✙◇ Chapter 1 -: ✧ :-゜・．
A biting freeze had settled over the city, slowing everyone down to a ghostly crawl. The streets, once loud and full of life, now looked like a dead winter wasteland. No one really remembered when the shift started. The people left on the pavement just dragged themselves along like hollow shells, moving without purpose.
They spent their days praying, worshipping something they didn't even understand.
Right in the center of the wreckage stood a massive building. It looked like a church, but it felt more like an isolation ward. A gathering place for the empty-brained who had lost their way home and wandered straight into a den of demons.
This wasn't a nightmare or a hallucination. It was just the truth.
Twenty years ago, the president was assassinated by an unknown gunman. Ever since, the city had been blown apart, turned into a chaotic, messy piece of ruined art.
"A beauty among the mess. Interesting."
The man looked no older than thirty. He stood right in the bleeding heart of the ruins, his eyes locked onto a broken digital billboard resting against a collapsed building. The screen displayed a stunning woman. She had piercing lavender eyes, a soft, captivating silhouette, and skin as pale and flawless as cotton. He stared into her eyes, trying to solve her like a puzzle.
He wasn't playing a game. He had survived in this nightmare city for years; he knew its cracked streets better than he knew his own future.
Pulling a cigarette from his pocket, he flicked a cheap lighter he’d found on the road. Nothing happened. The spark died instantly. Frustrated, he hurled the useless plastic straight at the billboard.
Instead of bouncing off, the lighter passed right through the screen, defying every law of science.
"The fuck?" he muttered.
He had seen a lot of things, but true intangibility wasn't one of them.
He looked back across the street, watching the same miserable routine play out. The mindless crowd dragging their feet toward that cursed church. It was ordinary, everyday madness, but it suddenly made him realize how completely alone he was in the crowd.
He turned his attention back to the woman on the screen, tilting his head, searching for a clue he knew he’d never find.
*BANG*
A heavy grunt cut through his thoughts as a brick slammed into the back of his skull. The impact sent him crashing hard against the asphalt. Shadows stretched over him as a group of looming figures closed in, their intense stares pinning him to the ground. He tried to crawl away, coughing through a wave of sharp pain, trembling like a newborn kitten.
"You’ve been staring at the face of the goddess while we pray to God for help," a creepy voice hissed from the crowd.
A rough hand fisted into his hair, violently jerking his head back to force him to look up. They looked like regular humans, every single one of them. Except for their eyes. Their eyes looked predatory.
His blood ran entirely cold.
"For God's sake, what are these things?" he whispered, hoping the wind would swallow his words.
They heard him anyway. And they didn't like it.
Before he could draw breath, a heavy fist smashed into his ribs, followed by a boot connecting sharply with his jaw. A pair of hands twisted his head violently to the side, and his neck broke with a sickening, horrific snap.
