Rael stood on his feet gasping for air. The reflection had vanished, but its existence lingered with him like some shadow. His chest continued to throb where it had struck him, as though something essential had been torn out and taken from him.
He clenched the ground in his fists . No. He wasn't going to let this shake him. He needed answers.
The emptiness surrounding him started to change. The darkness twisted, rippling like water when one had thrown stones in it. And then suddenly without warning
He was somewhere else like he is watching a movie and the seen has changed completely in an instant.
A devastated city lay out before him. Fallen buildings towered in the distance, their gleaming tops broken into jagged stumps of rubble. Dust hung in the air that has the taste of smoke and a cold metal blood.
Rael's wind left him. He recognized the location.
The name lingered on the edge of his mind, but out of his reach at the same time. A step forward, boots crunching on the fallen debris of the city. Streets were emty, deathly quiet. No movement. Only pieces of a history that's long past.
Or was it?
A breath brushed his ear.
"Rael…"
His whole body froze at that instant. He spun around, his eyes searching in the ruins all over.
There's nothing.
But then also, the feeling of being watched by someone unknown clawed at his spine.
He pushed on, his senses on high alert. The more he moved, the clearer the feelings he got. Until
There was a person at the far end of the street.
Masked in fog, its form was indistinguishable, but the outline unmistakable.
Rael's breathing stopped for a moment.
It was him.
Another reflection of him.
But this one wasn't grinning. This one was just standing silently and waiting.
And then softly it spoke, almost below whisper.
"Do you really want to remember?"
A shiver went down his spine at that moment. He did not responded.
The reflection was moving forward, the fog was swirling around its feet. "Then prove it."
Before Rael could move, the world shattered around him like a glass breaking.
The darkness swallowed him from head to toe.