Kevin stood still.
The scent of rotting flesh clawed at him. His stomach twisted. The urge to throw up rose—he forced it down.
He looked around.
Fires burned everywhere, like memories reduced to ash under the weight of time.
A city not just burning but consumed by flames of decay. It seemed to have always been this way.
As if time had forgotten to put out its fires.
Forgotten to end its misery.
He saw them on the horizon—shadows. Unmoving. Simply watching.
A primal instinct stirred—one embedded deep into every living being.
It told him: If you move, you die.
It tugged at him, willing him to stay still.
But Kevin ran—toward the forest, away from those shadows, and especially away from that eerie, burning city—because staying still felt much worse.
In that moment:
Stillness felt worse than death,
Worse than the shadowy gaze,
Worse than the stench of rotting flesh and burning houses.
It felt like giving in—
To something ancient,
Something primordial,
Something that... should not be.
He ran into the forest—letting out a shaky breath as he felt the weight of that gaze lift from his back.
Just the presence of that thing—its mere gaze—had made Kevin break out in a cold sweat, not daring to breathe until it was gone.
The air here felt... Cleaner. Purer. Sharper than the city.
By now, it was clear: whatever this place was, it was not Earth.
At least, not anymore.
It felt surreal to him—the shift from the comfort of his boring, repetitive life, to the horror of the endless void, and finally, to this place—
A place even the gods seemed to have forgotten.
Looking around, even the forest seemed eerily quiet—as if not even this distant land of vast greenery was free from that all-consuming fire of decay. It wasn't burnt—at least not in appearance—but something about it felt so much like the city that it was almost... Unnerving
There wasn't much evidence to back up this feeling, though; it was exactly that—a feeling.
But it felt too... right to be just a feeling.
Looking up, he could still see those shadows on the horizon.
They seemed to be getting closer...
Kevin ran again—pushing himself farther than ever before.
His body had already given up.
But the shadows crept closer.
And he ran farther.
Stopping.
He looked back. The shadows had silently grown closer and closer.
What had once lingered on the horizon was now barely a few meters away.
The fear of death gripped him—forcing him to run, clinging to any and all hope of living even just a moment longer.
His legs carried him farther—from the city, from those shadows, from that thing and its gaze.
Even as he ran, his mind wandered—from that endless void to the burning city, to now fleeing from unrelenting shadows that seemed... less than human.
It all felt surreal.
A part of him wanted to stop.
To believe it was just a nightmare—
One that he could simply wake up from.
Eventually, his body gave in. He was still human after all.
He stopped, gasping for breath. When he looked back...
The horizon was gone.
The shadows now stood before him.
Still shadows—having no clear form, just rotting faces, decaying human limbs and two glowing crimson eyes.
A part of him gave in.
His legs refused to move.
Why?
He already knew the answer.
In front of powers beyond human understanding—
Like that thing,
Like these shadows—
He, a mere human, was powerless to resist.
Standing before those shadows, staring into those deep, abyss-like eyes.
Every moment felt like an eternity—until it didn't.
What followed wasn't pain.
It was something far, far worse.
Looking down, the midsection of his abdomen had disappeared.
Light rapidly drained from his eyes.
His skin turned pale.
Vitality slipped from his body...
The book of his life had reached its conclusion.
Or so he thought...