Chapter one

♤ Uncertain Death ♤

Author's Note:

Hey there, just a heads-up. This story's more of a slow burn. If you're looking for nonstop action from page one, this might not hit right away. But if you're here for a story that builds, one that breathes and drags you down with it, then stick around.

This world isn't Earth, so yeah, expect some strange logic, twisted rules, and a few things that won't make sense right away. That's part of the fun. Drop a comment if you feel something. I'll be reading.

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I was just another face in the crowd. The kind you pass without a second glance.

Rain came down in heavy sheets, soaking through my hoodie and clinging to my skin like a second layer I couldn't peel off. I didn't bother rushing. The storm didn't care, and neither did I.

My backpack dug into my shoulders with every step, stuffed with textbooks, a half-eaten sandwich, and regrets I didn't know how to name. Another wasted day of lectures that meant nothing.

Another evening folding clothes for strangers who never looked me in the eyes. My hands were shaking again. I'd call it fatigue, but the truth was...it was emptiness. The kind that gets louder the longer you ignore it.

Each day bled into the next. Same streets. Same smiles I didn't trust. Same everything.

But sometimes, when the world slowed just enough, I let myself pretend. That I mattered. That maybe, somehow, I could still become something more than a warm body breathing borrowed air.

That maybe I wasn't born just to fade out quietly.

It was stupid, I know. But I still dreamed.

And tonight, like every other, I walked the same shortcut home. Narrow alley. Brick walls covered in damp graffiti. A broken streetlight flickering like it forgot how to work. I'd walked this path a hundred times.

But tonight was different.

A scream ripped through the rain, sharp, panicked, real. A kid's voice.

I didn't think. My legs moved before my mind caught up. I turned the corner, shoes skidding on slick concrete, and there they were.

Two guys in black hoodies. Faces hidden. A small kid pinned against the wall, shaking, clutching their backpack like it could save them.

I didn't have a weapon. Or a plan.

I had fear. But I had anger too.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Back off!"

They turned slowly. One of them laughed, a low, mean sound. "What are you? Some kind of superhero?" he said

The other stepped toward me, and in that brief moment, I saw it: the flash of a blade.

He didn't hesitate, he didn't even let me speak.

The knife found my side before I could react.

Pain exploded in my gut. My legs gave out. The world tilted. Cold soaked my knees as I hit the ground, blood pouring warm and fast down my jeans.

The kid ran. I saw them vanish into the alley's mouth, their silhouette swallowed by rain.

And for a second, just one, I thought, Good. Let them live.

I looked down. My hands were soaked red. My vision was dimming fast. My heart pounding slower by the minute, it was almost like I couldn't feel anything.

"So this is it," I thought. "This is how I disappear."

No name on the news. No obituary anyone reads.

Just another nobody in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

My sad life flashed before my eyes as tears mixed with rain ran down on my cheeks. Not because of the pain but because it hit me. I hadn't done anything with my life. Nothing that would last. Nothing real.

I didn't even allow my sister to recite her essay before I left home this morning. I stayed angry with my mom and dad for absolutely no reason, I ignored my friends thinking if I layed low and behave like a nobody I'll avoid problems but apparently it didn't work out as I expected.

I wanted time. I wanted more time. A second chance. Something. Anything. "God, I wish I interacted more"

But all I felt was the end.

Everything slowed, the city, the rain, even the ache in my side. Like time itself was pausing to watch.

And then...

I felt something else.

A presence. Heavy. Cold. Watching.

I turned my head, barely.

A figure stood at the mouth of the alley. Cloaked in shadow. Its form kept shifting, like it didn't belong in one shape or even in this world.

Maybe I was already dying. Maybe this was just my brain glitching out.

"You've reached the end of your path," it said. Its voice was strangely soft but hollow, echoing like it came from under water.

I tried to speak, but the words caught in my throat.

It took a step closer. My body tensed. Not from fear, but from instinct. I felt its pull. Not physical, deeper than that. Like gravity, but for the soul.

"There is no turning back," it said. "You have one choice. Fade away, forgotten… as you were meant to. Or…"

It didn't finish the sentence.

The silence after was worse.

My fingers twitched. My chest tightened. Blood still poured, but my mind locked onto that word.

Or.

I forced my mouth to move. My voice came out raw.

"Or what?"

The figure's head tilted. Mist curled from its form.

"Or descend into the Realm of the Forgotten. Where those who died unseen are given one last chance. To fight. To forge a name. To shape a new end."

A realm for nobodies.

A realm for people like me.

I wanted to let go. I did.

But there was something inside me, small, burning, angry. The same voice that screamed into pillows at night. That whispered dreams behind closed eyes.

I wasn't ready to vanish.

"I… I choose to live," I whispered.

The figure moved like smoke. It reached out, fingers brushing against mine.

"Then live you shall," it said. "But everything has a cost."

Its hand closed around mine.

And the world broke.

Light shattered. Sound cracked. My thoughts twisted like paper in fire. I fell, through darkness, through memory, through everything that used to be me.

And then....

I stopped.

Air slammed into my lungs. I choked, gasping like I'd forgotten how to breathe.

The alley was gone.

So was the rain. The blood. The city.

All of it.

In its place: a horizon of black earth and violet sky. Shapes moved in the distance. Too tall. Too many limbs.

My body felt strange. Heavier. Sharper. Different.

This wasn't Earth, this wasn't death either.

This was something else entirely.

And whatever this new world was...

It wasn't going to let me coast by.

Not this time.