Shattered Time-Chapter 5: The City That Wasn’t There

Kael jolted upright.

He was lying on a bench. Cold metal against his back, streetlights above him humming like they were whispering secrets. His clothes were damp with morning dew—but the air didn't feel like morning. It felt like something else entirely.

He sat up and looked around.

The city was alive. People walked. Cars honked. Stores opened. Laughter echoed.

But Kael didn't recognize any of it.

Not a single face. Not a single building. Not even the language on the street signs. It was a perfect city—too perfect. Like it had been rendered by an artist who never saw the real world.

His hands trembled. Something in his wrist buzzed—it was the glitching watch again.

[8:38:92]

"Wait... 92 seconds?"

He tapped the screen, but it only flickered. Time was wrong. Reality was off. And his memory... empty.

No Aria. No notebook.

No why.

Suddenly, a child passed by him, looked him straight in the eyes, and whispered in a language he shouldn't understand.

"She's watching you from behind the mirror."

Kael froze. "What?"

But the child had already vanished into the crowd.

Panic clawed at his chest. He ran. Pushed through people, darted down streets, searching for something—anything familiar. His heart was racing faster than time itself.

He reached a mirror store.

Hundreds of mirrors.

In every reflection—he was alone. Except in one.

In the smallest, dustiest mirror in the corner... she was standing behind him.

Aria.

But her eyes were stitched shut. Her lips whispered soundlessly.

Kael turned around.

Nothing.

He looked back at the mirror.

Now his eyes were stitched shut in the reflection.

He screamed.

And the mirror cracked.

Every mirror in the store shattered in sync, raining glass down like deadly snowflakes.

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He stumbled out, bleeding from a cut on his hand, the city now silent.

The glitch was bleeding into reality.

And Kael was starting to forget who he was.