On a hot Saturday afternoon, just before the sun was about to set, a thin, pale young man with dark eye-bags was sitting on a patch of grass near the city park with his arms outstretched, seemingly begging for food or spare change. He wasn't treated very well by society or fate. Some people only make fun of him, some even physically harm him, and some people just stare at him with disgust.
A group of people nearby was talking about a strange event that had been happening recently. It sounded like a legend. They called it "The Purge." One guy said that people just suddenly disappear without a trace. This month alone, 20 people had already been found lifeless with no physical harm or injuries. Even underlying health problems weren't to blame. This stirred concern among the people — what if it happened to them, too?
Police reports say that the symptoms experienced by the victims were fatigue, heavy breathing, nausea, and sleepiness. The actual disappearances seem to happen two days after the said symptoms were first felt by the person. A lot of the cases that were filed days or months ago seem to lead to unknown death causes, however, those who have returned, experienced memory loss of what had happened to them, the man added.
Seth, being a person who was often lied to for over a decade, didn't give it any credence. He brushed it off as some kind of story somebody had made up on the internet.
Suddenly, a city screen flashed a news report with the headline saying "Disappearance cases stacking up." This caught Seth's attention. The report had stated exactly what the man had said before.
'Huh. That's oddly specific.' he thought.
The city screen caught the attention of every passerby.
Suddenly, Seth noticed a shadowy figure, seemingly unbothered by the news, it kept moving in the direction it was heading. But the figure didn't feel human. It didn't have color. It was simply a figure of.. nothing.
For 10 more seconds the report continued and abruptly ends, almost like it corrupted.
People went on their day with the news in their minds. Seth, however, couldn't stop thinking about that shadowy figure he saw.
By nightfall, he rose to his feet and made his way toward his usual sleeping spot—a bench tucked behind a small waterfall that flowed into a fish pond. It was part of the park's decorative landscape.
While walking, however, he noticed the figure again, this time it seemed like a floating human torso. Then, it disappeared.
Almost immediately afterward, Seth began to feel nauseous followed by fatigue and a heavy chest, causing his breathing to become heavy too. An unusual feeling of sleepiness and tiredness came through his body.
With how he was feeling, he didn't pay much attention to the floating torso he'd just seen and kept walking.
He reached the bench behind the waterfall and laid down. Almost immediately after his eyes closed, he fell into deep slumbering.