10.
Jin was pushed aside by a giant form. It had a human… adjacent head and broad shoulders. The only clothing it had were thick furs that made wool look like Styrofoam. It hung loose by the shoulders like a robe that joined in a way that suggested magnets or the most intricate of hidden stitching. Like a Gucci cave man. He could only guess the animal. Maybe a hairy T-Rex.
The humanoid had dark green skin and larger than life canines that extended past a flat wide nose. It might as well have been troll in native American war paint. It held a blue string, fastened tight to one end of the building, winding it around its arm like a hose.
Other cords covered the entire structure, at least two hundred. Each had a troll. Each winding closer.
"Excuse me!" He yelled.
Nothing
He groaned and ran to the beast easily twice his size.
"[Excuse me]" He tried in English.
"[Wha?]" The troll grumbled still reeling.
The open wall and crushed brick covered by cord glowed in a brilliant blue.
"[What are you doing?]" Jin asked, over announcing, like it was the blue monster who couldn't speak English.
"[Fulfilling our obligation. Keeping the veil alive, long as we can.]"
The words hit like a sledgehammer shattering his thoughts. Veil, he could understand that. He'd seen 'a movie' in his life. It'd explain the stillness. Or at least hoped so. The 'obligation fulfilling' part drew a blank.
"[What veil? Obligation? To? For? From? What are you?]"
When at the base of the building they pulled, hundreds of cords snapped. Each whipped around violently like fire hoses cracking and slicing apart the sound barrier back to their owners.
Paige's building was fine.
The troll turned and shook its head laughing at some joke beyond Jin. He didn't answer for the longest time before he turned back.
"[These 'special' guidelines, made for you will end… Good news, reality is comin', and your planet will become a part of the universe once more.]"
A heavy wind pulled Jin's attention.
His hair fluttered, whipping and stinging. He bent to the wind, a hand on a post. Everything around him was immune, people, pets, birds frozen in time. The rock and dust formed a pile that would flatten a dump truck.
He grinned. If only the litter wasn't immune.
To his surprise the pile melted, leaving a puddle on the tar, molten. He stood over the rippling pool. Somewhere out there the laws of physics were shattered, cutting some god's foot.
He looked up, the trolls were gone, leaving the puddle, the world still frozen.
Was there a waiting period? Was something supposed to happen?
Jin dropped to his knees and waved over the tar.
No heat.
A fast tapping and breathing caught his ears enough to perk them.
Running?
He turned.
His knuckle nicked the tar and the world exploded out of focus, stretching into infinity, pulling him in.
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