumbled, swallowing a section of the street whole.

  Ryu's pulse thundered in his ears. His instincts screamed at him to run, but his feet remained planted.

  No, he couldn't die.

  Not yet.

  Because he wasn't going to be a spectator in this chaos.

  Not anymore.