Fracture

Cipher sat in the dim glow of Nova's monitors, his fingers tapping absently against the desk. His mind was still trapped in the moment—the duplicate, the flickering city, the way the world had collapsed behind them like a crumpled sheet of paper.

Nova broke the silence. "You saw it, didn't you?"

Cipher nodded. "It was me."

"Not just you." Nova's voice was tight. "Something else. Something bigger."

She pulled up the footage again, pausing it at the moment Cipher's duplicate vanished. The pixels seemed to dissolve, as if the thing wearing his face had never existed at all.

Cipher exhaled slowly. "I need answers."

Nova met his gaze. "Then we find them."

She turned to another screen, displaying a web of code and shifting data points. "I traced the anomaly's movements. It's like it's slipping through different versions of the city."

Cipher frowned. "Different versions?"

Nova nodded. "Like reality is rewriting itself around it."

Cipher leaned in, studying the fluctuating numbers on the screen. "So how do we stop it?"

Nova hesitated. "I don't think we can. Not yet. But I found something—an origin point. A place where the anomaly first appeared."

Cipher straightened. "Where?"

Nova's lips pressed into a thin line. "Here."

Cipher's stomach twisted. "You mean—"

Nova nodded. "The first disturbance happened right where we're sitting."

The room suddenly felt smaller, the air heavier.

Cipher's voice was quiet. "Then we're already in the eye of the storm."

The street outside was eerily silent.

Cipher and Nova moved carefully, their senses heightened. Every light flicker, every shift in the air felt like a warning.

The location Nova had pinpointed was a narrow alleyway two blocks away. It looked normal—until Cipher stepped inside.

The world shifted.

He staggered back as the walls stretched unnaturally, twisting like liquid. The air was thick with static, and for a brief second, the city around him wasn't the same one he had always known.

Nova's voice was distant. "Cipher, move!"

But it was too late.

The anomaly was there.

It stepped out of the distorted space, its form flickering, unstable. It wore his face, but its eyes…

Its eyes weren't human.

Cipher swallowed hard. "What are you?"

The duplicate smiled.

Then it spoke.

"You."

Cipher's blood ran cold. The voice was his. The cadence, the tone. But there was something underneath—something hollow, as if it was speaking from inside a void.

Nova pulled something from her bag—a handheld device humming with energy. "Cipher, get back!"

But Cipher didn't move. His duplicate tilted its head, watching him.

Then it whispered.

"They're coming."

Cipher barely had time to process the words before the world exploded.

A shockwave rippled through the alley, sending him flying back. He hit the pavement hard, his vision blurring. The impact rattled his bones, and for a few agonizing seconds, he couldn't move.

Nova was shouting, but the sound was distant, like she was calling from another world.

Through his haze, he saw the anomaly dissolve, its body unraveling into thin strands of energy, vanishing into the air. But just before it fully disappeared, Cipher caught something—an imprint of something bigger behind it, a presence that sent ice-cold fear racing down his spine.

Then, the alley was still.

Cipher gasped for breath, his hands trembling as he struggled to sit up. Nova was already at his side, her face tight with concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked, gripping his shoulder.

Cipher forced himself upright, his head pounding. "What just happened?"

Nova's face was pale. "I don't know. But whatever that thing was, it's not alone."

Cipher wiped the blood from his lip. He turned to the spot where the duplicate had stood, but there was nothing left. No residue, no scorch marks—like it had never existed at all.

But Cipher knew better. It had existed. And worse, it had spoken.

"They're coming."

He didn't know who—or what—"they" were.

But he had a feeling they weren't human.

And this was just the beginning.