It hurts.
No fear. No confusion. Not even the cold of winter. All I felt was pain, sharp, wet, and electric; Chewing through my ribs like something was alive in my chest trying to crawl out.
My eyes shot open and I instantly wished I hadn't looked.
The sky wasn't a sky anymore.
It was a purple wound, torn open above the city, bleeding light, and that light was… falling.
Not like rain. More like threads, and those threads were seeking humans.
Then I saw the first victim of that light.
Mrs. Han.The old lady who always bought instant noodles from me during my night shift.
She was gripping her shopping bag when the purple thread touched her cheek.
Her face blistered.
Her jaw unhinged.
Her neck cracked sideways.
"Mrs. Han?!"
My voice tore out of me, high and broken, "What…what's happening to you?!"
Her eyeballs liquefied and rolled down her cheeks.
She turned toward me, blind, mouth split open like a second spine.
"Help—me—"
The sound wasn't words.
It was wet snapping noises shaped like begging.
"Oh my God… don't- don't come near me!"
I crawled away, hands sliding on glass.
My breathing was a mess… my heart banging against my ribs like a warning.
Another thread fell onto a crying teenage boy.
One of the regulars at the gas station. The kid who kept asking me about energy drinks.
His arms bent backwards, bones sticking out like white hooks.
His spine curled into a question mark.
His face stretched, jaw splitting upward toward his forehead.
He didn't even scream… He just gurgled like someone drowning.
"What the hell is this?!
Somebody—somebody help them!"
I pleaded to anyone or anything. Nobody helped.
We were all dying.
A woman sprinted across the street,
until a purple thread touched her calf.
Her leg burst at the knee like a water balloon.
She collapsed forward, shrieking.
She looked right at me, tears running down her face.
"Please! Please! I don't—I don't want to die—!"
"I can't—I can't do anything!"
My voice cracked like glass.
"What am I supposed to do?!!"
Her ribs ripped outward.
Her lungs spilled onto the asphalt like wet meat.
I screamed with her, not out of empathy, but sheer terror.
"STOP! STOP! STOP!"
I screamed at the sky, at the light, at reality.
"Just stop already!"
That's when a purple thread drifted down directly onto me.
The purple thread landed on my shoulder.
It didn't burn.
It burrowed.
Like a hot needle sinking through my skin.
"Agh—! What—what IS that?!"
My hand flew to the spot instinctively, but the flesh was already sizzling.
I slapped at it, clawed at it, tried to rip it off—
but the light sank deeper, crawling under my skin like a living worm.
"NO—NO NO NO—GET IT OUT!"
I slammed my shoulder against a mailbox.
Against a parked car.
Against the pavement.
Anything to crush it.
To kill it.
To stop it.
But the pain only spread.
Fast.
Too fast.
My veins went black, pulsing like they were full of ink instead of blood.
My heart skipped a beat.
Then another.
"Oh God—oh God no—"
My voice rose an octave.
"I don't want to die like this! Somebody—help me—!"
Nobody could help.
Nobody could even stand.
Everyone was transforming, exploding, breaking.
Bones snapping.
Skin splitting.
People vomiting organs.
Blood pooling.
The city was a slaughterhouse.
And I was next.
The pain reached my chest and detonated.
I arched backward violently, a strangled scream forcing its way out.
"AAAAAAHHHHH—STOP—STOP—PLEASE—STOP—!"
My ribs bulged outward like something inside was trying to claw its way out.
My lungs rattled.
Every breath tasted like metal and fire.
"WHY ME—?!" I screamed at nothing.
"I didn't—I never—
I haven't DONE ANYTHING—!!"
My back hit the ground hard.
I convulsed.
My legs kicked uselessly against the cement.
My fingers dug into the pavement until the nails peeled off.
I felt my heartbeat racing.
Then stuttering.
Then tearing.
A jagged pain ripped through my chest.
I looked down and saw my sternum crack open by millimeters.
My own ribs shifted.
"What—what's happening—
WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME—?!"
I screamed so loud my throat tore.
Warm blood ran down my neck.
My left arm jerked—
Once.
Twice.
Then ripped out of the socket completely.
A brutal, wet sound filled my ear as it detached, landing a foot away with a splat.
"NO—NO—NOOO—!"
I reached for it with my remaining arm like that would change anything.
The pain hit my brain like a hammer.
A white-hot explosion behind my eyes.
One eye popped, vision going dark on one side instantly.
The other eye bulged as blood filled it.
I was choking on my own screams.
"PLEASE—PLEASE—
I DON'T WANT TO DIE—
I DON'T—"
My chest opened.
Completely.
I saw my own beating heart struggling—
twitching—
spluttering like a dying engine.
It burst.
The impact sent me into a seizure — back arching, teeth cracking in my mouth as they clenched too hard.
My vision flickered, blurry, swimming in red.
"I'm only nineteen…"
The words bubbled out, half blood, half breath.
"I didn't even, live yet…"
The sky laughed.
Actually laughed.
A soft, impossible sound that made my shredded nerves twitch.
"Humans are so weak." The faceless voice echoed.
A final, violent snap echoed through my skull as my spine folded.
Then…
Silence.
Darkness.
…
…
…
Just…nothing.
I didn't feel my body.
Didn't feel the pain.
I floated into space without shape, without edges, and without time.
For a moment, just one, I was able to form a thought, "Is this the afterlife?"
It didn't feel holy, or peaceful, but more like a waiting room nobody left.
My thoughts echoed around me, small and thin.
"My name… is Aiden." Saying it felt strange, like the word no longer belonged to a person.
"I'm nineteen."
Nineteen. Barely even started my life.
"I failed… at everything, didn't I"
The words rolled out before I could stop them.
It was funny… I never admitted things like this while I was alive. Never said it loud. Never even let myself think too deeply.
But here, in the dark, with nothing but myself?
The truth bled out of me like a long infection finally draining.
A hollow laugh escaped me. It didn't sound like mine.
"I wasn't smart enough for a real college.
I wasn't strong enough for sports.
I wasn't confident enough for friends.
Or dating.
Or… anything."
The void didn't answer, just swallowed my voice and waited.
"I went to community college because it was the only place that accepted me.
Half-asleep in class from the night shifts.
I barely passed assignments I didn't understand."
The memories stung more here than the light that killed me.
"Every day…
I studied in the library, fighting to stay awake.
Every night…
I stood behind a convenience store counter counting pennies, nodding at customers who never even looked at my face."
Breath—or whatever I had in this empty place—shuddered out of me.
"I lived off scraps.
Cheap noodles.
Gas station sandwiches.
Leftovers from classmates who threw their lunches away untouched."
My chest tightened with a feeling that didn't belong to a ghost or soul.
"I worked so damn hard just to stay afloat.
But I never had an opportunity to live.
Not really."
The void trembled faintly, as if listening.
"Everything I tried…
I was mediocre.
Forgettable.
Replaceable."
My voice cracked.
"I died without ever experiencing anything real.
No accomplishments.
No memory worth holding onto.
No mark on the world."
Something unspoken about this place, almost coaxed me to pour my heart out. My deepest insecurities, my flaws, and my failures. I wondered if this was judgement.
A pause.
A long, hollow breath of silence.
"…I didn't even get a chance."
The void pulsed.
As if something inside it finally reacted.
A voice, ancient, cruel, amused, whispered beside me, though there was no beside in this place.
"Then let's give you one."
The darkness shattered like glass.
And I fell…
back into light, back into breath, back into pain, back into life…
waking in my bed with a scream.
Aphelion System Initializing…
…
…
[ User Death Confirmed ]
[Death Count: 1]
[ Time Until World Collapse: 90 Days ]