(POV – Protagonist)
I had probably been walking for just over an hour, but still, all I could see ahead of me was the dusty road stretching between endless dunes—sand and more sand, as far as the eye could see. If I were still capable of feeling pain, I'd definitely be screaming that my feet were on fire after walking for so long under the scorching sun.
Unfortunately, that's not the case for me. I don't feel pain—or rather, my body stays in a constant state of complete emptiness. I don't feel hunger or thirst, although I still enjoy eating since my sense of taste remains intact.
I also don't perceive physical pain, even when I injure myself, and my skin, on the outside, resembles the consistency of gelatin. Anyway, I continued my aimless walk, slowly advancing along the road toward the bright spot floating in the hazy sky.
As usual, some strange sounds echoed from within the mist—crackling, distant whispers, noises without any defined origin. However, aside from these unsettling sounds, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
No anomalous creatures emerged, no mysterious phenomena manifested. In the end, my walk proceeded in a relatively monotonous fashion, marked only by the rhythmic sound of my footsteps and the enigmatic noises that seemed to watch me from the depths of the mist.
Eventually, my walk stretched on for another three hours until I finally reached some place—or rather, I spotted something through the fog. By this point, I had no idea how much time had passed since the start of my journey. The fog seemed denser and heavier, almost as if it had darkened along with the time, but I couldn't say for sure if it was night or just an illusion caused by the thickness of that suffocating fog.
In any case, what I saw in the distance was a sign. In summary, it indicated there was a city ahead—the same one I went to that time when I eliminated the priest responsible for flooding the whole place. According to what was written, there were about thirty minutes of walking left until I reached it. With that thought in mind, I took a deep breath and continued along the road, keeping my eyes fixed on the horizon as I slowly approached my destination.
A few minutes later, through the dense fog, the silhouettes of the city's first buildings finally began to reveal themselves. From what I could tell, I was probably at the entrance to the city. I kept walking for a few more minutes, and soon larger buildings appeared before my eyes, towering and dark under the gray veil that covered everything.
Despite this, the silence persisted in an unsettling way. Except for the constant sound of the wind cutting through the empty streets, there were no other noises. Even the strange sounds of anomalies that accompanied me across the desert had completely vanished—it was as if the whole city was holding its breath.
While these thoughts sporadically popped into my mind, my eyes caught the silhouette of a diner ahead. How did I know it was a diner? Simple: a glowing sign with a stylized image of a steaming burger shone just above the entrance. It didn't take much effort to guess.
Through the thin mist covering the street, I watched the place more closely and noticed some shapes moving inside. I blinked slowly, trying to shake off the tiredness in my eyes before moving closer to the fogged-up glass that offered a partial view of the interior.
As I got close enough to glimpse inside the establishment, I blinked again. Almost reflexively, other eyes, from inside, also narrowed. I tilted my head slightly, watching a little girl staring at me curiously.
She seemed unaware of my movement, but her eyes were intensely focused. Behind her, there were about four adults—three men and one woman—who, distracted, were turned away from me, still not noticing my presence.
By the way, even though I looked like a ten-year-old child in height, the girl on the other side of the glass appeared to be a little smaller than me. She might have been around eight or nine, but that didn't matter much, since her fixed gaze on me was what really caught my attention.
She was watching me with an expression that mixed doubt and curiosity, as if she was trying to figure out what I was. Something in her way of looking at me suggested that, somehow, she already sensed I wasn't a regular human, and maybe she was trying to understand what was so different about me.
The next moment, the little girl got up from her chair with agility and ran toward the door. The adults, still immersed in a heated discussion, didn't notice her leaving. As she opened the door, she started running toward me in a charming way, her small and quick steps.
When she reached right in front of me, she stopped briefly, pulled something from her clothes, and with a mischievous smile, showed me what she had in her hands. I blinked in surprise as I saw she was holding a piece of chocolate.
Momentarily surprised, I shifted my gaze to the girl's hands before looking back inside the diner. The conversation between the four adults was still going on, but it seemed to be losing strength, and a slight exhaustion was taking over them. The only woman among them, letting out a deep sigh, turned her gaze toward me… Well, I guess she was looking at where the little girl should have been.
Could she be the girl's mother? I wasn't sure. Anyway, when the woman finally turned and looked where her daughter should be, her eyes widened, showing growing surprise as she realized there was no one there. The silence around seemed to amplify the impact of what she had just noticed.
The woman looked around with evident anxiety, her eyes moving frantically until they finally fixed on me. As soon as she saw me, her expression changed instantly, taking on a deep fear. However, when her eyes fell on the little girl beside me, the fear turned into a clear, almost palpable desperation.
With a sudden movement, she turned to the men around her and screamed, her voice muffled by the glass, but still, it was possible to perceive the urgency in her words. Although I couldn't fully understand what she was saying, it was clear she was alerting the others about my presence.
In the next moment, all eyes turned to me. Both the men and the woman started arguing heatedly, their fingers incessantly pointing in my direction. Suddenly, the woman made a sharp movement and ran toward the door, but she was immediately stopped by the men.
I watched her, a mix of surprise and curiosity taking over my expression, as she screamed and squirmed, desperately trying to free herself from their firm grips. However, her efforts were in vain, and she couldn't escape.
As I lost myself in watching the movement inside the diner, a sweet and curious female voice sounded beside me: "Don't want it?"
When I turned toward the voice, I saw the little girl still holding her hand up, offering the chocolate with a hopeful look. I blinked in surprise before extending my hand to accept the gift. As soon as the chocolate touched my fingers, a wide smile spread across her face. Without hesitation, she took a few more steps and gave me a tight hug, transmitting an unexpected and comforting warmth.
"Hehe, sis... you're weird, but you're cute! Hehe, you feel like jelly!" the little girl said with a pure smile on her face, poking my skin curiously, as if she were playing with a new toy.
I watched the child as she took half the chocolate into her mouth. In just a few seconds, my expression softened. Honestly, although it wasn't as tasty as ice cream, chocolate was still something I deeply loved—though, not as much as ice cream. Anyway, as I looked at the little girl clinging to me, she slowly raised her head, her eyes met mine, and then a pure and innocent smile formed on her face.
Naturally, I extended the chocolate toward her mouth. She blinked, seeming momentarily confused, as if she hadn't expected the gesture. But in the next moment, she opened her mouth and bit the rest of the sweet.
While still staring at me, she smiled again—a wide, genuine smile that lit up her little face. I continued to watch her for a few seconds in silence before turning my gaze toward the diner's entrance. One of the men had just stepped out. He was holding a mop in his hands and staring at me with evident fear in his eyes.
I glanced back inside the diner. The woman was crying desperately, held back by the men trying to calm her—or prevent her from running toward me. The other customers still inside seemed equally terrified, casting hesitant glances in my direction.
One of the men slowly approached, holding the mop with both hands as if it were an improvised weapon. Every now and then, he looked away at the thick fog still lingering outside, as if fearing that some creature might emerge from it at any moment.
In the next moment, the man turned his gaze toward the little girl clinging to me. His voice echoed soon after, filled with relief and desperation, revealing the whirlwind of emotions that consumed him at that moment: "Sweetheart, please! Step away from that thing immediately and come to Daddy, quickly!"
Upon hearing the sound behind her, the little girl turned, startled, released my hand, and ran toward the man. In the next instant, he embraced her tightly, lifting her into his arms with visible relief. Without taking his eyes off me, he pointed the mop at me like an improvised weapon, then began to slowly retreat, step by step, heading back toward the diner's entrance.
However, just moments before he reached the diner's entrance, a relatively loud sound echoed from the fog, coming from right behind where he stood. His steps froze in an instant, and I saw his expression of terror intensify even more. Slowly, he began to turn toward the fog with a hesitant, almost unnatural movement.
He was only a few steps away from the door—so close to safety—but strangely, he didn't enter. The only explanation that came to my mind was that his feet had become stuck to the ground, as if fear had rooted him there.
Anyway, in the next moment, something began to move within the fog. It wasn't footsteps but subtle pressures in the air—silent shifts, as if the space itself were being scratched from within. The mist rippled slightly, shuddering like skin touched by sudden cold... and then, it appeared.
A deformed centipede, a nightmare of multiple forms. Its body was a mosaic of hard, pulsing plates, like strange bones, covered with sharp claws, short hairs, and stingers that vibrated in the air with an almost imperceptible sound.
The scorpion-spider projected itself like a distorted echo of something that should have been forgotten by evolution, a grotesque aberration that never should have existed—but there it was, real, damp, and pulsating, breathing in the dim light. Its movements were slow. Excessively slow, as if every step was calculated, a dance of precision that carried within it the promise of something terribly lethal.
Its legs cracked on the floor with the cruel precision of breaking fingers one by one. It circled the two of them, moving with an unsettling lightness, as if examining them closely. The tip of the stinger rose, distant, like a guillotine blade suspended in the air, swaying with hesitation, but instead of descending, it remained suspended.
It leaned in slightly, merely sniffing them. The sound that followed was moist, almost intimate, as if the air itself were being devoured with every breath. A crack, low and charged with tension, emanated from under its jaw, the sound of saliva being drawn between sharp teeth.
Then, one of its black eyes slowly turned in my direction, as if studying me with a morbid interest. It saw me. However, it did nothing. It didn't attack, nor did it approach. It stayed there, watching, as if trying to understand what I represented. The man, on the other hand, didn't dare move.
His body visibly trembled, locked in an internal battle: the impulse to flee was clear, but the fear of making a wrong move and provoking something even more terrible paralyzed him. The little girl then grabbed her father's coat tightly, her small fingers intertwining in the fibers of the fabric as if it were the only anchor keeping her grounded in reality.
She buried her face in his chest, seeking comfort in the familiar warmth, as if she wanted to hide from the world, disappear right there, where the sense of safety he still conveyed was the only thing left, despite the palpable fear that hung in the air. Finally, the creature let out a deep, low sound, like a threatening whisper from the depths.