The Anomaly

Cipher stood at the edge of the rooftop, his breath slow and measured. The city stretched before him, a sea of flickering neon and restless shadows. But beneath the illusion of normalcy, something was wrong. The air felt charged, vibrating with an unseen force.

He checked his phone again. Nova's last message remained unread, a simple set of coordinates sent just minutes ago. A place he knew all too well—the old train yard on the outskirts of the city.

Cipher exhaled and pocketed the device.

He had seen enough to know that whatever was happening wasn't just affecting him. The world itself was shifting, breaking in ways no one could explain. The streetlights flickered, the air shimmered, and the past few days had felt like walking through a distorted reflection of reality.

His mind drifted back to what Nova had said.

"It's worse than you think."

Cipher gritted his teeth. He was done being in the dark.

With a final glance at the city below, he turned and made his way down the fire escape, blending into the shadows of the alley.

The train yard was abandoned, its steel skeleton rusting beneath the dim glow of a half-dead streetlight. Cipher moved carefully, each step deliberate. The air here was different—thicker, humming with a barely contained energy.

Nova was waiting near one of the old freight cars, her face partially hidden by the hood of her jacket. She didn't turn when she spoke.

"You felt it too, didn't you?"

Cipher stopped a few feet away. "Yeah."

She finally turned to face him. "Then we don't have much time."

Nova gestured toward a screen she had set up on a crate. It displayed an aerial map of the city, but Cipher immediately noticed the problem.

Parts of it were… missing.

"This isn't a glitch," she said. "It's an anomaly."

Cipher narrowed his eyes. "What kind of anomaly?"

"The kind that shouldn't exist." She tapped the screen, zooming in on the distortion. "These areas—they aren't just vanishing. They're being rewritten."

Cipher felt a cold weight settle in his gut. "By what?"

Nova hesitated. "I don't know yet. But whatever it is, it's getting stronger."

He clenched his fists. "Then we find it before it finds us."

Nova nodded. "Agreed. But there's one more thing."

She pulled up another screen. This one showed a grainy security feed from a street camera.

Cipher leaned in, his pulse quickening. The footage showed a man walking through one of the missing zones—except, the moment he stepped forward, his body flickered. Not just blurred, but outright distorted, as if reality itself was struggling to decide whether he existed at all.

Cipher's stomach twisted. "Who is that?"

Nova's expression was grim. "That's you."

Cipher took a step back, his mind reeling. "That's—"

"That was recorded twenty minutes ago. But I checked—there's no record of you being in that location. You never went there."

Cipher forced himself to stay calm, but his thoughts raced. If the footage was real, then something—some version of him—was moving through the city.

And if reality was breaking, that meant one thing.

He wasn't the only Cipher Voss anymore.

The next few minutes were a blur. Cipher and Nova moved quickly, following the coordinates Nova had traced from the anomaly. It led them deep into the industrial district, to a section of the city that had already begun to flicker at the edges.

The buildings looked intact, but the moment Cipher stepped forward, his vision wavered. The walls rippled, their textures bleeding in and out of existence.

He clenched his jaw. "It's happening again."

Nova nodded. "Stay close."

They pushed forward, navigating through the shifting environment. Cipher's heart pounded as he scanned the area. Then he saw it.

A figure stood in the distance, motionless.

Cipher's breath caught. The shape was familiar—too familiar.

The figure turned.

Cipher stared at his own face.

His duplicate—his anomaly—tilted its head slightly, as if studying him in return. There was no fear, no surprise. Just a silent, knowing gaze.

Cipher took a step forward. "Who are you?"

The duplicate didn't answer. Instead, it smiled.

Then, in the blink of an eye, it vanished.

Cipher's body tensed. The air around him seemed to vibrate, and for the first time, he felt something beneath it all—something watching.

Nova grabbed his arm. "Cipher, we need to go. Now."

Cipher hesitated, but the sensation intensified. The world around them twisted, and suddenly, the air itself cracked like shattered glass.

A low, unnatural hum filled the space.

Cipher turned and ran.

They barely made it out before the entire area collapsed behind them, the buildings folding into nothingness, erasing themselves from existence.

Cipher's mind reeled. The anomaly—his duplicate—wasn't just an accident.

It was a warning.

And whatever was rewriting reality had only just begun.