9

«Fzzzt»

A loud static noise was heard somewhere.

I looked up to the sky dumbfounded.

The sky looked the same as always.

I shrugged and resumed my walk. There is no time to lose.

“One, two, three, four” - I counted in my head.

“Five, seven, eight, nine” - As usual, I kept counting to don’t lose track of my steps.

Suddenly, I stopped midways.

It was the first time I ever did that. I had never stopped my daily walking routine.

“Five, seven?” - I mumbled to myself. “What about ‘six’ ?”

I stiffly turned my neck around to look back at the sixth step.

«Creak»

My neck made a weird sound.

I had never broken my routine no matter what. Of course, I had never looked back to check back either.

I saw a “9” behind me.

It was huge, the same size as me.

I looked at it bewildered.

This had never happened before.

«Fzzzt»

I heard the same static noise once again. This time, it was softer.

Yet…

Closer.

…

I realized my whole body had frozen over.

I looked down without moving my head. I couldn’t move my body after all.

“?!”

I saw my body corrupted.

My shoulder,

My back,

My arm,

My hand,

They all looked corrupted.

It was as if all the frames overlapped each other in a movie. You couldn’t tell each body part apart.

I assumed my whole body was deformed since I couldn’t see well from this position.

“HnnnnNNNggGgg” - I tried to move even so.

That’s when it stuck me.

I had never spoken out before. And so, my voice came out all distorted.

I clenched my teeth and looked back to that “9”.

Without me realizing, the “9” had multiplied.

Yes.

In front of me, there were many “9”.

They were all lined up perfectly, out in the horizon.

99999999999999

99999999999999999

99999999999999999

99999999999999999

999999999999999

99999999999999

9999999999

Everything was “9”.