Aarav woke up choking on smoke.
Not fire-smokesomething colder. Like burned metal and static.
He bolted upright, gasping, his heart slamming against his ribs. The rooftop was gone.
He was lying on a street.
But not his street.
The buildings leaned at impossible angles, like they were tired of standing straight. Neon signs flickered in languages he didn't recognize. The sky above was a deep violet, streaked with glowing cracks like shattered glass frozen mid-break.
And the air
It hummed.
Not with sound, but with pressure. Like reality itself was vibrating.
Aarav pushed himself up, his palms scraping against the pavement. It felt warm. Too warm.
His phone was still in his hand.
The screen lit up.
THE ARCHIVE
> Stability Index: 41%
Location: Unregistered Reality Node
Designation: Drift-City
"Drift-City?" he muttered. "What does that even"
Something moved.
Across the street, a figure stepped out of a doorway that hadn't been there a second ago. It looked humanmostly. But its face glitched every time it blinked, features rearranging like a corrupted image.
It stared at him.
Then it smiled.
Aarav's blood went cold.
The figure raised its handand the air around it distorted, bending like heatwaves.
Aarav scrambled backward, heart hammering. "Nope. Nope. Nope."
His phone vibrated violently.
> Threat detected.
Fracture-Spirit.
Do not allow eye contact.
Too late.
The thing tilted its head.
A whisper slid into Aarav's mind.
"You don't belong here."
Aarav clutched his head, staggering. The voice wasn't soundit was memory. It felt like someone flipping through his past.
"Wrong timeline. Wrong existence."
"Get out of my head!" he yelled.
The thing began walking toward him.
Each step made the world ripple.
Aarav ran.
The city unfolded around him like a maze designed by someone who hated geometry. Staircases led nowhere. Roads twisted upward into walls. Windows opened into other streets.
Behind him, the thing followedgliding, not walking.
His lungs burned.
"ARCHIVE!" he screamed. "DO SOMETHING!"
The screen flashed.
> Witnesses are not protected.
They adapt.
"Great. Love that for me."
Aarav skidded around a corner and slammed into someone.
Hard.
They both fell.
"Owwhat the hell?!" a girl's voice snapped.
Aarav blinked.
She looked human.
Real.
Dark hair tied into a messy bun, sharp eyes, wearing a hoodie filled with glowing circuitry patterns that shifted constantly.
"You just tackled me," she said.
"I was being chased by a nightmare," he replied.
She froze.
"…Describe it."
He did.
Her face paled.
"Fracture-Spirit," she whispered.
"You know what that is?"
"Yeah. And if one is after you, you're already halfway dead."
"That's comforting."
She grabbed his wrist. "Get up. Now."
They ran.
They ducked into an alley that shouldn't have fit between two buildings. The walls pulsed faintly, like veins.
The girl pulled out a small, metallic device and slammed it against the wall. It emitted a low hum.
Reality shimmeredand suddenly, the alley looked normal.
Quiet.
Empty.
Aarav collapsed against the wall, gasping. "Whowho are you?"
She studied him carefully.
"Mira," she said. "And you're a glitch."
"…I'm a person."
"Same difference."
Aarav looked around. "Where are we?"
She hesitated.
"Between worlds."
His stomach dropped. "So this isn't Earth."
"Nope."
"And that thing?"
"Hunters," she said. "They feed on misplaced existences."
"On me."
"On people like you."
Aarav stared at her. "People like me?"
She pointed at his chest.
He looked down.
There was a faint symbol glowing beneath his skinan intricate pattern of shifting lines.
"What is that?" he whispered.
Her eyes widened.
"…You're a Witness."
Aarav laughed weakly. "Is that bad?"
Mira didn't answer.
That was worse.
A deep tremor rolled through the city. Distant screams echoed, stretched and warped.
Mira grabbed his arm. "We need to move. This reality is collapsing."
"Collapsing?!"
She pulled him into the street.
As they ran, Aarav noticed things.
Some people were frozen mid-step.
Some flickered between forms.
Some… looped. Repeating the same three seconds over and over.
"This place is breaking," he whispered.
"Everything is," Mira said.
They reached a massive structure shaped like a spiral tower. Symbols crawled across its surface like living code.
Mira slammed her palm against it.
A doorway unfolded.
Inside was… impossible.
Screens floated in midair. Holograms showed different Earths. Some burning. Some peaceful. Some alien.
Aarav's knees nearly gave out.
"This is real," he whispered.
Mira turned to him. "You saw the glitch, didn't you?"
He nodded.
She inhaled sharply. "Then it's started."
"What has?"
She met his eyes.
"The Multiversal Drift."
Aarav swallowed. "Explain. Slowly."
She gestured around. "Realities are overlapping. Bleeding. Merging. Breaking. People like me track it."
"And people like me?"
"Are anchors," she said.
"Or weapons."
That didn't sound good.
A screen lit up.
INCOMING ENTITY
Mira cursed. "They followed us."
The building shook.
Aarav's phone glowed.
> Witness Protocol: Emotional Stress Detected.
Adaptive Ability Unlocking.
"What ability?" he asked.
Mira stared at him. "You don't know?"
"No!"
The wall exploded inward.
The Fracture-Spirit stepped through.
Reality screamed.
Aarav felt something inside him shift.
Like a lock turning.
The world slowed.
He could see the creature's formfractured, layered, existing in multiple positions at once.
He could see… its wrongness.
And somehow
He could touch it.
Aarav raised his hand.
The symbol on his chest flared.
The creature froze.
Mira's eyes widened. "Aarav… what did you do?"
"II don't know!"
The creature began unravelingits form collapsing into lines of light, screaming in reverse.
Then it was gone.
Silence.
Aarav stared at his glowing hand.
"What am I?" he whispered.
Mira looked at him like she was seeing a ghost.
"You," she said slowly, "are the kind of thing that can break gods."
The building trembled again.
This time, harder.
A new message appeared on Aarav's phone.
> The Architects have noticed you.
Aarav's heart sank.
"Who are they?" he asked.
Mira swallowed.
"The ones who decide which universes deserve to exist."
Outside, the sky cracked.
And something massive began to descend.