The sensation of falling never ended, but the impact did come.
I awoke with my face pressed against a cold, rough ground. The stone beneath my hands was covered in a fine layer of dust that smelled of old iron, and the air… the air had that heavy taste one feels right before a storm breaks. I pushed myself up with difficulty, and as I did, the book appeared in my lap, as if it had been waiting for me there all along.
It was exactly the same one that had floated in the Timeless Room, but now it seemed more… alive. Its black cover pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat. I opened it carefully. The first pages were blank, except for a single line written in precise, almost mechanical handwriting:
[Thread time remaining: 23 hours, 59 minutes]
I didn't understand what it meant, but the urgency it stirred in me was so strong that I snapped the book shut.
I stood and looked around. I was in a narrow street, flanked by tall, misshapen buildings. Their walls looked as though they had been cobbled together from pieces of different constructions: brick, wood, rusted metal… even bleached bone. There was no visible sky, only a dome of purple mist that seemed to pulse slowly.
No people. No sounds… until I heard them.
Footsteps.
Uneven, wet footsteps, as though something were dragging its feet across the ground. I hid behind a corner, holding my breath. And then I saw it.
It wasn't human. Not entirely.Its body resembled a humanoid figure wrapped in filthy bandages, but beneath them, things shifted—things that weren't muscles. Its hands were far too long, each finger ending in a needle of bone. The most disturbing part was its eyes: four black spheres arranged in a diamond shape, each one swiveling independently in every direction.
It stopped. Turned its head toward my hiding place.It had seen me.
The creature began walking toward me, every step accompanied by a dry clatter, like bones striking together. I stumbled backward instinctively, and the book in my hands flew open on its own, words scrawling across the page before my eyes:
[Event: Hostile encounter – Entity of Unknown Class]Rewrite? – Cost: 1 minute of thread
I didn't know what "thread" meant, but the idea of being able to change what was about to happen was intoxicating. My hands trembled. What should I write? Make the creature vanish? Flee?
The creature lunged at me.
Without thinking, I wrote:"The creature stumbles before reaching him."
The letters glowed, and in that instant, the monster's left leg twisted with a grotesque crack, sending it crashing to its knees just inches from me. I bolted, running without looking back.
I ran until my lungs burned, but no footsteps followed. When I finally stopped, the book opened again:
[Thread time remaining: 23 hours, 58 minutes]
Only a single minute had passed. A minute… for a single sentence.
A chill ran through me. If every alteration cost time, what would happen once that counter reached zero?
Before I could reflect further, I heard a murmur behind me. It wasn't the creature from before. This voice was human.
—It's not common to see a newcomer survive the first day.
I turned. A tall man, draped in a tattered gray coat, watched me from the shadow of an alley. He wore a hat that hid his eyes, but his smile… his smile was anything but reassuring.
—Tell me, stranger, he continued, do you already know how many times you can rewrite your story before it starts erasing you instead?