The light burned behind his eyelids, it wasn't painful, it felt like waking up from a dream he never knew he was in.
When he opened them, the city had changed again, glass towers bent like trees, streets rippled like water, then went back to normal.
Instead, the world felt thinner, it was like an entirely new city, compared to the one before full of life, this almost felt like the static city he was in before, but this world was far from static. Behind him, the shadow snarled, no longer a shadow, but a beast made of fragmented nightmares.
"What is this place?" He asked, readying to run away.
She sheathed her mirror-sword, "Let's run first first, talk later!"
"Y—Yeah, you're right, let's g—"
She sprinted for it, cutting him off, "Try to keep up!"
"How is she so fast—" His thoughts were cut off by the snarls of the beasts.
It chased, but he ran, after a minute of running, his lungs burned, every inhale felt necessary. His legs screamed with each stride, and the fact that he has never done cardio, is not helping at all.
The beast behind him snarled louder, close enough that he could hear its claws skitter across pavement like a fork being dragged on a chalkboard.
"Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!" He gasped, weaving between warped lampposts and flickering street signs. Ahead, was a twisted park fence, similar to the one he use to sit on in the static city.
He didn't think, he couldn't afford to think. He jumped over the fence, the rusty top grazing his skin, and with that, blood smeared down his arm.
Behind him, the beast smashed through it, not bothering to jump. He ran even faster because of it.
Through rows of park benches, he dodged left, and then cuts a hard right, knocking one over as he passed. The beast stumbled, for just a second, but he heard it correct it self, and ran even faster now.
"C'mon, think, think—!" He spat between his breaths, feet pounding over the gravel paths.
A fallen tree, its roots looked like gnarled hands, jutted out from the path. He leapt, caught one if the roots with one hand, then swung his legs over.
He didn't look back. He could feel the thing gaining again.
Then, an opening came to view. "The park bridge! "
Old, iron, and beautiful. Beautiful in that 'might collapse any day now' kind of way. Below it, was a river, dark, cold and extremely fast.
"There's no way—" he muttered, heart pounding. "No way I can outrun that thing…"
He skidded to a stop near the middle of the bridge, then turned, the beast charged, all muscle and no hesitation.
He spun around, bracing himself, and jumped.
Air roared past his ears.
The beast followed him without question, diving off the bridge after him like a goddamn freight train made of nightmares.
The thing is, he didn't actually fall.
At the last second, he twisted mid-air, grabbing the edge of the bridge with both of his hands. The jolt nearly dislocated his shoulder, pain shot like lightning down his arms, but he held on.
He dangled there, breathing hard, blood dripping into the water below.
The beast splashed into the river, and then, a sickening watery thud. He waited, a second passed, then two, after confirming their weren't any beasts at the top, he hauled himself up over the railing with everything he had, collapsing onto the bridge's wooden planks.
"Nope, not dying like that today." He groaned, crawling to his feet.
He didn't wait to see what the thing did next. He ran again, slipping between stone columns at the bridge's edge, he dropped into a muddy slope that led toward the old city district. The streets narrowed here, and was less advanced. Well, this world was technologically inferior to the city he introduced to after escaping the static city. But this is better for his current situation, it was more cluttered, meaning more places to hide.
The woman from before appeared ahead, waiting.
"This way," she urged, her voice was sharp, but calm.
She moved through a doorway, he followed, inside, he was met with a long hallway.
"By the way, why didn't you help me?" He's been asking this question in his head whilst he was being chased before.
She turned and replied with a cold gaze, "I didn't want the person I gave the seed to, be too reliant on other people, and stay weak."
"Oh, okay..., where are we, by the way? What is this world? Why is it different from the one before? Why did you give me the seed? Why am I getting involved?" He asked, wanting answers.
She smiled, "You'll find out soon enough, but first follow me."
Inside the room held one clock. But that was not your ordinary clock, this counted his memories, instead of minutes. Each tick was a lost thought, each tock a forgotten face.
"This is all that's left..." She said, gesturing at the clock
"Why?" he asked.
"Because you're halfway forgotten even by yourself."
"... "
Scratch.
Scratch.
The beast clawed at the door, she pushed him forward, urgency was in her eyes.
"You have to fill it, at the very least, stop it from emptying, or this world, this city, will erase you."
"But how?"
She smiled, "By remembering."
"Remember what?"
"Who you are, and why you were never meant to be here, but was forced to."
He started to feel something stir, a name, someone's face, a feeling buried beneath. With that, the clock began to tick backwards,
He knew he wasn't ready, but he has no other choices left.
He let out a deep sigh as he clutches his first, "Okay, let's try this out."
End of Chapter 4.