The creature slipped through the thin places of reality, flickering from one shadow to another. It moved without sound, without shape. Just a smear of darkness crawling across alleys, flickering through train yards, curling up the sides of buildings like smoke caught in a rising draft.
It didn't understand what it was yet.
It only knew it was here.
This place… this world… it was heavy. Slow. Thick with smells and sounds it couldn't parse. It tasted metal and blood in the air, felt vibrations through the cracked ground that rattled against its flickering form. It heard birds screaming overhead, wind whispering against crumbling concrete, distant music pulsing from glowing windows.
And underneath it all… hearts beating. Billions of hearts. Each thump radiating warmth and hunger and terror.
