Isaac

It was cold. White puffs of air slipped from my mouth like smoke. Frigid air bit at my skin, and the snow was thick, swallowing half of my boots. Silence draped the world—too much silence. The kind that only comes after a storm.

I looked up. Snowflakes drifted from the sky, glittering like diamonds. It was beautiful, almost serene.

Where was I?

I stood on a road. The interstate. That interstate. The place where everything had gone wrong. My parents. The accident. Where the snowstorm had taken their lives, leaving only wreckage in its wake, but now, there was no wreckage. No people. Just an empty road buried under snow and vehicles scattered like broken toys.

The cars were in decay, twisted, and rotting. Black vines adhered to them like spiderwebs weaving through broken windows and shattered metal.

Black.

My pulse thudded in my ears as my boots crunched through the ice, racing toward where my parents had been. The closer I got, the more the dull ache in my ribs spread, squeezing tighter until it hurt to breathe. But when I reached the car… there was nothing. No bodies. No blood. Just empty stillness.

I reached out and touched the cold surface. The instant my fingers brushed against it, the car crumbled, turning into dust and ash. Gone, just like that.

Had I died, too?

The thought crept in before I could shove it away. Maybe this was it. Maybe I’d finally joined them in whatever limbo we were all trapped in. Maybe that’s why everything was so still, so quiet, like even death had grown tired of the noise.

Then I heard a faint rustle. My heart leaped into my throat, and I spun around, eyes searching. Something moved near the trees by the road. Small. Quick. Darting in the shadows.

“Will?” I called, the words breaking apart in the frozen air. “Will, is that you?”

A giggle. A child’s laugh echoed back. It bounced off the trees, the wrecked cars, the emptiness. I couldn’t tell where it came from—everywhere, nowhere.

“Will!” I shouted again, feet struggling against the deep snow as I chased the sound. “Where are you?”

I promised my sister I’d take care of him. I told her I’d raise him like my own, that I wouldn’t let anything happen to him. But now, it felt like a lie—just like hers.

My feet slid over the icy pavement as I jumped the guardrail. I sprinted toward the forest, but no matter how hard I ran, the trees didn’t get any closer.

This was a dream.

My legs pumped harder, but it was like running through quicksand. The forest loomed just out of reach, mocking me. And then, without warning, the world lurched. One second, I was trapped in place—the next, I was there, among the trees, as if some unseen force had dragged me forward, skipping time like pages in a book.

My breath hitched as I stumbled through the pines, their towering forms casting shadows that felt too long, too twisted. Still, I didn’t stop.

I saw a small figure ahead, his back to me.

“Will!” I panted, lunging forward. I caught hold of him, pulling him into my arms, relief flooding me—until I turned him around.

It wasn’t Will.

The boy in my arms had brown hair, not black. His sun-kissed olive skin didn’t match Will’s pale complexion. His eyes—they weren’t Will’s hazel eyes. They stared at me wide and glowing. His irises were vast, like galaxies in an endless night sky.

“Fuck,” I mumbled, stepping back, still holding him, unable to tear my gaze away. I was frozen. Mesmerized.

The boy tilted his head, his features eerily calm, almost curious. Slowly, he turned his head and looked behind him. I followed his gaze, letting go of his arm.

San Francisco. Or what was left of it?

The snow beneath my boots vanished, replaced by scorched earth. Even though I was far away, I could see everything as if the scene brought itself into focus for me.

Black smoke billowed into the sky, twisting and devouring the skyline. Flames licked at buildings, reducing them to ash. Monsters—creatures straight out of hell—roamed the streets. People ran, screaming. Some fought back, hands glowing with strange powers, but it was chaos.

I stumbled backward. What was I seeing?

“You think you can stop him?” the boy asked. The sound of his voice didn’t match his small frame—it was low, steady, and far too old.

I squinted in confusion, staring at him. “I’m sorry. Stop who?”

“Aldragoth.”

“Me?” I blurted. “What… No… You’ve got the wrong person.”

The kid’s eyes glimmered with something I couldn’t place—amusement, maybe.

All I wanted—all I could think about—was finding Will. If these were the final days, I needed to be with him. That’s all that mattered. Not Aldragoth. Not forgotten gods. Not whatever nightmare the world had become.

The boy tilted his head again. His galaxy-filled eyes narrowed as if he were seeing right through me. “Hmm, interesting,” he murmured. “I thought my vestige would reach someone with a stronger soul. I’m curious now why they chose you.”

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog in my brain. “Chose me? What the hell are you talking about?”

He didn’t answer right away. Just looked at me with those unsettling eyes. Then, slowly, he smiled. Cold. Knowing. A smile that sent a chill down my spine.

The kid touched his chin, murmuring as if deep in thought. “Do you believe a god born from humans will stop at just seven days?”

I scoffed. “Do you think I care about some god I know nothing about, floating here to mess everything up?”

“No. He won’t. That was the last thing he told me before I left an essence of myself wandering this earth. Because I knew… I knew this day would come.”

“Are you even listening?” I snapped, but he didn’t respond.

The boy’s gaze drifted back to the burning skyline. “Foolish Aldragoth. He can destroy as much as he wants, but Isaac, time doesn’t belong to him.”

I froze. “How the fuck do you know my name? Who the fuck… are you?”

He looked at me then, his smile widening just a fraction. His eyes flickered, and the air around us shifted. The time seemed to speed up and slow down all at once.

“Time is like a river, looping back on itself. Every age, every moment—it all ends and begins again. Just as the sun rises after every night, so too does time reset. Gods like Aldragoth are bound by the flow of time.”

“This is bullshit. There’s no such thing as gods anymore.”

The boy lifted his arms, and the temperature dropped sharply. The space between us rippled like a stone dropped into water. When he clenched his fist, the ground and sky bent and twisted, pulling toward him as if gravity had shifted. The dream around us spiraled, dragging me along with it into the vortex.

Out of the blue, we weren’t standing in the snow anymore, nor surrounded by the burning wreckage of San Francisco. We stood on the edge of an abyss, and I saw Will—right there in front of me—tears streaming down his face as he cried out. Someone was carrying him, clutching him tight, and running.

“Will!” I screamed, my legs moving before my mind could catch up. I tried to cross over, desperate to reach him, but the boy’s hand shot out, gripping my arm with iron strength.

In an instant, rusted, burning chains coiled around my wrist, snaking up my arm like serpents, rooting me in the spot.

“Not yet,” he said. “Your body will break. You’ll disappear into the aether of time.”

“Let me go!” I hissed, yanking at the chains. Their grip was unyielding. I pulled harder, but the chains constricted by the second. The space was fracturing, shattering, and reforming in waves. My arms started to break apart, skin splitting, only to snap back together in searing flashes of pain.

Then, everything imploded, collapsing inward with violent force, crushing everything into itself like a bomb. The blast hurled me backward, the impact driving the breath from my lungs as I slammed hard into the abyss ground. It felt solid, though I knew it wasn’t entirely real. I lay there, gasping, vision blurred, my body burning from the aftershock.

I could barely move. My limbs felt made of lead, every muscle screaming in protest as I tried to push myself up. But before I could manage that, the boy was already standing over me, looming as I remained sprawled on the ground.

I gritted my teeth. “What the hell… did you do to me?” I spat. “Who the fuck are you?”

He crouched down, pressing his forehead against mine. His skin was cool, and for a second, everything stilled. “I see now… why you’re the one. You don’t seek the past. You know time isn’t meant to be turned back, even after all you’ve lost. That’s why the vestige chose you, not because of your blood. It found someone who doesn’t want to rewrite what’s gone, but who has the strength to move forward… and save those who remain.”

“I told you! You’ve got the wrong person!” I rasped. Then, a silver spark flickered from his forehead into mine, flooding my vision with blinding white. Chronos continued, his tone softer.

“The descendants may hold godly power, but it will tear them apart, piece by piece, as it consumes them. However, Aphrodite—at least she had the sense to help me craft something different for you. Something that will allow you to withstand it. I’d love to continue our chat, but it would be best if you woke up. See you soon,” he whispered, his breath ghosting over my skin.

“Wait! You didn’t answer me! Who are you?” I screamed, struggling to rise as the light between us pulsed.

“Chronos.”