Volume 1 – Chapter 11: Shadows and Doubts

[April 23 – 4:00 AM] 

We moved quickly, each of us largely quiet, although the tension between us was palpable. For there was no refuge from the cold eye of nassain filth, of whatever beast that slithered, waiting in the shadows for a victim to prey upon.

I felt Rika next to me, quick and sure, muscles coiling like springs, ready for anything. We walked through the empty streets and did not speak, passing the crumbling structure behind us. That I sensed something in the city had shifted, as if the air were different. The quiet was not just the absence of noise, it was the absence of life. The street was empty, dark and creepy, due to the cloudy yellow light of the streetlamps, hung low on the poles. It wasn’t the customary desolation of a city at dusk.

No, this was different. You sensed something hiding in between the buildings, in the empty windows, in the shadows stretching a little too far, a little too much. “Where are we going?” Rika’s voice sliced through the silence, calm yet sharp. She spoke without meeting my eyes, scanning the streets ahead of us, alert to every movement, every sound. But she was attempting to keep her voice steady, attempting to lasso the panic that she didn’t want to come through.

“I don’t know,” I said, my voice itself strained. I didn’t know. We had no plan. No destination. Just this desperate urge to flee from where we were. Away from where it felt like it was closing in on us. The video still played, though, you know, in the back of my mind. The cryptic warning. The grazily mercenary tone of the voice. “It’s a one-way decision, you can’t go back on it.” What decision?

And what did the man mean by the “final choice”? The words kept swirling in my mind, whirly, whirly, whirly, into confusion. And the fact that the video had ended without much, if any, concrete answers only added to the burgeoning frustration that was gnawing at me. Dozens of broken and boarded-up storefronts lined the avenue, the storefronts devoid of any sign of life for several blocks.

But as we turned a corner, I was pulled back. A flicker of movement. My heart pounding, I made a quick turn and caught sight of the spectral figure of someone fading around another corner. “Did you see that?” I asked, my voice low. Rika nodded, but didn’t ease her pace. “Keep moving,” she said, but the tone was brusque, and I could hear the tension in it.

“Don’t stop.” I wanted to question her. To ask if she was sure. But I knew she was right. If we stop now, if we take a minute to relax, that could be catastrophic.” We had to keep moving. Needed to be a step ahead of whatever or whoever followed us. The more we walked, the darker it felt. It wasn’t just that there was no light; it was as if the night were devouring the city. We turned another corner, and I noticed a dark alleyway in front of us. It wasn’t much, but at least it was shelter — for a while.

“We’ll hide there,” I said, gesturing toward the alley. Rika didn’t argue. As well as I did, she knew we couldn’t afford to be out in the light. Not anymore. We dipped down the alley, walking quickly, keeping out of the light. Pressing the thickest parts of my back against the stone wall, where it was hardest, roughest, coldest, I blew out, a small, pneumatic rasp. Rika imitated, her face pressed in concentration. But even within the relative safety of the shadows, I could feel the gravity of the situation pressing down on me. We fell quiet between us — dusk, grousing. I knew we wouldn’t be able to hide forever, but for now, we needed to make a plan for what to do next. “I never stopped feeling that we were running out of time.”

“You still haven’t explained what’s going on to me, Kaito,” Rika’s voice shattered this silence again, albeit a lighter one. It had an edge, now raw, an undercurrent of frustration, of fear. “What is this all about? Who were the individuals in the video? And what the hell is Project Eclipse?” Her words hung suspended in the air of unanswered questions that had no answer. I didn’t know. I didn’t have any context for it, you know?

What I did know was that we had found ourselves somehow in a very different place, and now we were caught up in something much larger than ourselves. “I don’t know, Rika,” I finally said, quietly. “I wish I did. But we’re not going to get the answers we need without continuing to move. We have to be one step ahead of whoever’s watching us.’” Rika trailed behind, giving a steady glare back to the alley, her stance repelling.

“And how’s that supposed to work exactly, huh? How are we supposed to catch up on something we don’t even understand?” I didn’t know the answer to that either. Each second, each minute flew us closer to disaster. The warnings, the cryptic messages, the shadowy figures that appeared to be creeping closer and closer behind us — my mind whirred as I tried to piece this puzzle together.

I felt it was all connected. But the question was: How? “Are we being tracked?” More of a cut than a question, Rika’s voice interrupted my thoughts again. I looked up, I looked across the street — nothing. No movement. Nothing out of the ordinary. “I don’t know,” I said quietly as my stomach knotted. “But I do think that we have to behave like we are. And we need to keep moving.” Rika’s eyes narrowed. “You think they’re onto us?” “They know about the file,” I said. “They know what we have. “And if they know that, that means they know we’re looking for answers.” There was a beat of silence between us. I could feel the flicker of uncertainty in her eyes.

She was scared like I was, but she was braver than I was. Stronger than I’d been allowing myself to be. “We need to know who’s behind this,” I said, voice firm. “And what it’s actually about, Project Eclipse.” Rika remained quiet but I could see the surprise in her. There was also something else in her eyes now, though she was still afraid. Something sharper. More determined. She was ready.

Ready to fight. Ready to find the truth. And I was, too. We couldn’t remain hidden forever. But for now, in the ruins of this forsaken city, we would wait. And when the time was right, we would move again. We had no other choice. But I had enough awareness: We were no longer simply fighting for survival.

We wanted something more expansive. The kind of thing that could change everything. And finally I began to realize, maybe, just maybe, that the only thing that might make a difference in this place — the only thing that could change the world — was to appraise whatever was coming, even if we had no idea what it was. Even if it meant making a choice that we couldn’t undo. [April 23 — 5:00 AM]It was blacker, thicker darkness now, closing in from all sides. But in that weightedness was a clarity — a clarity that the truth, whatever the truth is, would arrive, sooner rather than later. And when that would happen, we’d be ready. There was no going back now.