Chapter 3

Gasp... gasp... gasp... Andre awoke covered in sweat.

He looked around his small one-bed apartment; the place was a mess.

'What... was that?'

His heart was still racing.

Before it could get out of control, he took some deep breaths. He was covered in sweat, but he felt good. He could barely move before the 'dream,' but now he was wide awake and alert.

"Guess I won't be needing any coffee today." The words came out more as a whisper than anything. He was still shaken.

Deciding to finally get some water, he fumbled with the bedsheets covering his body before opting to just fling them out of the way. He stood up and slowly walked toward the window in his bedroom; he needed to confirm something first.

He lifted it open with minimal effort, allowing some fresh air into the room as he glanced down and grimaced at the sight.

Everything was a mess. The earthquake had caused massive destruction.

"So That wasn't a dream."

The damage was intense. What was once the bustling city of Manhattan was now completely unrecognizable. Roads were wrecked, cars scattered everywhere. The highway resembled a sea of cars. People had probably tried to escape among the destruction.

'Idiots, being out in the open during an earthquake... Who could've been that stupid?'

Conveniently ignoring the fact that he would've most likely been among those people if it wasn't for that headache.

He offered some silent thanks to Mark. "Idiot probably saved my life. I hope he's okay... Pedro too, that bastard and his family had better be safe."

He continued scanning the area. Buildings were destroyed, and the few that still stood were slanted or missing huge chunks out of them. Thankfully, his building had a very sturdy foundation as it was one of the more expensive apartments.

He wasn't rich, but he did well for himself, construction, although hard on the body. was very lucrative these days. And as a single man with no parents to worry about, he could afford to splurge on some things here and there.

He took a closer look at the buildings reduced to rubble next to his. He saw hints of red splattered all over, although he couldn't find any corpses; The sight was still gruesome.

'That could've been me.'

The grim thought lingered in his head longer than he'd like.

Deciding to look away, he noticed something in the sky. The sun seemed to have almost doubled in size, the moon now had a partner accompanying it in the sky.

'Huh, that's new….well, that's enough for one day. I need some water.'

A normal person would've probably had a panic attack; the world had gone through some major changes, after all. Andre, however, took it in stride. He simply didn't have the energy to care. Not eating or drinking for an entire day does that to you.

Concluding his 'investigation,' he headed into the living area to get some water. Turning on the sink, he made a glass of cold water and sipped it before finally downing the cup in one go. He drank two more cups before he felt satisfied.

Tap... tap... tap...

He froze, head snapping toward the curtained window.

'Hmm, probably just a bird or something.' In the middle of a big city, it wasn't rare for a bird to end up on his balcony.

Tap... tap... tap... tap... tap...

The noise continued, growing more persistent. He knew it was probably nothing, but something felt off. The taps were too heavy for a regular bird. And considering the disaster that had just struck, common sense dictated that the birds would have been long gone.

'Something's not right, but I should still check it out. Maybe someone fell from a higher floor.' The thought made some sense to him. He had previously thought his building was unaffected, but as he wasn't a bird, he had no way to confirm.

Besides, it wasn't completely unreasonable for someone to have fallen from a higher floor. He gave it some more thought before finally steeling his nerves.

He approached the window with small, quiet steps. He tried to instill some confidence in himself. It didn't feel very genuine; he was still nervous, but curiosity took over.

Everything about this situation felt wrong. First, he'd woken up with a headache that lingered until evening, which was weird considering his headaches never lasted that long or had ever been so intense. Then an earthquake struck and he passed out.

And in this unconscious state, he dreamt of some entity giving him some "Nexus" in its own words. When he woke, the sun was sporting a few extra pounds, and two moons now hung in the sky. It all felt like a fever dream, but he could tell it was real.

Somewhere deep down, he simply refused to believe hallucinations could explain everything that had just taken place. That and he had no prior history of schizophrenia.

Tap... tap... screech.

He froze again, his fleeting confidence now replaced by fear. That didn't sound like a person, birds couldn't explain it either. And on the 9th floor, he didn't have to explain why stray cats or dogs couldn't have been an option.

He slowly backed away from the window, returning toward the kitchen. Taking measured steps, he slipped behind the kitchen counter and grabbed a knife with trembling fingers, gripping it so tightly his normally dark knuckles turned pale.

Eyes locked on the window, he held a staring match with it for what seemed like an eternity. Then he noticed something.

The tapping had stopped. He stayed perfectly still, afraid that a single movement might end everything. He was too afraid to speak out and question the thing; he didn't want to draw attention to himself.

Sweat dropped onto the tile floor as minutes passed. Seeing nothing had changed, his nerves calmed down a bit. He breathed a small sigh of relief and his grip loosened on the knife.

'It's fine, everything's fine, nothing's wro–'

Bang... CRASH!

Glass exploded inward, shredding through the curtains and sending glass shards flying everywhere.

A shard cut into his forehead, but he didn't even register it. He had finally caught a glimpse of the intruder.

A creature, black as midnight, stepped into the room. It stood well over six feet tall, with long, slender arms ending in sharp claws instead of fingers. Its legs, reminiscent of a goat's, were hairy and misshapen.

It moved carelessly over the glass shards littering the floor, its hooves thumping against the ground with every step. The creature's presence was suffocating, each movement jerky and unnatural.

Andre looked up, seeing that the inhuman figure had a humanoid head but with no features, other than snake-like slits in place of a nose and a maw filled with teeth whose only design could be for shredding.

[Level 3 Aberrant:

Corrupted beings who have failed to evolve, failures in every sense of the word. Be wary of their sharp claws.]

A screen entered his vision before quickly vanishing. He paid it no mind, not daring to focus on anything other than the abomination that stood in front of him.

One of its arms stretched out and a sharp claw meant to resemble an index finger, pointed directly at him. Its maw widened as a deep guttural noise sounded out.

"Found... you."