Fractured

Kieran stood frozen; a gun pressed against the back of his head. The cold metal bit into his skin, its surface gleaming with an eerie, pulsating red light. He could feel the weight of the moment suffocating him, the masked figure holding the weapon steady while two others loomed silently nearby, their forms bathed in the same unnatural crimson hue.

Suddenly, the world flickered. It was as if reality itself had malfunctioned, glitching like a corrupted simulation. The colors around him warped, bleeding into a blinding void of red that swallowed everything. The air turned dense and oppressive, heavy with the electric charge of something beyond comprehension.

Kieran’s eyes darted to the masked figures. They stood unnervingly still, their bodies rigid, almost as if they weren’t real. He hesitated, then cautiously flexed his fingers. He could move. The glitch had loosened whatever force was holding him in place.

He took a step forward, his boots crunching against the ground. The sound echoed strangely, muffled by the crimson void. The figures didn’t react. Their silence, their stillness—it was maddening. Encouraged by their lack of movement, he prepared to take another step.

Then, the click.

Kieran barely had time to register the sound before the gun roared to life. The weapon, sleek and alien in design, seemed almost alive, its angular black and silver frame pulsating with crimson light. The barrel flared, and hexagonal patterns shimmered along its surface like veins carrying energy. Against the red backdrop, it was as if the weapon itself had been born from the void.

A single bullet erupted from the barrel, slicing through the heavy air like a shard of molten light. It struck Kieran’s head with precise, unerring accuracy. The force jolted his body, his knees buckling as the bullet passed cleanly through and exited the other side, leaving a trail of blood and fragments in its wake.

He fell to the ground, his body crumpling like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The blood pooled beneath him, merging with the red of the void until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. The world seemed to hold its breath, the silence deafening, as Kieran lay motionless.

For a moment, nothing moved. The void stretched endlessly, the only sound a faint, almost imperceptible hum that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Then, without warning, the masked figure lowered the weapon. The glow of the gun began to fade, its light dimming as if it had expended its energy. The other two figures remained stationary, their heads tilting slightly, as if observing the scene through unseen eyes.

And still, the void pulsed, alive with a rhythm, as though feeding on the chaos it had just witnessed.