The world was too quiet.
Eli hated when it got like this—like the air itself was holding its breath. No car horns, no chatter, no footsteps. Just silence.
Sara noticed too. She set her coffee down on the café table they'd taken. "It's coming," she whispered.
Eli leaned back in his chair, heart pounding. "You mean… one of them?"
She didn't answer. She didn't have to.
The sky dimmed, just slightly—like a filter sliding over reality. The shadows stretched too long, bending the wrong way. People around them didn't notice, still smiling, sipping lattes, typing on phones. Puppets.
Then Eli saw it.
Perched on a lamp post, a figure crouched low, head tilted unnaturally to the side. Its body was thin, skin gray like burned paper, and its eyes—fuck, its eyes—glowed white. Empty. Watching.
A Watcher.
Eli's throat went dry. "No. No, no, no. They don't show up this early."
Sara's fingers curled tight around the table's edge. "They know we remember. That changes the rules."
The Watcher hissed. A sound like static tearing through a radio. Its head twisted a full 180 degrees, locking onto Eli.
Eli shot up from his seat. "Shit—we need to move."
"Where?" Sara asked, already standing, her face pale but steady.
"Anywhere away from that fucking thing!"
They bolted down the street. Nobody else reacted—people walked right through the shadow bleeding off the Watcher, like it wasn't there.
The air grew heavier, colder. Each step felt like running underwater.
Eli glanced back—bad mistake. The Watcher wasn't chasing.It was gliding.
Floating just above the ground, limbs jerking like a broken marionette, mouth stretched into a grin that wasn't human.
Sara grabbed his arm. "Don't look at it! That's how it gets in your head!"
But it was already too late. A whisper slid into Eli's skull—his own voice, twisted and wrong.
Why run, Eli? You're going to die anyway.
He stumbled, clutching his head. The world flickered—an image of himself bleeding in an alley, Sara screaming his name—then snapped back.
Sara yanked him upright. "Listen to me! Don't let it choose the death. Fight it!"
"Fight it with what?!" Eli barked. His hands shook, empty. He had nothing.
Sara's eyes burned with a fire he hadn't seen before. She pulled a blade from her jacket, the steel glinting unnaturally in the half-light.
"Then we make our own rules."
The Watcher screamed, and the world shattered into chaos.