Chapter 1: The Total Black Out
The first thing I felt was darkness, not the darkness you experience when you switch off a light; this one was deeper and emptier. Then came the rain, cold drops hit my face and arms, each one sharp as a tiny needle. Silence followed, a scary silence. No cars, no voices, no footsteps. Only the drip of water somewhere above me.
I quickly sat up, gasping for air, coughing, my hands sinking into the wet ground, hmmm … that wasn't supposed to happen.
This does not make sense. Just a few minutes ago, I was on my couch at home, scrolling through my phone, noticing some missed calls and unread messages, and I didn't care to reply to them.
Now…
Now I was lying in an alleyway that stretched too far, the walls covered in glowing symbols I couldn't read, maybe because it was written in an unknown language and signs. The air smelled bad, like smoke mixed with rotten eggs. I could almost taste it.
The sky looked like lightning right before an angry storm with rough edges tearing through the clouds.
And then it hit me: my heart wasn't beating.
I pressed a hand against my chest. Nothing. No thump, no rhythm. Just empty stillness where life was supposed to be.
"If I were you, I wouldn't be here chilling."
The voice came from the shadows. A girl stepped forward, her eyes glowing faintly gray. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and her curly red hair rested on her shoulders like fire in the gloom. She wore ragged robes stitched with red thread, and at her waist hung a sword that shimmered like starlight.
I was startled with great fear. "Wh–who are you? Where… is this?" My voice cracked, my throat raw and dry.
She tilted her head, studying me like I was some broken puzzle. "You don't belong to the living anymore," she said, her voice calm but heavy. "Welcome to the Border of Souls."
The words clawed into me. I opened my mouth to argue, to laugh it off, to say something, anything, but then the sky split open. Cracks of light tore across the sky, and from them spilled things with too many eyes and too many teeth. Their bodies twisted like smoke and shadow, but their mouths… their mouths were endless.
The girl grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to my feet.
"Run like your soul depends on it, unless you want to die twice."
My legs obeyed before my brain did. We dashed through the alley, the glowing symbols on the walls spread out as the creatures descended. Their screeches scared me to my bones, a sound that was both hunger and hatred.
"Keep moving!" the girl shouted.
I stumbled over puddles, slipped on the slippery ground, my lungs burning as though no air seemed to satisfy me. I risked a look back at the creatures and instantly wished I hadn't. One of the things was crawling along the walls, upside down, its cluster of eyes fixed on me, and saliva if that's what it is, dripped from its jagged teeth and splashed as it hit the ground.
"What are those things?!" I screamed.
"Hunters," she said. "They devour souls that wander too close to the cracks. And right now, you're their favorite meal."
She tightened her grip on my arm and pulled me around a corner. A massive gate loomed before us, carved from black stone and designed with the same glowing symbols as the alley. Two statues of winged figures guarded it, their faces hidden beneath hoods.
The girl pressed her hand to the gate, chanting in a strange language. The symbols displayed a bright light across the surface, like blood flowing through the veins.
The Hunters cried out from behind us, closing in. I could feel their hunger yearning for my very being.
"Hurry!" I begged.
She didn't answer, just kept pushing harder against the gate. The stone groaned, and slowly, annoyingly slowly, it began to open.
The first Hunter jumped at me.
I froze, my body refusing to move, my mind caught between fight and collapse. Its large mouth opened wider than its body, ready to swallow me whole.
The girl drew her sword in the blink of an eye. A flash of silver light cut through the air, and the Hunter screamed as it split apart, dissolving into the smoke that smelled of ash and rot.
"MOVE!" she shouted.
The gate finally parted enough for us to slip through. She shoved me inside and followed, slamming it closed with a thunderous boom.
Silence...
I collapsed against the ground, trembling. The air here was different. It's cooler, cleaner, though still heavy with something strange. The rain had stopped. Instead, faint lights moved in the air, like fireflies made of glass.
My chest still felt hollow. No heartbeat. No warmth. Just a cold awareness that I was… wrong.
The girl wiped her sword and sheathed it, finally turning to face me fully.
"You're lucky," she said flatly. "Most souls don't get a guide. They wander until the Hunters tear them apart."
I swallowed hard, my mouth dry. "A guide? So… what happens to me now?"
She studied me again, those gray eyes unreadable. "That depends. Some souls move on. Some get dragged down. And some…" Her lips curved, not quite a smile. "Some fight."
"Fight what?"
Her hand brushed the hilt of her sword. The cracks are widening. The Hunters aren't the only things spilling out. This border is collapsing, and when it does, both your world and mine are finished.
I shook my head, struggling to process. No. This has to be a dream. I was just at home. I was alive.
Were you? she asked quietly.
Her words cut deeper than her blade ever could. Memories flashed in my mind, my phone screen glowing, the ignored calls, the messages I didn't answer. The exhaustion I'd felt was a hard press on my chest. And then… nothing.
What's your name? she asked suddenly.
I blinked at her. Why?
"Because if I'm risking my neck dragging you through this mess, I should at least know what to call you."
I hesitated, then I whispered, "My name is Jay Wood."
She nodded once. "I'm Liz Jonasty."
The name lingered in the air like smoke, heavy with meaning I couldn't grasp.
I looked at the moving lights and the endless horizon beyond the gate. My fear mixed with a strange and terrible curiosity.
Maybe I was dead. Maybe I was trapped. Maybe this was all some hallucination. But one thing was certain: whatever the Border of Souls was, I wasn't ready to vanish into nothing.
As Liz's gray eyes watched me, and as the faint tremors of more cracks fell from the sky, I realized something terrifying.
This was only the beginning.