It started with birds falling out of the sky.
Not dead—just… wrong.
They flapped, but sideways.
By noon, an entire city block in downtown New York looked like the laws of physics had given up. Cars hung tilted twenty degrees off the ground. Streetlights bent toward invisible centers. The air itself shimmered, folding light like wet glass.
People filmed it, of course. Within an hour, "#FloatingStreet" was trending. By the next morning, the army had cordoned it off and called it an "energy anomaly."
Jessica called it what it was.
"A fragment bleed," she said, watching the footage beside Frank. "One of your soul echoes punched through the barrier for a second. Just enough to destabilize local physics."
Frank stared at the screen, jaw tight. "How long till it happens here?"
Jessica didn't answer. Her expression—usually smug—was calculating. "Depends which version of you is closest. If it's the Blooded One…"
"Then people die."
"Lots of them in the most painful brutal way."
She floated closer, crossing her arms. "We have to start prepping you for anomaly contact."
"Training?"
"Control. If another bleed happens nearby, you'll feel it before anyone else. You'll be drawn to it. That's both weapon and curse."
Frank ran a hand down his face. "You're saying I'm a magnet for reality breakdowns."
Jessica smiled faintly. "Sexy, right?"
He didn't laugh. "You joke when the world's tearing apart?"
"Better than crying about it and I am invisible," she said quietly.
---
That night, he walked home beneath a sky that hummed with strange stillness. The stars looked closer, sharper, like they were watching.
Emily messaged him:
> You okay? Feels weird out tonight. Like gravity's thicker or something.
He typed back, Yeah. Just noise in the atmosphere.
Then deleted it.
Then typed again: Yeah, I feel it too.
Jessica appeared beside him, dimmed to a soft glow. "She's sensitive," she said. "Probably subconsciously syncing with your energy field."
He frowned. "You mean she's awakening too?"
"Maybe. Or maybe she's near one of your fragments' resonance points. It spreads like a virus in proximity."
"Great. So now I'm infecting people with magic?"
"Not magic. Adaptation."
They stopped at an intersection. A faint vibration passed through the pavement. The traffic lights blinked, then flashed in reverse order—red, yellow, green, then black.
Frank looked up. A shimmer rippled across the night sky, like someone had dropped a pebble into reality's reflection.
Jessica's eyes widened. "It's here."
Before Frank could ask, the horizon fractured—
For half a heartbeat, the skyline doubled. One city layered atop another. Floating spires and red moons flickered behind skyscrapers before vanishing.
Then the world snapped back.
Frank gasped, clutching his chest. "What the hell was that?"
Jessica's tone was deadly calm. "A full dimensional bleed. Another world just brushed this one."
She turned toward the distance, her hologram flickering. "Frank… we're running out of Fuc.ing time better hurry up."
He followed her gaze. Far beyond the city, a dark aurora shimmered—colors too deep for any spectrum.
Something had awakened.
And it was looking back god knows what would happen.