The sun had barely risen, but the lower blocks of Glora were alive again vendors shouting prices, engines coughing to life, and the faint smell of fried oil and smoke hanging in the alleys.
I moved slower than usual, keeping my head down, notebook under my arm. The gang encounter yesterday hadn't left me shaken physically, but something had settled in my chest a weight I couldn't shake. Loneliness, I thought. Or maybe something sharper, something waiting.
I passed the corner near Daven Street when I noticed him. Or it.
A figure, tall, thin, leaning against a rusted stairwell. The clothes were simple, nondescript, but the way it moved slow, deliberate made every instinct in me flare. I froze, notebook half-raised, my pulse tightening.
It lifted its head. No eyes I could see. Just a blank face that somehow felt… aware. Watching.
I wanted to walk past, pretend I didn't see it. But my feet betrayed me, moving closer despite every warning.
"You… shouldn't be here," a voice said. Not loud, not angry, just… cold.
I swallowed. "Who are you?"
The figure didn't answer. Instead, it tilted its head, and my skin prickled the hum beneath it, beneath me, rose slightly, almost like recognition.
I blinked, and the figure was gone.
Just like that. No footsteps, no sound, just… empty air.
My knees nearly buckled. I leaned against the stairwell, hands trembling slightly, notebook clutched tight. For the first time, I felt truly… small.
Someone bumped into me from behind. I spun a young street kid, messy hair, backpack slung low. "Yo, you okay, man?" he asked. Just a kid, harmless. But I nodded, heart still pounding, voice quiet: "Yeah… yeah, I'm fine."
I walked on, slower now, scanning every alley, every shadow. Loneliness pressed against me, but now something else had joined it: fear, curiosity, and a strange… anticipation.
Rooftop later, I opened my notebook again. I wrote everything I could remember: the figure, the blank face, the hum.
I didn't know what it meant. But Glora had shifted. The city, my streets, my solitude nothing would feel the same again.