Volume 2 – Chapter 16: Encroaching Silence

The whisper cut through the darkness like a knife through silk. A noise so whispery, so deliberate, that it halted time, sucked the air from my lungs.

I couldn’t identify its source. The room was too dark, the only light a bleached-out and alien blue leaking through the crevices of the boarded-up windows. It cast spectral shapes on the filthy ground, alive and writhing like a breathing and malign thing.

I tightened next to Rika, sucking in a sharp breath. I felt her grip around my hand tighten, her hold was almost painful it was so tight.

Something was here with us.

The whisper came again — this time closer.

Just one word, dragged and mangled, muted under my heart.

“Kaito.”

I went cold, every hair on my arm standing on end.

My name. It had said my name.

I swallowed, keeping my voice firm. “Who’s there?”

Silence.

There was an eerie silence, like the world was holding its breath.

Then—

A slow creak.

Sound of something moving in the dark.

Rika turned her head to see if she could see where the sound came from, but that silence swallowed everything again.”

I rocked myself that way and pulled my hand back to my belt and headed for the flashlight. I fumbled with the clasp, fingers sweaty. I managed to unhook it and lifted it toward the darkness.

Click.

A thin beam of light pierced the room, illuminating overturned furniture, broken glass, dust swirling in the air —

And a figure in the corner.

The flashlight almost slipped from my hands.

Human, and formed, but wrong.

Its body was scrawled and crooked as if it had been stretched and pulled out of shape. It held its arms too low, fingers shaking. The face — or what ought to have been a face — had been draped in shadow, the features malleable, somehow not settling into anything concrete.”

Rika exhaled sharply, burying her fingers in my wrist.

The thing didn’t move. It simply sat there gazing.

Or waiting.

The buzz outside grew louder, thumping through the walls.

I forced myself to speak. “What… do you want?”

The figure’s head snapped at the sound of my voice.

Then—

It stepped forward.

Not walked—stepped.

One slow methodical step at a time, like an animal inspecting the land upon which it feeds.

Rika took a step back, pulling me with her. “Kaito.” Her voice was a whisper more than a whisper, and I could hear the urgency in it.

We needed to move. Now.

The figure took another step.

And then another.

And then—

It glitched.

Its entire shape flared and shattered, like a file going awry in video-editing software. One minute away, the next minute up closer. Too close.

Just as the figure lunged for me, Rika yanked me back.

We hit the floor hard, my flashlight skittering across the wooden planks.

The room descended back into screams.

But I heard it moving.

Fast.

A scraping sound, like fingernails on a wooden surface.

Rika sprung to her feet and lifted me up with her. “The door—Kaito, the door!”

I didn’t hesitate.

We raced toward the exit, heart in my ears.

Behind us, the thing made a sound — something that was a cross between a growl and a warped radio frequency.

The walls trembled. The windows rattled. The hum outside roared.

I got to the door first and grabbed the handle with my damp, shaking fingers.

Locked.

Of course it was locked.

I pushed with all my weight as the pain hummed through my shoulder. “Help me!”

Rika was already moving, slamming herself against the door with me.

Once.

Twice.

A third time—

CRACK.

The wood cracked and splintered, and we were thrown to the ground outside, landing in a heap on the floor.

The cold air slapped me in the face.

For a brief moment, I believed we were safe.

Then I heard it.

The whisper.

Not from inside the house.

From right behind me.

A single word.

“Run.”

I didn’t look back.

We ran.

In a blur of damaged buildings and throbbing neon reflections, the streets flew past. My chest was burning, my legs were shrieking, and I kept going.

The glow was everywhere now, running through the city like veins of molten light. The hum was no longer a distant rumble — it was inside my brain, straining against my skull, warping my thoughts, rendering them heavy and sluggish.

Rika looped her arm through mine and pulled me into a tiny alleyway. We huddled against the disintegrating brick wall, gasping for air.

She glanced at me, her face pale. “What the hell was that?”

I shook my head. I didn’t know.

Something had changed.

The city was different now.

And time was becoming a precious resource.

For a few minutes we stayed tucked into the mouth of the alley, trying to orient ourselves.

The air was thick, heavy. With each breath, it felt like he was inhaling static.

I forced myself to focus. “We need to leave the city.”

Rika wiped the sweat from her forehead and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. But how? “The streets are submarines, the bridges are gone — ”

她说到一半停住，眼睛向我身后的东边一望。

I turned.

Far in the distance, behind the squalid skyline, behind the looming glow —

There was movement.

Not just one figure.

Dozens.

No.

Hundreds.

Shadows through the blue mist, trembling, phasing, altering.

All of them moving toward us.

I felt my stomach drop.

“We’ve got to go,” I said barely above a whisper.

Rika didn’t argue.

We ran, again, through the ruins, into the unknown.

And around us, the city itself came alive.