The fog thinned slowly as we followed the avenue toward the city square—thinned, but didn't fade. It hovered like a reluctant guest, clinging to the sides of buildings and pooling along the road, but the closer we got to the center, the more… normal everything looked.
Normal enough that I actually slowed down, blinking.
People.
Actual people.
Walking around.
A couple pushing a stroller.
A man unlocking his bike.
Two teenagers laughing loudly at something on a phone.
A woman juggling grocery bags while her kid demanded a snack.
The world hadn't ended here. It had just… kept going.
Theo let out a baffled noise. "What in—did we step into the wrong city?"
Mira scanned the area, confused. "This doesn't match any of the reports from our last briefing …"
Silva didn't comment. She just lowered her guard by exactly one percent, which for Silva was equivalent to a normal person relaxing on a couch with hot tea.
I kept walking, staring openly. The fog still wafted around everyone's ankles, but none of the civilians reacted to it. They just… passed through it like it was aesthetic decoration.
A street vendor was selling grilled skewers on a corner, fanning the smoke with a small cardboard square. The smell drifted over to us—warm, savory, actually delicious.
My stomach made a traitorous little sound.
[If you want one, just ask,] the Parade Owner murmured in my head, tone amused.
[I'm very certain your friends won't let you starve on duty.]
'Or they'll yell at me,' I thought back.
[Ah, the joys of teamwork.]
We regrouped near the entrance of the square. It was wide, open, and bright with midday light—even if the fog dimmed the colors slightly. A fountain gurgled at the center, spraying water in lazy arcs. Children were playing near it, kicking a ball back and forth. A small dog barked excitedly at pigeons that were absolutely not afraid of it.
Everything looked painfully, aggressively normal.
Theo scratched his cheek. "I'm—sorry, but this looks like a postcard. Weren't we supposed to walk into Silent Hill?"
"Reports can be wrong," Mira muttered, though her voice was too careful to be casual.
Silva inhaled, then exhaled. "We proceed as planned. Watch. Observe. Document. But don't disturb the civilians."
Theo raised a brow. "Disturb? I feel like we're the ones being disturbed by… all this."
A little girl from the fountain glanced our way, tilting her head at us suspiciously. Then she lost interest and chased after the ball again.
I rubbed the back of my neck, lowering my voice. "So… if the city is restless, why is everyone acting like it's lunch hour?"
[Because,] the Owner replied gently,
[Peoplw wear faces, my friend. Especially when they're scared. These People might be simply showing you their friendliest today.]
'Should I be grateful?'
[You should be mildly suspicious, but grateful works too.]
Theo nudged me with his elbow. "You look like you're listening to a podcast we can't hear."
"I'm listening to life, Theo."
"Ah yes, the audiobook version of existential dread."
We kept moving down a street lined with cafés, small shops, and bright signs. A florist rearranged bouquets in front of her store, oblivious to the fog curling around the petals. People sat at outdoor tables, sipping iced drinks, typing on laptops, chatting about taxes or TV shows or anything not related to potential anomalies.
I tried not to stare too hard at them.
Partly because Silva told us not to draw attention,
and partly because I genuinely didn't know how this many people weren't bothered by the atmosphere and all the missing cases.
A boy zipped past us on a scooter and almost clipped Theo's leg.
"HEY!" Theo barked, hopping back. "Watch it!"
The kid yelled, "SORRY!" without actually sounding sorry, and he kept going.
Mira snorted. "Who neeeds an Anomaly when Sir Senior Investigator over here gets Attacked by a scooter?"
Theo made a wounded sound. "I swear to god—"
Silva suddenly stopped, forcing all of us to halt.
We followed her gaze.
She wasn't staring at anything dramatic—just a billboard overhead, flickering slightly as the fog interfered with the screen. An advertisement looped across it: a sale, a smiling model, a logo.
Silva watched it for a moment longer, then turned away and kept walking.
"Everything looks functional."
Mira nodded reluctantly. "Yes. And that's what worries me. Its unusual."
Theo hummed. "Maybe the anomaly took a day off."
"That," Mira said, "is not how anomalies work."
We walked without speaking for a bit, the sounds of the vibrant city drifting around us.
Laughter.
Street chatter.
Distant music from a café.
The splash of the fountain.
All so normal it bordered on surreal.
I shoved my hands into my pockets. "So what's the plan? Since it looks like the city's just… vibing."
Silva answered without turning around. "We make a perimeter sweep. Mark inconsistencies. Gather environmental data. Then we return home and compare results."
I nodded, relieved.
Research day.
I could handle research day.
No monsters.
No cryptic voices.
Just walking and pretending to look professional.
[You do look professional,] the Owner said cheerfully.
[In the way a startled rabbit might look professional if handed a clipboard.]
'I'm starting to think you enjoy bullying me.'
[Me? Never. I'm simply helping you grow.]
I rolled my eyes internally.
As we moved down another boulevard, a cluster of office workers spilled out of a building for lunch break. One of them waved his hands animatedly while recounting a story, the others laughing along. Someone walked their dog. A couple debated over the correct bus route.
This place wasn't abandoned, cursed, or panicked.
It was… alive.
Which, honestly, somehow felt stranger than if it had been empty.
Silva motioned us to keep going.
And so our strange little Team—
a socially awkward leader,
an analytical coffee addict,
a sarcastic troublemaker,
and me, the accidental vessel for a sparkly omnipotent market owner—
continued deeper into the bustling city center.
Nothing happened.
Nobody screamed.
Nothing twisted or warped.
No signs appeared.
No warnings echoed.
Just a city living its life.
And somehow, that was unsettling in its own quiet, harmless way.
For a while, all we did was walk.
The city center unfolded in familiar loops—cafés with mismatched chairs, bakeries giving off warm vanilla-scented air, bookstores with those handwritten SALE signs that looked like they'd survived three summers already.
People moved normally, chatting, carrying shopping bags, sipping iced coffee despite the fog making the air colder than it should've been. A kid zipped past on a scooter. A man fed pigeons like he did this every day. A woman scolded her dog for trying to eat something suspicious off the ground.
Nothing about it said anomaly.
If anything… it felt too normal.
Theo eventually sighed dramatically. "Okay, but seriously—how does a city infested with a reality-warping anomaly have better cafés than ours?"
Mira didn't break stride. "Do your taste buds think about coffee during reconnaissance?"
"Yes," he replied immediately.
I snorted. "Honestly? Same."
Silva, walking ahead, didn't comment—but the way her shoulders relaxed, just a little, meant the joke helped.
Hours drifted by like that.
Street after street.
Crowd after crowd.
Nothing unusual. No distortion. No missing-person clues. No weird sounds. Not even a flicker of electromagnetic interference on Mira's device.
Eventually Theo groaned and stretched his arms above his head.
"We've circled this place three times," he whined. "At this point I'm convinced the anomaly took the day off."
"Anomalies don't take days off," Mira said.
"Well, someone should teach them about work-life balance."
Silva stopped at a crosswalk, scanning the area slowly, her eyes following the patterns of people, buildings, shadows.
"We continue," she said. "We haven't covered the northern blocks yet."
Theo leaned toward me. "Translation: no escape."
"Pretty much."
As we crossed the street, I rubbed the back of my neck—
that faint pressure from earlier hadn't returned, but the memory of it lingered like the ghost of a touch.
'Everything looks normal,' I thought. 'So why does it feel like we're walking through the setup of a bad joke?'