I jolted upright in bed, heart slamming against my ribs. Panic gripped me before my eyes had even adjusted to the dim morning light leaking through the cracks in my curtains.

I launched myself out of bed, narrowly avoiding the scattered minefields of clothes, notebooks, and old food packets that had colonized my floor over the past few days. 

My room was, in the simplest terms, a disaster. The kind of disaster so deeply entrenched it had become ritual.

I grabbed some clothes sprawled over the back of my chair. I yanked them free, not bothering to check if they were wrinkled. Of course they were.

I put them on with jerky, frantic movements, jamming my arms through the baggy short sleeves and nearly tripped over myself as I struggled into the oversized shorts.

My curls were a mess—short, wild, dirty-blonde things that defied gravity, like even they refused to obey the rules. I flattened them down with damp palms, trying to force some sense of order, but they sprang back as soon as I stopped.

In the mirror, my reflection stared back at me—gray eyes still heavy with sleep, panic tightening every line of my face. I splashed cold water onto my cheeks and slapped them lightly, hoping it would help. It didn't.

I grabbed my bag, then bolted.

The apartment's stairwell twisted like a corkscrew—old and narrow, the air thick with the scent of mildew and stone. I vaulted down the steps two at a time, my boots ringing out against the concrete. Everything echoed in here. My breath, my footsteps, my curse words.

"Shit, shit, shit—!"

At the bottom, I shoved open the fire exit and burst onto the street, bumping into a vendor who was setting up his stall.

"Watch it, kid!" he shouted, shaking a gloved hand at me.

"Sorry!"

The morning crowd had already started to thicken. People moved with a kind of slow, mechanical rhythm—workers in uniforms, kids walking to school in clusters, the occasional merchant pushing a cart. I weaved through them like a thread through fabric, heart racing faster than my feet.

Light spilled over the rooftops of the surrounding limestone buildings, staining everything in soft yellows and golds. The sun was barely over the horizon, but the air was already warm—humid with the promise of summer. The scent of dust and smoke clung to everything.

In the distance, the shattered skeletons of skyscrapers caught the morning light. Their twisted, hollow frames towered above the lower buildings like rusted ghosts of another era. Some were patched up, repurposed into housing or training halls—their insides gutted and refitted—but most were just… remnants.

Still there. Still watching.

I crossed a narrow bridge spanning a shallow river. The water below shimmered, glinting like broken glass. It wound through the city like a scar.

To my left, a man leaned against a wall and lit a cigarette with his fingers. Fire danced over his knuckles like it belonged there, flickering gold and orange before vanishing into smoke with a sharp snap.

My breath was tight in my chest, my limbs burning from the sprint, but I pushed harder. Through alleyways, dodging all the crowds, striding over the small ditches in the pavement—all until—

There it was, across just one more river, was school.

It looked more like a fortress than a place of learning. The lower levels were reinforced with steel and thick glass, probably scavenged from old buildings.

Above that, the building stretched into a forgotten tower of rust, shattered windows, and exposed floors. The top was just a network of twisted steel beams exposed like bones.

All that was left was a bridge to cross the stream.

"Oh, come on."

Floating lazily above the river was Arin.

His silhouette was unmistakable—small, lanky, black hair that caught the sun and shimmered like dark water. He wore a signature green jumper that he'd stitched back together and some checkered shorts.

He hovered around a meter above me in height, lying flat on his back as if the sky itself were a hammock.

When he saw me, his grin split across his face.

"So," he called down, smug as ever, "Kael… you gonna be late again?"

"Woke up late, I guess," I replied, stopping at the base of the bridge, panting. "Maybe if you came and got me, I wouldn't be hauling ass through the city."

He floated down a little, just out of reach. "You know, I could fly you. But that would ruin your cardio."

"You fly everywhere," I barked back.

"Exactly. One of us has to stay fit." He smiled, flipping upside down in the air and sticking his tongue out.

"You're just lazy," I replied.

He didn't deny it. Instead, he twisted upright and shot toward the school gates like a dart.

He touched down gently on the sidewalk, spun on his heel, and gave me an obnoxious bow. He laughed, full and bright. A few students glanced over—some snickering, others just shaking their heads. Arin always drew attention.

"Fuck… show-off," I murmured.

And honestly? I didn't mind. Seeing him like that made the stress peel off my shoulders. Just a little.

My body convulsed.

It was sudden, violent. Like the world yanked the floor out from under me.

Every nerve in my body screamed as the air around me thickened and shattered all at once. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't scream.

It felt like space had folded inward—like I'd fallen into myself.

Then, nothing.

Just silence.

It was as if space didn't exist.

And then—

My vision snapped back, followed by a sound.

A sickening crunch.

I was standing. Somehow.

But I felt… wrong. Thick. Coated in something heavy.

Then I saw it… No, him.

It was Arin.

He was on the ground.

Motionless.

His body—

His right side was just… gone. Not torn. Not burned. Just erased. Like someone had taken a knife to the fabric of reality and carved him out of it.

Blood pooled onto the pavement. It seeped into my clothes.

I clutched my head, as if trying to dig out the lancing pain.

I couldn't look away.

I couldn't move.

"A… Ari—"

His name caught in my throat like glass.

Around me, people screamed. Students ran. Some froze. One girl dropped her bag and just stood there, shaking.

But I couldn't hear them. Not really. Everything sounded like it was underwater. Distant. Muffled.

All I could see was him.

What was left of him.

My chest tightened. My limbs felt distant, like they didn't belong to me anymore.

And then—

White.

A searing, blinding flash.

Pain lanced through my head, white-hot and merciless, striking like lightning.

My legs gave out.

The last thing I felt was the cold embrace of the earth.