Eva Baker trudged home after another long day at her IT job. Her one-bedroom apartment on the edge of London wasn't much, but it was hers, quiet, predictable, and away from people.
Frustration from back-to-back meetings still buzzed in her head. She slipped in her earbuds, letting music drown out the city as she walked along the pavement.
Then the sky flashed.
A streak of light tore through the clouds, burning bright as it barreled toward the earth.
Eva froze. The glow was too close, too fast and then it vanished behind the buildings. A wave of heat brushed against her face, but there was no sound, no explosion. The world around her kept moving like nothing had happened.
She looked around.
"Did… no one see that ?"
People passed by, glued to their phones.
Her pulse quickened. Whatever it was, only she had noticed.
Eva followed the faint glow until her legs ached. Hours seemed to slip by before she found herself standing on a deserted rooftop, staring at something that shouldn't exist.
It was floating in midair, a sheet of golden paper, shining softly, pulsing with warmth.
She raised her phone to take a picture. The screen showed nothing.
"Wow. I'm hallucinating now," she muttered, rubbing her eyes.
She took a taxi home, but the warmth followed her. Even after a shower and a simple chicken dinner, she couldn't shake it. The light still lingered behind her eyelids when she tried to sleep.
Morning came, but the warmth hadn't faded.
She tried to tell her friends about it, testing their reactions, but no one else could see or feel a thing.
That left her with one option, to go back.
After a quick omelet-and-toast breakfast, she booked another taxi and returned to the rooftop. The paper floated there, just as before.
Eva stepped closer. This time, she reached out.
The paper pulsed once and vanished.
Pain slammed into her skull. Her body burned from the inside out. She gasped, watching her hands glow with the same golden light before the world collapsed into darkness.
When she opened her eyes, she was floating in endless black. Only the golden page remained, hovering in front of her.
Words appeared across its surface, glowing like molten metal. She didn't recognize the language, yet she understood every word:
> "The second eternal body in the eternal verse."
> "The origin seeks to explore and cannot be confined."
> "The origin has left. Protection lasts 99,999 cycles."
> "Corruption shall come, and all shall end unless the second eternal body surpasses the origin dao in time."
Eva stared, speechless. None of it made sense eternal body, origin, dao?
Before she could think, the darkness shattered.
She woke up on the same rooftop. Six hours had passed.
Heart racing, she grabbed her phone and called her manager. "I… had an accident," she lied. "Lost my phone. I'll take an emergency leave."
At home, she took another long bath and collapsed onto her bed.
The golden page was gone, but the warmth still present under her skin.
Sleep came slowly, with one thought burning in her mind:
What was that thing?