A faint ray of light pierced through the cracks in the wall, brushing softly against his face. Yuri stirred, his eyes fluttering open, slow and heavy. A wave of dizziness washed over him as he sat upright, his mind still foggy, thoughts scattered like broken glass.
He looked around.
It was a bedroom—or at least, what used to be one. The walls were badly cracked, chipped paint curling off like dying bark. The window was shattered, covered in boards, letting in just enough light to reveal dust hanging in the stale air. Pieces of furniture lay splintered and useless, and what remained of a cupboard slumped in the corner like a wounded beast. The ceiling above looked moments away from collapsing.
So many questions stormed through his mind like a violent tempest.
Looking down, he noticed thick bandages wrapped around his chest, and most of his visible wounds were stitched up. Not fully healed, but… better. Somehow.
Just then, the door creaked open.
Yuri froze, every muscle tensing. His mind went into survival mode. Was it friend… or foe?
A girl stepped into the room, carrying two jugs of water slung over her back. She had dark brown hair, messy and unkempt, and coffee-brown eyes—dull, lifeless, as if they'd seen too much. She wore a sleeveless tan-black jacket with fur-lined armholes and a wide, rugged collar. Her expression was unreadable. Tired.
Panicking, Yuri laid back down, pretending to still be unconscious. He kept one eye slightly open, peeking from under his lashes, silently observing.
She set down the jugs, picked up a metal cup, and poured some water. Sitting down on a nearby stool, she drank slowly—carefully—savoring each sip like it might be her last. When she finished, she refilled the cup… and stood.
She walked toward him.
Yuri immediately shut his eyes, heartbeat rising.
"You can stop pretending now," she said flatly. "Here. Have some water."
His eyes snapped open. Embarrassed, he slowly sat up and accepted the cup without protest, gulping it down like someone who hadn't had water in days. Maybe he hadn't.
Yuri: "Uh… thanks," he muttered. "But… who are you? How did I get here? How long have I been out?"
The room fell silent.
Finally, she spoke. "Who I am? The one who saved you. How you got here? I carried you. And as for how long… two and a half months." Her eyes narrowed. "No more questions."
Yuri: "WHAT?!" he choked. "Two whole months?! What do you mean 'no more questions'? I don't even know what's going on!"
She paused, staring at him like she was trying to decide something. Then her voice softened, just slightly. "You really… don't remember anything?"
Yuri: "No!" he snapped, a tremble in his voice. "It feels like I'm in a dream—or a nightmare—I don't know what to believe anymore."
She let out a long sigh and turned away, looking toward the cracked wall as if it held the answers.
"It started three months ago," she began. "There was a global blackout. Total darkness. It was night for three full days… and it hasn't been day ever since. No sunrise. No light. Just this… endless black."
Her voice quivered, but she kept going.
"On the first night, around forty percent of the world's population vanished. Just… gone. No bodies. No trace. Then, as the nights dragged on, another twenty percent fell into comas—alive, but unresponsive. Only the rest of us remained awake… watching… waiting."
She turned to him, expression dark.
"By the third day, people started coming back. The ones who disappeared. But… something was wrong. They looked the same. Same faces, same memories, even the same voices. But… they weren't human anymore. Something was off. Deeply off. They were monsters wearing masks of the people we once loved."
She clenched her fists. "We call them Shape Shifters."
Yuri's chest tightened. Chills ran up his spine like ice dripping along bone.
Yuri: "No… please, no…" he whispered. "Please… please…"
She glanced at him with pity, then looked away.
"After the three days… everyone—everyone—saw the same thing. A message burned into our minds. Like it was seared into our souls. It read: LET'S PLAY. BE THE LAST ONES REMAINING, AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED."
Silence.
The kind that screams.
Yuri sat frozen in disbelief, his breath shallow.
Then, without another word, the girl walked to the broken-down cupboard and pulled out a folded pile of clothes—his clothes: a blood-stained white dress shirt, black slacks, belt, and tie. Clean now. Or cleaner, at least.
"I washed these," she said quietly. "You should get going."
Yuri: "Going?" Yuri blinked. "Going where?! I don't know what's happening—I don't know what to do!"
She snapped.
"THEN YOU CAN'T STAY HERE! For all I know, I helped a damn shape shifter! Just go! I don't care where!"
Yuri stood up, trembling.
Yuri: "Then why save me at all?! Why go through all that trouble—just to throw me out like garbage?!"
She froze.
"…I don't know," she said quietly. "But please. Be gone before I return."
She stepped out the door… and disappeared without another word.
Yuri stood there. Alone. Cold. Confused. His throat burned. But he said nothing.
Slowly, he dressed, piece by piece, and took one last look around the ruined room.
Then, he stepped outside.
His first look at the world after three months of unconsciousness…
Was a nightmare.
The sky was a void—black and starless. No sun. No moon. No stars. Just infinite darkness. The buildings around him were in ruins, skeletal remains of a city once full of life. There was no wind. No sound. No birds. Not even trees.
Only cold.
And silence.
Yuri walked. He didn't know where he was going. He just… walked.
Eventually, he reached what was left of Kaya's Café—his old workplace.
Once a warm, family-owned café bustling with life… now just another broken shell.
Yuri stepped inside, breathing in dust and memory.
This was the place he used to hate… and yet now, he missed it more than he could bear. The stress, the shouting customers, the annoying coworkers who still made the job tolerable… all gone.
He had thought freedom would feel better.
But it didn't.
Suddenly—a noise.
From behind the kitchen doors.
A soft breathing.
"Hello…?" Yuri called out, voice shaky.
Yuri: "HELLO?! Anyone there?! Please… please…"
The door creaked open slowly, dragging out the silence like a blade scraping stone.
His heart pounded. The fear of what was behind that door was almost worse than what could come out of it.
Then—
She stepped out.
A girl. Brunette hair with a single white streak. Brown eyes filled with disbelief. Clothes torn, dirty, bloodied. Bruised. Beaten.
Nina: "…Y-Yuri?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
Yuri's eyes widened, his jaw dropping. Tears blurred his vision.
Yuri: "…Nina?" he choked.
His former coworker.
His closest friend.
Alive.