Rain fell harder than it should in May.
Jerry Tenyson sat on the cracked sidewalk across from the fenced ruins of Obsidian Genetics Lab, a place the city pretended didn't exist. The building had collapsed a week ago—burned, blackened, erased. On paper, it had been an R&D site for agricultural biotech.
But Jerry knew better.
He had been inside it.
And he shouldn't be alive.
His hoodie clung to his back like wet skin. Every few minutes, a distant siren cried through the fog, but no one ever came here. The city called it a "containment zone" now. Sealed off. Dangerous. Radioactive, they said.
Jerry knew that was a lie too.
It wasn't radiation that had melted steel and torn the floor open like paper.
It was something else.
Something that now pulsed quietly beneath his skin.
He rubbed his arms, trying to keep warm, but it wasn't the cold that made him shake. It was the memory.
One week ago, he was just a broke 17-year-old student looking for a way out. His mom had begged him to take the offer—"Easy money for some harmless testing," they said. A few blood samples. Maybe some nerve readings.
But on that final day, the scientists changed their tone.
Words like resonance. Essence compatibility. Containment failure.
He remembered sitting in the white room, staring at the glowing black orb inside the glass cylinder. It throbbed like a living heart, encased in a tank that hissed with pressure seals.
"Subject #113-A shows 97% compatibility."
That was the last thing he heard before the glass cracked—and everything exploded.
Screams. Sirens. Static in his ears. Something slithered under his skin like burning wires. And then…
Darkness.
When Jerry woke, the lab was gone.
Twisted bodies. Shattered walls. Fire on the ceiling.
But he was alive—no burns, no injuries, just a symbol burned into his palm. A twisting black glyph, faintly glowing violet.
He'd run.
He hadn't stopped running since.
Now, a week later, Jerry sat alone in the rain, wondering if he was still human.
Sometimes he heard voices—distant whispers curling in the edges of his thoughts.
Sometimes he dreamed of teeth and claws. Of tearing something apart. Of becoming something that didn't bleed.
And sometimes, just sometimes, his reflection didn't blink when he did.
He closed his eyes and whispered, "What did you do to me?"
The answer came not from his mouth, but from inside his bones.
"We made you remember what the world was meant to forget."
Jerry's eyes shot open.
The glyph on his palm flared.
And the rain… stopped midair.
Frozen droplets hovered like glass.
His breath caught in his throat as a shimmer warped the air ahead. Like heatwaves. Then—a low hum. A throb beneath his feet.
And in the middle of the dead street, a crack formed in empty space.
A rift.
Thin, red lines tore through the air like glass shattering in slow motion.
A shape began to step through.
Tall. Hooded. Wrapped in flesh-colored robes covered in circuitry. Its face flickered with screens showing ancient symbols and static eyes.
Jerry stood instinctively, his heart pounding.
The thing spoke.
Its voice was not human. It sounded like a machine learning to pray.
"Subject 113-A. Unauthorized host of Abyss Core. Stand by for extraction."
Jerry stumbled back.
"What—what are you?"
"We are the erasers of broken timelines."
The thing raised its hand.
A pulse of force shot forward.
Jerry barely dodged. It hit the sidewalk behind him, blasting concrete into ash.
He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know how—but his hand moved.
The glyph on his palm lit up.
His blood burned.
And then—
Power.
Pure and savage, like something waking up in his marrow.
Dark tendrils of energy burst from his back. His skin split, revealing black scales beneath. His eyes burned violet.
And when he opened his mouth…
He roared.
The world tilted. The thing tried to retreat into its rift.
Jerry didn't let it.
One step forward.
One arm raised.
Boom.
The street shook as a beam of violet flame shot from his palm, tearing straight through the enemy.
It didn't scream.
It just dissolved.
Jerry fell to his knees.
Chest heaving. Hands trembling.
The rain started falling again.
But it didn't wash away the blood on the street.
Or the monster that now lived inside him.
To be continued…