The oppressive air of the underground subway was growing heavier with each passing second.


    The dim, flickering lights added fear to the sense of unease that filled the cramped train compartments.


    I jumped to my feet, instinctively scanning the surroundings. The train wasn’t large—only eight compartments—but the slight bend in the tunnel hindered my line of sight to the far end.


    My pulse quickened as I shifted into my meta perception, letting the mundane world peel away like a film. The world of intent and possibility erupted into view, soaked in colors that told their own sinister story. Above the train, the air swirled with fractured rainbows—not the kind that inspire awe but the kind that warned of something broken. The colors fractured violently, their jagged edges slicing through the space like a warning. Darkness hung like a thick, choking fog over everyone’s heads, shadowing their fates. Woven into it were crimson ribbons that pulsed with malevolent intent, a clear indication of the malice fueling this attack. Dark green threads snaked through the chaos, coiling with manipulation and control—a shadowy hand pulling the strings. And streaking across it all were orange flashes of chaos, growing brighter and more erratic with each passing heartbeat.


    A piercing scream shattered the silence, snapping my perception back to the grim present.


    Then came the stench—sharp, metallic, and unmistakable. Blood.


    The coppery tang filled my nose. My stomach churned as a wave of nausea rolled through me. I barely had time to process it before the first figures appeared.


    They came from the far end of the train, frantic, stumbling, sobbing, and screaming—a human tide of terror and desperation, trying to break windows and escape. Their clothes were soaked in blood, streaks of crimson painting their faces and arms. Some clutched at wounds, others at loved ones. Fear widened their eyes as they shoved and clawed their way forward, frantic to escape whatever nightmare was closing in behind them.


    The coppery stench of blood grew thicker, suffocating, as more and more people with gruesome injuries pushed in. People screamed louder, the sound rising into an unbearable pandemonium. Someone near the front collapsed to their knees, vomiting violently, and the sickly retching only added to the frenzy. A child’s cry pierced through the noise, high-pitched and wrenching, and I could feel the panic feeding on itself, spiraling out of control.


    Beside me, Jade’s hand tightened around mine. I glanced at her; her silver eyes were darting around. She wasn’t panicking—she was calculating, ready to act.


    But the train car wasn’t filled with most people like Jade and me. Most of the passengers were caught in a storm of pure hysteria, their meta natures triggering in unpredictable, useless ways.


    “Get it off me!” someone shrieked, clawing at their arms. A series of loud popping sounds followed as bubbles of translucent jelly formed all over their skin, oozing out and splattering across the floor. A nearby woman slipped on one of the bubbles and went crashing to the ground with a scream, her arms flailing as her skin turned momentarily translucent like glass—her meta power activating in response to the impact.


    “Stop pushing me, or I’ll—!” another voice shouted, but they were cut off as a loud hiss tore through the noise.


    My head snapped toward the sound. An orange haze was spreading rapidly through the air—a gas, citrine-colored and cloying, curling through the car with unnatural speed. Someone’s meta nature, no doubt triggered by panic, had released it, either by accident or desperation.


    The effect was immediate and brutal. People around us started coughing violently, their eyes red and streaming with tears.


    The fear in the atmosphere was already palpable, and the gas amplified it, making people hysterical.


    I rubbed at my own eyes as tears stung, my throat burning from the gas. I coughed, doubling over slightly as I struggled to think. Around me, metas were erupting chaotically.


    A man stumbled forward, tripping over a fallen bag. As he hit the ground, his hair erupted into thick, tangled vines that shot out in all directions, wrapping around the legs of everyone near him. “Help! I can’t stop it!” he shouted, flailing helplessly as the vines continued to grow, tripping and tangling the crowd further.


    “Get off me!” another voice screamed as a woman’s skin shimmered and hardened into reflective patches of metallic sheen.


    Someone bumped into her, and the contact sent a deafening clang reverberating through the car, momentarily silencing some of the screaming. But only for a second. The next moment, someone else yelped as sparks erupted from their body—tiny, harmless flickers that grew more intense as people jostled against him. “Don’t touch me! I can’t control it!” he shouted, but the panicked crowd paid no attention. Most of these people had no combat experience, and their meta natures, whatever they were, clearly weren’t suited for fighting or controlling the situation.


    Jade pulled her scarf over her nose and mouth, her other hand yanked me back against the wall to avoid the frenzied crowd. “North!” she shouted, her voice muffled but urgent. “Let''s move—now!”


    I nodded as I wiped at my burning eyes again. The gas, the noise, the chaos—it was all becoming too much.


    “Stay close to me,” I managed to rasp, my voice barely audible over the screams.


    Jade’s gaze sharpened, her hand tightening on mine. “This gas is going to push them over the edge,” she said, her tone low but fierce. “If we don’t act fast, someone’s going to die.”


    “I think many already are,” I muttered, glancing at the people soaked in blood, their faces painted with terror.


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    Many in the crowd had broke the side windows, shattering the glass into jagged edges. Passengers shoved and clawed their way toward the openings, crawling and climbing over one another to escape. A man tumbled through, landing outside in the darkness with a sickening thud.


    I squeezed Jade''s hand to draw her attention and pointed toward the window. “We’ll use that to get out of here. If we can find the emergency exit in the tunnel, we’ll stand a better chance.”


    Jade agreed, following my finger.


    Then, another scream rose from near the window. “It’s coming! It’s coming!” a woman shrieked, pointing wildly into the tunnel.


    Her meta nature triggered with her panic, and for a brief moment, her body split into two shadowy duplicates, flickering like unstable projections. “We’re all going to die!”


    Finally, amidst the madness, I saw the cause of this nightmare—a rat.


    No, not just a rat.


    A monstrous, dog-sized abomination, its body grotesque and raw. Its skin stripped away to reveal pulsing red and blue muscles and exposed veins glistening with blood hidden underskin. Bones jutted out at unnatural angles, and its movements were jerky and erratic. The creature looked like something torn from the depths of a horror novel. The sight was enough to churn my stomach. It wasn’t just horrifying—it was wrong, an abomination that looked like it had been forcibly mutated into a monstrous form.


    Who the hell could’ve done this?


    The abomination– bloody demon rat wasn’t alone.


    Behind it, more rats poured in—bloody, hairless, pulsating horrors with teeth as sharp as razors. Their claws gleamed like steel, effortlessly slicing through metal as they moved with unsettling speed and precision. It was as if someone had unleashed an entire horde of bio-engineered nightmares into the subway.


    Fighting one or two of them might’ve been manageable, but this? They were fast—faster than I’d expected for creatures so deformed—and their sheer number was overwhelming.


    As I watched, one of the bloody rats leapt toward a fallen man, its gaping jaws dripping with a sickening mix of blood and saliva. The man’s scream cut through the cramped space, raw and terrified.


    “Get it off me! Please, someone! Help!" he shrieked, his voice cracking.


    Before the creature could make contact, a man wearing an office suit stepped forward, wielding a jagged metal bar torn somewhere from the train compartment. With a grunt, he swung with brutal force. The improvised weapon connected with a sickening thwack, sending the bloody rat flying. The massive bloody rat hit the ground with a wet splat, its malformed body disintegrating into a pool of blood and flesh.


    The man stood tall, his broad shoulders heaving as he scanned the advancing swarm of rats. For a moment, his sheer presence brought the crowd a shred of hope.


    But it was false hope, a fleeting illusion.


    “You want some of this? Come on!” the man bellowed, gripping the bar tightly as more rats surged toward him.


    “Don’t just stand there! Help him!” someone shouted, their voice trembling with desperation.


    “I-I can’t!” another stammered, holding their arms close to their chest as tiny, flickering images of themselves appeared and disappeared erratically.


    In the next moment, the air was filled with a chorus of terrified voices.


    “Run! Just run!” another woman screamed, clutching a child to her chest as she scrambled toward the far end of the car and jumped over the window.


    “We’re trapped! They’re everywhere! We don''t have enough time to escape.”


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    My mind raced, grasping at options. Intangibility seemed like the best shot, but it came with its limits. Like holding my breath underwater, I could only maintain it for a couple of minutes before my body demanded stabilization. A misstep, and we’d both be sitting ducks. Leaving Jade behind wasn’t an option, even if I knew she was far more capable than she let on.


    The swarm of bloody rats halted at the entrance, sniffing the air, drawn to the crowd’s fear like predators to prey. Their companion’s brutal death moments earlier didn’t faze them in the slightest. If anything, it seemed to spur them on. With razor-sharp focus, they suddenly lunged forward like a living tide, their claws scraping against metal, their glowing eyes locked onto the panicking passengers.


    But then, something strange happened.


    An invisible force seemed to block their advance. The lead rat, mid-leap, suddenly dissolved into a wet splash of blood, its flesh melting into a puddle before it hit the ground. Another reared back, its body convulsing as it shrank, reverting to its original, non-mutated size. It barely had time to squeak before it was torn apart by its larger, bloodier kin.


    “What the hell is happening?”


    “Someone killed them,” a woman muttered, clutching her knees to her chest as she stared wide-eyed at the scene.


    A third rat, larger than the others, collapsed mid-charge, vomiting chunks of metal. The others faltered, their frenzy giving way to chaotic spasms as they fell one by one. Within seconds, the overwhelming horde of hundreds was reduced to nothing—broken bodies, crimson puddles, and a stench that clawed at the back of my throat. The compartment fell into stunned silence.Only twenty or so passengers remained inside; the rest had already fled into the tunnels outside. The stench of blood and rot hung thick in the air, mingling with the sharp tang of panic and sweat.


    “What the hell just happened?” a man croaked, his voice trembling. “Are they… dead?”


    “Gone,” a younger woman murmured, her face pale and streaked with tears. “They’re just… gone.”


    “That doesn’t mean it’s over!” another voice barked. A wiry man, his hands trembling but his expression fierce, pointed toward the open window. “There could be more out there. We can’t just wait here!”


    He wasn’t wrong. From the silence outside, I could hear the faint scurrying of more rats in the subway tunnel. The threat wasn’t over yet.


    I turned toward Jade, who was leaning against the wall, taking deep, controlled breaths. Beads of sweat glistened on her forehead, and though her scowl was fierce, it carried a weariness I rarely saw.


    “You okay?” I asked, wiping her forehead with my fingers.


    Jade exhaled sharply, brushing a damp strand of hair from her face. “I’m fine,” she said, her tone clipped but steady.


    "But whoever’s behind this… their meta nature is strong and produces quite a lot of resistance.” She glanced at end of the carnage, her silver eyes narrowing. “These rats are fast and mindless. It wasn’t easy to stop them all at once.”


    I nodded, understanding her caution. The bloody rats might be manageable for now, but the situation could escalate quickly. Jade’s powers were formidable, but they needed time to take effect—especially on such a large scale. And what if one of them suddenly lunged at us in the darkness?


    “Let’s go,” she said firmly, grabbing my hand. “We don’t have time to waste.”


    Jade jumped out of the window first, her boots crunching against loose gravel as she hit the ground with practiced ease. I followed close behind, landing on the gritty tunnel floor.


    The cool, damp air was a sharp contrast to the stifling, thick atmosphere inside the train.


    At the far end of the compartment, the man in an office suit with the metal bar stood, his expression a mixture of confusion and suspicion. He was clearly trying to piece together why the rats had suddenly died, but he wasn’t na?ve enough to not piece two and two together. Despite his bewilderment, his grip on the bar was tight, his knuckles white, and his stance was firm and ready—alert, but not aggressive.


    I walked up to him, studying the delicate silver threads that emanated from his head—visible only through my perception.


    They stretched into the void like ghostly spider silk, marking him as someone with a Hive meta nature: Probably the System. That explained his resilience and quick adaptation. The System users like him had one notably useful trait: they could increase their strength through combat and rank by defeating other System meta users.


    If my hunch was right, the man might have seen this chaos as an opportunity rather than a catastrophe. But there was no time to dig deeper into his motivations.


    I approached the man, keeping my tone neutral. “Thanks for what you did back there. You saved lives.”


    His sharp eyes met mine, his grip on the metal bar firm. For a moment, I thought he might brush me off, but then he gave a short nod. “What do you want?”


    His tone was gruff, weary, and suspicious. I couldn’t blame him. For all he knew, I might have been here to exploit the situation.


    “Nothing,” I said evenly. “Just wanted to say thanks. No one else had the chance.”


    His expression softening slightly. “You’re welcome,” he muttered, glancing toward the tunnel. “But you’d better keep moving. This isn’t over.”


    “Understood,” I replied, turning back to Jade, who was waiting near the front of the derailed train. Her eyes flicked between me and the man as I approached.


    “Let’s go,” I said quietly.


    We cautiously moved forward, the tunnel was cold, dark, and suffocating, the stale air carrying the stench of blood that clung to every breath. Flickering emergency lights painted eerie shadows along the walls, making it impossible to tell if the faint scuttling sounds came from rats or our imaginations. It felt as though everyone else who had escaped had vanished into thin air or fled so quickly they left no trace. Despite this, I could still sense the presence of people behind us, moving cautiously—including the man with the metal bar.


    One of our suspicions was soon answered when we stumbled upon a grim sight.


    A young man’s body lay sprawled across the tracks, brutally torn apart. His throat and stomach were shredded, intestines spilled onto the gravel. His chest was hollow, his heart ripped clean out. Bite marks marred the mangled flesh, unmistakably from the rats.


    Personally, I had seen worse, but the state of the dead man’s body still caused me to falter for a moment.


    Beside me, Jade’s reaction was immediate and visceral. She doubled over, her body trembling as she retched violently. The sound of it broke through the dark silence of the tunnel.


    “Jade,” I said softly, stepping closer. I placed a steady hand on her back, feeling the tension in her muscles as her breaths came in ragged gasps. She waved me off weakly at first, but I stayed, holding her hair and purse.


    “It’s okay,” I murmured. “Just breathe. Take your time.”


    I searched through my bag and handed her a half filled water bottle. She took big gulps before spitting the water back onto the gravel and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Her silver eyes, glassy and unfocused, finally turned to me, a flicker of embarrassment mixed with her obvious distress.


    “I’m fine,” she rasped, though her voice betrayed her. “I just—” She gestured vaguely toward the mangled corpse of the young man, but couldn’t bring herself to look at it again. “That’s... not something you just brush off.”


    I crouched slightly to meet her gaze, keeping my voice gentle but firm. “You don’t have to explain. This is... awful. Anyone would react the same.”


    She straightened slowly, her hand gripping mine tightly as if to anchor herself. “Not you,” she said, her voice steadying but carrying an edge of frustration. “You didn’t even flinch.”


    “I’ve seen worse,” I admitted quietly, my eyes flicking briefly back to the torn body. “Doesn’t make it easier. though You okay to keep moving?”


    Jade took a deep breath, wiping her hands on her jacket for final as she nodded. “Yeah. Hopefully, no more dead bodies”


    At this point, the man with the metal bar and three youngsters in his tow had rushed forward, their faces grim as they glanced at the body. They looked younger, likely in their late teens and were perhaps coming home after having fun. They vomited immediately, their bodies trembling in fear. But, the man knelt beside the corpse, his frown deepening as he examined the mangled corpse.


    “Do you think the bloody rats are still nearby?” Jade asked, her silver eyes flicking toward the darkness ahead.


    I let my perception guide me, my meta vision revealing a foreboding truth: everyone nearby was painted in pure red, a color that screamed imminent danger. The answer was obvious—we were still in extreme peril.


    I nodded, my eyes scanning every shadow and crevice. “The rat that killed him is still nearby, hiding.”


    The man with the bar didn’t look up, his tone grim. “They don’t run far after a kill like this. They’re hunting.” His fingers curled tighter around the bar, his knuckles whitening. “If they’re not here now, they will be soon.”


    One of the teens whimpered. “We can’t fight those things. Not like this.” His voice cracked, his hands gripping his knees as he tried—and failed—to stop shaking.


    “Then don’t fight,” the man barked, his tone sharp enough to cut through the rising panic. He rose to his feet, towering over them as he swung the bar over his shoulder. “You survive. You keep moving.”


    Jade’s grip on my arm tightened. Her voice was quieter now, but firm. “He’s right. We should linger around here. The smell of blood might attract other rats.”


    I agreed as I scanned the shadowed tunnel ahead. “Let’s move. The longer we stay, the worse this gets.”


    However, the big problem was, I didn’t have a proper weapon to defend myself. My fists would be next to useless against these unnaturally strong, steroidal creatures. They were more like demons than rats, with teeth and claws built to tear through flesh and bone. Desperation spurred me to improvise. I rummaged through my bag and pulled out a pencil and a pen—the only usable items I had. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. I handed the pen to Jade, who raised an eyebrow at it, her disbelief palpable.


    “This is your plan?” she asked flatly, holding up the pen as if it might sprout wings and fly us out of the tunnel.


    “Use it if they come close,” I said grimly, ignoring the dry humor in her tone. “Aim for the eyes, throat, or anything, well… I don’t think it’d do much in useless hands to be honest.”


    Jade stared at the pen for a moment, then back at me. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and with a curt nod, she adjusted her grip.


    What surprised me wasn’t the skepticism but how quickly her disbelief shifted into pure determination. She wasn’t backing down, not after everything we’d seen today. There was steel in her, hidden beneath the sharp remarks and biting wit.


    “Got it,” she said simply, her voice steady.


    She wasn''t the type to crumble under pressure, which gave me some comfort even as danger surrounded us.


    I noticed her meta manifesting differently now—she wasn''t bleeding influence into reality like before. Instead, she''d become more like an oil droplet suspended in water, completely separate from her environment. Periodic ripples spread out from her form, but I couldn''t decipher what she was attempting. Her meta nature had always been mysterious, but this was something new entirely.


    The group strode forward in uneasy silence, eyes darting in every direction. The stench of blood and rot was suffocating. The man with the metal bar glanced back at me and Jade, his brow furrowed. He must have sensed we weren’t ordinary passengers, especially how calm we both acted despite our grim situation.


    Jade leaned closer to me, “If hundreds of them attack again, we’re in no shape to fight them off. You’ve got to have some other plan.”


    I kept my eyes on the dark expanse of the tunnel ahead, the flickering lights making it impossible to tell where safety might lie. “We need to keep moving,” I said quietly, “If we’re lucky, we’ll find a maintenance shaft or another group of survivors.”


    “Lucky,” she muttered under her breath, her tone edged with dry humor. “I don’t think luck’s been on our side tonight.”


    I shot her a glance. “Then we make our own.”


    The man with the bar, clearly overhearing, snorted softly but didn’t comment. He turned his attention back to the blinding path ahead


    Our steps were deliberate as the faint echoes of our footsteps bounced off the cold, damp tunnel walls. My perception flared faint red glimmers in the darkness, faint but unmistakable.


    My perception flared again, revealing faint red glimmers flickering in the darkness. They were subtle, barely there, but undeniable. More and more of the bloody rats were stalking us. I didn’t need to see them directly to feel it.


    Fear had a taste—metallic and bitter—and it lingered in the air like a thick fog.


    “Does anyone hear that?” whispered one of the teenage girls. Her voice trembled, barely audible, but it was enough to make everyone freeze.


    The question stopped us all in our tracks. The faint pattering of claws against the cold concrete floor was growing louder, more deliberate. The sound wasn’t distant anymore; it was close. Too close. A sickening squelch joined the pattering, and then wet, guttural growls followed—low, primal, and suffused with malice. The dim emergency lighting did us no favors. As the bloody rats surged closer, shadows twisted and stretched unnaturally along the walls, jagged and monstrous. My breath halted, and the group collectively stiffened. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    The metal bar man stepped forward, raising his makeshift weapon, his muscles taut and ready. "Stay behind me," he barked, his tone brooking no argument.


    The group of teenagers huddled closer together, fear etched into their pale faces.


    The boy beside him swallowed hard, his hand shaking as he clutched a broken pipe. “How many?” he asked, his voice barely more than a croak.


    “Too many,” Jade answered quietly, her eyes fixed on the shifting darkness.


    Another one of them picked up a shard of stone, trembling but determined.


    Soon I saw dozens of similar bloody demon like rats running on their four feats, almost as fast as a cat or dog. I couldn’t help but feel a moment of stunned disbelief again. How were these things even alive? Their exposed insides should have left them crippled or dead, but they moved with the energy of predators who had just caught the scent of their next meal.


    There was no clear way out. If we ran, they’d catch us. If we stayed still, they’d overwhelm us.


    The walls of the tunnel felt like they were closing in and we were trapped in cramped space, unable to dodge.


    I tightened my grip on the pencil in my hand. It was absurd to think this flimsy tool could defend me, but having something—anything—felt better than nothing. My gaze flicked to the metal bar man. His strength had already proven invaluable, and right now, he was the closest thing we had to a real weapon.


    The first rat burst into view, a monstrous blur of raw muscle and exposed sinew. Its glowing red eyes locked onto us, and it lunged forward with a guttural screech that made the hairs on our necks stand on end. The man with the metal bar moved instantly, no hesitation in his reaction. He swung with raw force, the improvised weapon connecting with the rat’s head with a sickening crack. The creature was hurled sideways, slamming into the wall with a wet thud. It twitched violently for a moment before going still. But for every rat that fell, three more seemed to pour out of the shadows, their glowing red eyes multiplying like embers in the darkness. They were relentless, their movements fueled by an unnatural hunger that bordered on pure insanity.


    Jade vision captured every movement of the bloody demon rats.


    She didn’t say a word. She didn’t need to.


    Her meta seemed to create a field of likely collapsing probabilities around us.


    The first few rats lunged, sinewy and swift, their leaps coiling like a spring. Before they could land, their front legs crumpled under its weight, sending them skidding to a halt. A gurgling screech escaped as they body twisted violently, spine snapping with a sickening finality. they twitched once and went still, neck grotesquely askew. Another group darted in low and fast from the side. Mid-stride, their hind legs faltered, yanked back as though by unseen strings. They hit the ground hard, its momentum snuffed. A heartbeat later, their head wrenched upward unnaturally, and the creature went limp. Two more rushed headlong toward her. Jade tilted her head, a faint glimmer of curiosity in her gaze. One froze in place, claws scraping futilely at the earth as its body turned rigid as stone. The other barely made it halfway before its muscles seized, folding it inward with a sickening crunch, leaving a crumpled heap in its wake.


    “What the—” one of the teens stammered, his eyes wide as he clutched his rusted pipe. “What’s she—how—?”


    The man with the metal bar swung hard, sending another rat flying, “Stay focused and keep moving, kid! She’s buying us time—don’t waste it!”


    Another swarm of rats came, but their numbers in hundreds this time, scaling the walls and leaping toward us. But before they closed in, the small part of tunnel ceiling cracked and gave way. Concrete rained down, crushing them mid-air. The rest of us screeched and skittered back, the space filling with choking dust. More surged from behind, weaving through the rubble with chilling speed. One darted ahead, faster than the rest, lunging at a frozen teen clutching a rusted pipe. Its leap faltered as a nail pierced its paw, sending it sprawling into another rat. The two collided, limbs twisting, crushed under the momentum of the horde behind them.


    Jade’s gaze shifted upward. A frayed power line swung precariously, sparks trailing from its ends. As another wave of rats closed in, the cable dipped low. A flash of electricity lit the tunnel, and the swarm convulsed, collapsing into charred, smoking piles.


    “They’re endless!” the thin boy cried, stumbling back, his voice breaking. “We’re going to die here!”


    “Not if you keep moving!” Jade snapped angrily. “I can’t hold this forever.”


    Meanwhile, my perception showed the silver threads connected to each rat thickening. I realized they weren’t just acting on instinct—they were being controlled.


    My thoughts raced, piecing together the fragments of the nightmare we’d been dragged into. After we had walked on the tracks, escaping the train. The passengers’ bodies—so many of them were missing. If they had been killed, why weren’t they left behind like the others?


    The rats weren’t just killing.


    They were taking.


    The purpose behind it eluded me, but the thought sent a chill down my spine


    All of this bloody chaos could have been avoided if I’d just paid more attention—taken a second to check my own or someone else’s Likeness before boarding the train. Only if I had used my meta nature more actively, but it was too late for regrets. What was done, was done. I’d made my bed, and now I was lying in it. Unfortunately, it was covered in rats. I glanced at Jade. She stood ahead of me like a defiant shield, her stance firm despite the chaos. She knew my powers weren’t meant for fighting, and she had stepped into the fray without hesitation.


    As if sensing my gaze, she turned and offered a weary smile, her voice steady despite the madness around us. "Stay close to me. Don’t run off."


    Did she think I was some child in need of constant reminders? I frowned.


    The arrogant dragon believed she could shield me from everything, as if her wings alone were enough to hold the world at bay for me. Her confidence, her sheer nerve—it was infuriating, and yet oddly comforting simultaneously.


    And yet… I couldn’t just stand there, hiding in her shadow while she took all the risks.


    Nearby, the tired, black suit man swung the metal rod like it was an extension of his arm, each blow landing with deadly precision. The rats scattered with every strike, but the bar itself was showing the strain—bent, dented, and riddled with bite marks. It wouldn’t last much longer.


    We wouldn’t last much longer unless something changed.


    To be honest, most of the rats were being handled by Jade alone, and watching her meta-nature in action was nothing short of surreal. I couldn’t fully wrap my head around how it worked—or whether I wanted to.


    Any rat that wandered into the invisible boundary around her, roughly a ten-foot radius, met a gruesome end. Some burst into flames without warning, disintegrating into piles of ash that scattered into the air. Others staggered and convulsed as sudden, bloody holes appeared in their bodies, as if invisible rods had skewered them. And then there were the unlucky few that outright exploded, showering the area with gore and bits of flesh.


    But it was her eyes that unnerved me the most. Whenever her gaze locked onto a rat, it froze mid-sprint, its body trembling violently.


    Moments later, it twisted and contorted in a silent scream of agony before collapsing in on itself, vanishing as if consumed by a miniature black hole.


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    Her meta-nature—her primary side—was a riddle that refused to unravel. The mechanics of it were beyond comprehension, too strange and too alien for my mind to follow. I shoved the thought aside; it wasn’t the time to ponder on the unknowable.


    Jade was showing signs of flagging, her breath coming in uneven bursts as she carved through the unrelenting swarm. The rats just kept coming—hundreds dead, yet hundreds more surged forward, undeterred, filling the already cramped tunnel with the stench of blood and decay. The sheer press of their numbers was suffocating, and still, they showed no signs of stopping. And we found it hard to move forward as their dead bodies had started to create a small mountain onward in small tunnel.


    Suddenly, a flicker of satisfaction tugged at the back of my mind, sharp and almost petty. If Jade wanted to accuse me of withholding secrets later, I could turn this moment against her. How about your secrets, Jade? The thought of it almost coaxed a smirk to my lips. Almost.


    Not far away, three teenagers huddled together, pale and trembling. One boy and the girl had wet themselves, the dark stains stark against their jeans. I didn’t blame them; I might have done the same in their place. The girl seemed to possess some heightened senses—not extraordinary, but enough to make her jump before any rat neared her. If looked more closely, I noticed her meta nature seemed to be eveloing mid fight in the territory of danger sensing, a boon amidst the insanity.


    The other boy was utterly frozen, his face locked in a grimace of pure terror, too paralyzed even to flinch as the rats skittered ever closer. Not that I could blame him. If I didn’t have the experience I did—or Jade by my side—I’d probably be in the same state, crying for a peaceful death than torn apart by mouths filled razors. The third one, however, was putting up a fight. He’d stripped off his leather jacket, screaming incoherently as he used his minor telekinetic ability to whip it around like a weapon. The jacket wrapped around rats, slamming them into walls, grinding them against the floor, or flinging them into bloody pulp. It was crude, sure, but it worked—better than my damn pencil, anyway.


    For a moment, I almost felt proud of him, but the surge of rats pushed us back relentlessly. They didn’t tire, didn’t stop, didn’t hesitate. The group was forced into a corner, the walls pressing in like a cage. I moved quickly, grabbing the shoulders of the boy and girl who were still frozen with fear. They flinched at my touch, their wide eyes filled with terror, but I tightened my grip to keep them steady.


    “Hey, focus,” I snapped, leaning in close. My voice was firm, but not unkind. “You’re not dead yet. Scan the tunnel—look for an emergency hatch, a maintenance door, anything that can get us out of here.”


    The girl blinked, her trembling slowing as my words cut through her panic. The boy nodded hesitantly, his breath still shaky but more controlled. They started scanning the walls, their desperation channeled into purpose, and for a moment, it felt like progress. I turned my attention back to the fight. The perimeter was breaking. Jade’s meta was still wreaking havoc, rats disintegrating or crumpling within her radius, but the ones that slipped past her were pouring into our corner like a flood. The man with the metal bar swung wildly at the swarm, his movements frantic and uncoordinated now, his improvised weapon visibly bent under the relentless assault.


    My jaw tightened as an idea struck me—a brutal one, but the only one I had left. Intangibility. If I phased through the rats, I could disrupt them internally, rip apart their lungs or brains from the inside. It had to work. It had to.


    I stepped forward to the edge of the fray, steeling myself as I activated my power. The first rat lunged at me, snarling, and I let it phase through my arm like a ghost. Its insides were exposed to my touch, raw and vulnerable. I reached for what I assumed was its brain, wrapping my fingers around the soft mass and yanking.


    The result was... disappointing.


    The rat didn’t stop. It thrashed violently, biting and clawing as though nothing had happened. Its body flailed like a decapitated snake, undeterred by the absence of what should’ve been vital organs. My breath caught in my throat as I stumbled back, momentarily speechless.


    “What the hell?” I muttered, shaking my head as another rat lunged at me. I tried again, grabbing at what looked like its lungs. The same result. It kept moving, feral and unstoppable, as if its body didn’t care about its missing parts.


    Jade’s voice cut through the chaos. “North, what are you doing?!” she shouted, her filled with frustration as another cluster of rats collapsed on itself within our shrunken domain of ten feet.


    “Experimenting!” I shouted back. “Turns out these things don’t care about biology!”


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    “STOP PLAYING! Figure something else out!” she snapped, her voice sharp and biting as another rat crumpled in front of her, its body folding like paper under her invisible force. Her exhaustion was written all over her—ragged breaths, a tremor in her voice.


    “I’ve got a few minutes, max!” she barked again, desperation edging her tone. “My head’s buzzing, I’m feeling dizzy—I can’t keep this up much longer!”


    Her words jolted me into action, forcing my thoughts to refocus. The rats didn’t care about losing lungs or hearts. Their frenzied, unnatural existence defied everything I knew. If dismantling them piece by piece wouldn’t work, I needed a new approach.


    My eyes darted toward the nearest rats, their bloody and fleshly bodies lunging closer, claws and teeth gleaming in the flickering light. An idea sparked—a terrible, desperate idea. I phased my hands through the backs of two of them, gripping their spines tightly. Their bodies twitched and spasmed in my grasp, their claws flailing wildly and jaws snapping with manic energy. The pain only seemed to drive them into a deeper frenzy. They were heavy, their weight pulling against me like dead anchors, but adrenaline burned away the strain. I gritted my teeth, my lips curling into a dark, wicked smile. These rats weren’t just liabilities anymore—they were weapons.


    As I swung them around, their claws and jaws tearing into the other rats nearby. The bloody rats screeched and writhed as other frenzied rats met their ends, ripped in half.


    Once the rats in my hands expired, their broken bodies spent, I lunged to grab another two without missing a beat.


    The relentless tide of bloody rats crashed against me from all sides, a writhing mass of fur, claws, and teeth. They clambered over each other in their frenzy to reach me, their shrill cries echoing through the tunnel, but instead their body passed through me straight, as I didn’t exist in the same space as them.


    I slammed them into the oncoming horde, feeling the sickening crunch of bone and the wet tear of flesh with each impact. The rats that were struck flew backwards, their broken bodies crashing into their kin in a domino effect of carnage. Despite being intangible, I felt my muscles tear in pain, but I didn’t stop attacking. Not Yet. I pushed on, my arms burning with exertion, my lungs screaming for air.


    In less than a minute, a small mountain of rat carcasses had formed around my feet.


    All the pent-up anger and frustration from the last ten minutes poured out of me in a cathartic release. I had never advocated for killing, but these bloody rats had pushed me to my limits. Slaughtering them felt strangely satisfying, like lancing a festering wound. The violence was primal, instinctive—a way to reclaim control in a situation that had spiraled into madness.


    As the three-minute mark of my intangibility approached, I staggered back into the shrinking circle of safety created by Jade’s meta-nature. The once-wide perimeter was now halved, its invisible boundary crackling with exhaustion. The rats still came, but their numbers had dwindled to less than half of the original swarm. Yet, the danger hadn’t lessened. Not really.


    The strain on our group was obvious. Now, Jade was visibly struggling, her silver eyes flickering with fatigue. She could even take breath properly as if she stopped the safe parameter would collapse. Her shoulders trembled slightly as she stood her ground. She didn’t say anything, but I could see her exhaustion written on her face. Beside her was the man I’d mentally dubbed “One Hit Man,” though his metal bar—once his weapon of choice—was long gone, either discarded or consumed by the bloody rats. Now, he fought with his bare fists, smashing the creatures with brutal efficiency. Blood coated his hands, dripping onto the ground with each swing, and I could see jagged pieces of bone peeking through the torn skin of his knuckles. The sight was bloody horrifying, but the man seemed to feel no pain and he even grew stronger with each punch he landed and killed.


    “Jade,” I said, stepping closer to her as I phased back into solidity. My voice was low, steady, but edged with concern. “How much longer can you keep this up?”


    She had killed thousands of bloody rats if not ten thousands as they continued to poured in from the both sides of the tunnel, drowning us.


    She didn’t look at me, her gaze locked on the swarm. Another rat froze mid-lunge, its body contorting before it exploded into bloody bits. “As long as I need to,” she replied, her tone sharp but strained. “What’s the alternative? Let them eat us?”


    Yet, Jade’s powers weren’t limitless.


    No meta-nature was.


    Every ability had a breaking point, a moment when it stopped working or, worse, started to backfire. My intangibility faded after overuse, like running out of breath underwater. Jade’s, however, was far more dangerous. Her meta-nature didn’t simply stop—it bled. Dangerously. Her Likeness was seeping into reality, the barrier between her and the world dissolving like oil mixing into water, creating an iridescent, rainbow-like shimmer in the air. It was beautiful in a haunting, unnatural way—but also a dire warning. if this went on much longer, the damage to her—and everything around her—would be irreversible.


    My throat tightened as I glanced at her, eyes sharp but dimming, sweat dripping down her face. She could have escaped this hell. Easily. She could have left me and the rest of the group to fend for ourselves. I doubted she cared about the others enough to even look back. No—she was doing this for me. She was holding the line, draining her life away, for me.


    And here I was, standing useless, wielding a pencil like it was some kind of meaningful weapon. But now, even that was lost somewhere in the belly of dead rat.


    It had been almost over ten minutes since the rats first attacked the train. Where the hell were the Sups? My thoughts screamed.


    These were supposed to be monitored tunnels—how could they not have responded by now? Heroes were supposed to appear in moments like this, larger than life, saving everyone. But the tunnel remained a vacuum of hope.


    And why the hell, in an age of technological miracles, was there no damn signal in these tunnels? Was it too much to ask for telecom companies to penetrate a few meters of soil?


    My uselessness clawed at me, pushing me to darker places. I could take someone''s meta. They wouldn’t need them if they’re just standing there shaking. My gaze flicked briefly to the cowering survivors. If I absorbed even one…


    I froze, my breath catching as the thought cut through me like a blade. What the hell is wrong with me? Taking someone’s powers meant killing them. That wasn’t just a line—I didn’t even want to look at it.


    “North,” Jade’s voice broke through my spiraling thoughts, sharp but trembling. “Focus. I can’t—” She faltered for a moment, her legs wobbling before she steadied herself. “I can’t do this much longer. My head is about to burst.”


    I stepped forward, gripping Jade’s shoulder to steady her. The heat radiating off her was staggering, like standing next to an engine on the verge of meltdown. She was burning up, her body tearing itself apart to keep us alive. My chest tightened, every instinct screaming at me to do something—anything—but my mind wrestled with the impossible choices.


    Stop her? The swarm would engulf us in seconds. Let her keep going? She was killing herself, every pulse of her meta draining what little life she had left.


    The thought of losing her made my stomach twist, the idea too cruel to bear. I loved her—too much to let this be the end. Survival didn’t matter if it meant watching her destroy herself. But then, instinct cut through the chaos. My arms moved before my mind could catch up, reaching to pick her up and run. Forget everyone else. If her meta could shield just the two of us for a few precious moments, I’d find a way out. I’d carry her through hell if that’s what it took.


    Just as my hands slid under her knees to lift her, a voice shattered the tension like glass breaking. “There! There! I see a green light!” The teenage girl’s cry rang out, sharp and clear, cutting through the oppressive noise of claws, and screeches.


    We all turned toward her, startled. In the frenzy, we hadn’t paid much attention to our surroundings, but I remembered telling them to keep an eye out for emergency exits. Sure enough, a faint green glow was visible in the distance— It shone like a beacon of hope amid the carnage.


    Jade staggered slightly beside me. Her aura flickered like a dying flame, the shimmering iridescence around her growing denser.


    “Just a little longer,” I said, my tone firmer and I dashed toward it to make a hasty path.


    I stomped on a rat that tried to skitter past me, its body crunching under my boot. “We’re almost there.”


    I wore another pair of bloody rat gloves and my arms swung wide in vicious arcs, while my muscles burned with the strain. The darting, writhing bodies of the bloody rats flew through the air as my fists smashed into them. Flesh and bones splattered the tunnel walls and floor, painting everything a glistening crimson. I waded through the writhing horde, kicking and stomping. The dead ones still attached to my hands grew heavier with every swing, their limp bodies adding to the mangled weight.


    Meanwhile, my mind churned with more questions as I pressed on.


    Whoever was behind this—it must have taken them an obscene amount of time and effort to transform entire city rats into a bloody army. Why target a random passenger train? It didn’t make sense.


    Unless… This wasn’t just a random attack.


    My thoughts crystallized even as I fought. A test. This was a test.


    The attack definitely belonged to Tunnel Underground. Jade, Leo, and I had been collecting clues about them for the last three months from the shadows. We explored the tunnels and followed people around, but our discoveries didn''t lead to any significant breakthroughs. We didn''t push to search harder, as it was all for Leo''s portfolio, and I wasn''t keen on infiltrating a gang, so I was taking my time. However, the group was more hidden than they appeared on the surface. Today''s commotion and the deaths of hundreds of people would surely cause the police and sups organizations to take action. Still, I couldn’t rely on them. They were too slow, too scattered, too useless. I had to approach this from a different angle. Our investigations had been limited to passive observation, but it was clear now that we had underestimated Tunnel Underground''s capabilities and the threat they posed. The scale and audacity of this attack indicated a level of organization and resources that went far beyond what we had initially suspected.


    Fighting these rats with hands was a stupid idea. But I pushed on, pouring all my rage and desperation into the onslaught.


    Rats claws scrabbled ineffectually against my intangible body as I plowed through the horde, leaving a trail of broken, twitching bodies in my wake. The stench of blood and offal was overwhelming, the coppery tang coating my tongue and invading my nostrils. I slammed the rat-gloves together, pulverizing the hapless creatures caught between them into a chunky paste as it was ripped to shreds by its two brothers in my hand. Bits of fur, bone shards and gobbets of flesh flew in all directions, phasing through my face and chest. I barely noticed, lost in the red haze of battle-lust.


    Finally, the metal door came into view, just ten feet ahead. It felt impossibly far and tantalizingly close all at once.


    Breathing felt painful due to exhaustion. But, I couldn''t give up now. Despite my legs feeling like lead, I dashed back to Jade’s side.


    She was slumped against the wall, her silver eyes dim and unfocused. A weary, strained smile curved her lips, but it barely masked the pain etched into her face. “It hurts... very bad.” Her eyes pleaded with me to put an end to it.


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    Her pleading voice broke something inside me, splintering my resolve into shards. I turned to the trembling boy and girl, grabbing their shoulders in a grip that left no room for argument. My voice filled with exhaustion and desperation, came out like a bark.


    “Help her. Now. Get her to that door.”


    My glare sharpened, my tone a warning. “If anything happens to her before we’re up those stairs, I’ll bury you both in this tunnel.”


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    The fear in their eyes was unmistakable, but it did the job. Without hesitation, they scrambled to Jade’s side, each wrapping an arm around her to hold her upright. For a moment, her short breaths began to even out, and some of the strain seemed to lift from her face.


    I’d seen centuries of war, endured horrors that would break most men, but watching her like this—her strength unraveling, her face ashen with pain—hit me in a way no battle ever had. It was like a knife driven straight into my chest, twisting with a cruel precision.


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    But there was no time to make sense of it. Not now.


    I forced myself to turn away, my eyes locking on the danger. The rats numbers had thinned significantly, but they were still a threat. My grip tightened on the dead rat carcasses clinging to my hands.


    “Stop using your power,” My gaze flicked to her, and she met my eyes briefly, a flicker of defiance in her silver irises. “I’ll take it from here.”


    She hesitated, her jaw tightening as if she wanted to argue. But the teenagers’ trembling hands steadied her, and exhaustion won out. She gave me a faint nod, her affects of meta dissipating as her body slumped further against the teens. Though, the damage her meta caused her to the surroundings space remained. I didn''t think any train could ever run on these tracks again. This part of the tunnel would surely become a forbidden zone where luck came to die.


    The One Hit man was already at the emergency door, his hands braced against the dented metal as he prepared to force it open. I moved to cover him, swinging the rat-gloves in wide arcs, smashing the few remaining rats that lunged at us.


    “Go!” I shouted, nodding toward the open door. “Get her inside!”


    Jade and the teenagers slipped through first, their movements clumsy.


    The One Hit man followed with a final nod, his expression grim but resolved. I stayed back, clearing the last few bloody rats, when suddenly I felt sharp claws latch onto my legs. I was forced out of intangibility due to time.


    Three of them swarmed up my calves, their claws digging deep, shredding through my jean pants and into my skin. I stumbled, pain flaring as their weight dragged me down. I kicked violently. One rat’s spine snapped under my heel, its body going limp. Another clawed higher, its jaws snapping at my thigh. I slammed it against the wall with force of my entire body, the crunch of flesh and bone sharp in my ears. The last one clung stubbornly, its claws raking my shin until I grabbed it with both hands and smashed its head against the ground.


    The door groaned shut behind me, but the rats screeches continue to pierce the air as they clawed at the metal, tearing into it with savage determination.


    I turned quickly, ignoring the pain in my legs as I hoisted Jade onto my back. Her arms wrapped weakly around my shoulders, her weight heavier than it should have been. “Hold on,” I muttered, my voice strained. I glanced at the trembling duo, their third friend was already at the top. “Run! Fast!”


    The climb was punishing, every step a battle against the limits of my body. My legs screamed, each movement sending sharp stabs of pain through the open bite wounds. My heart hammered so hard it felt like it might burst. The weight of Jade on my back didn’t help—she was light, but my exhaustion turned her into an anchor.


    Behind us, the metallic screech of tearing metal continued to echo like a death knell. My blood ran cold as the sound grew louder, unmistakable—the rats had breached the door.


    The thought of those relentless demons pouring into the stairwell sent adrenaline surging through my veins, pushing me onward.


    The air subtly shifted as we neared the top. A faint, cool breeze slipped through cracks in the emergency exit. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to spur me forward.


    At the final landing, the One Hit man paused for a moment.


    The side of his body blocked the heavy metal door as he gripped the handle. Both his suit and his skin was in tatters with blood continuously dripping onto the concrete floor. He glanced back at us, his face unreadable, but there was a glimmer of relief in his eyes.


    With a grunt of effort, he shoved the heavy door open, the hinges groaning in protest.


    And then, the night greeted us.


    The cool night air rushed in, brushing against my sweat-soaked skin. Faint streetlights glowed in the distance, and the hum of the city’s traffic was a strange comfort. We were somewhere near a highway.


    For a moment, it felt unreal—this sudden return to normalcy after the bloody horrors of the subway.


    But we didn’t stop to admire it. There was no time for relief. We ran, stumbling onto the empty street, putting as much distance as we could between us and the exit. Behind us, the bloody rats scattered into the wild, their erratic movements fading into the shadows. They wouldn’t last long, I reasoned. Their frenzy would drain them of energy soon enough, and without sustenance, they’d likely die within a day or two. And those left would be killed and captured by Sups.


    Finally, after crossing the road and reaching the edge of an abandoned parking lot, we stopped. My knees buckled slightly as I set Jade down gently, leaning against a rusted metal railing to catch my breath. Every muscle in my body felt like it had been stretched to its breaking point, but at least we were out. Alive.


    Meanwhile, the trio of youngsters huddled together a few feet away, their faces pale and streaked with tears and grime. They hugged each other, trembling like leaves in a storm.


    The girl, her voice still trembling, “Oh my god,” she whispered, her words barely audible at first.


    “Oh my god. We made it out. We’re alive. I thought...” Her voice cracked, tears spilling freely down her cheeks. “I thought we were going to die.”


    The boy with the torn jacket dropped to his knees, his head in his hands. “I can still hear them,” he muttered, his voice hollow. “The screeches… those claws. I thought they were going to rip us apart.”


    The girl eyes darting toward the subway entrance in the distance. “They might still come after us,” she said, her voice quivering. “What if they’re still down there? What if—”


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    I had no doubt—they would never be the same again. This experience would scar them, leaving behind a trauma they’d carry for the rest of their lives.


    “They won’t,” One Hit Man interrupted, “Not for now. They’ll scatter without direction. But we’re not hanging around to find out.”


    “You alright?” I glanced at him.


    He held up his mangled hands with a grimace. “Good? I’m alive. That counts, right?”


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    He looked like he’d stumbled out of a slaughterhouse, not like someone returning from a day at the office. His tattered clothes clung to him, soaked with blood, and his hands—God, his hands. The skin and flesh were stripped away, exposing bone, torn muscle, and frayed ligaments. It was a grotesque sight, and I knew the adrenaline numbing his pain wouldn’t last much longer. When it wore off, the agony would hit him like a freight train.


    “It does,” Yet he’d earned that smile—my gratitude. I nodded back at him, offering a small, tired smile of my own. “For now, it counts.”


    Out of six of us, only Jade and two timid teengaers were without any visible injuries,


    But, Jade’s exhaustion was more apparent than any wound. She leaned heavily in my arms, her once presence now impossibly fragile. Her body, which had burned with feverish heat, had cooled—but now the temperature was plummeting too quickly, making me more worried and panicked I already was. Her eyes stayed shut, her body limp, and her clothes were smeared with blood—mine mixing with hers.


    She stirred in my arms, her eyelids fluttering. “North…”


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    I looked down at her, a wave of emotion surging through me. “I’m here,” I said softly, my hand moving to rub her shoulder in reassurance. “We’re safe now. Just rest. It’s over.”


    Without her, we’d all be dead.


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    Unlike One Hit Man, I wasn’t gravely injured, though my pants were soaked with blood leaking from the bites on my thighs and legs. I hoped I wouldn’t bleed out tonight or get rabies. As from that, exhaustion wracked my body. Blood and gore coated me from head to toe, an almost suffocating layer that seeped into my clothes and clung stubbornly to my skin. The sticky, sickly warmth was unbearable, leaving me acutely aware of every inch of myself. It wasn’t just disgusting—it felt like an invasion,


    I felt the weight of it, not just physically but emotionally.


    Yet, for now, survival was enough.


    Moments later, the faint noise of distant sirens cut through the night. Within minutes, teams of Sups descended on the scene like a well-coordinated storm.Their flashy costumes crisp and glowing insignias marking their affiliations with multiple organizations, a few jumped from the sky, and a few hovering in the air on their hoverboards. The parking lot was quickly crowded. Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances flooded the road, their flashing lights painting the surroundings in red and blue.


    “Over here!” a voice shouted, and a team of Sups approached us.


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    We all lay sprawled on the ground, too exhausted to move. The adrenaline in my veins was fading, replaced by a bone-deep weariness that seeped into every inch of me. I glanced at the One Hit man, he seemed to be biting his lips and his face was ready to give up to pain.


    The medic team scanned us for immediate injuries,.


    A man in a navy-blue costume, his chest emblazoned with the emblem of the official City Protectors, crouched beside us. “You two all right?”


    “We’re... alive,” Jade managed, her voice hoarse. She had woken up due to all the blaring light and voices.


    “That’s good enough,” he replied, signaling for another team of paramedics.


    Moments later, the six of us were shuffled toward the waiting ambulances. The medics worked quickly as they ushered us inside, immediately patching us with dozen of machines to take readings.


    Jade winced as the medic administered an injection into her arm, but the medical equipment around her was in chaos. Every reading went haywire, leaving the paramedics frustrated and overwhelmed. She was too unstable, her condition defying their understanding. They’d wrapped her in four thick silver blankets designed to contain meta radiation leaks, but even those couldn’t keep up. The blankets turned black within minutes, forcing them to replace them three times already. It was clear they wanted nothing more than to rush her to the hospital, sedate her heavily, and wait for her meta-nature to stabilize—until she stopped warping and damaging reality around her.


    I leaned in closer, two paramedics quietly worked on giving me one injection after another to stop the whatever infection they said was spreading through my legs and body. As my body below the hips was swollen like elephant legs, so I didn''t complain or stopped them.


    I kept my voice low. “You were amazing down there,” I said, trying to catch her gaze.


    She looked at me, her lips quirked into the faintest smirk, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “You weren’t so bad yourself,” she murmured.


    Subsequently, the ambulance doors shut with a solid thunk, cutting off the loud wail of sirens and the hum of emergency crews. Jolting as it started moving, the sirens rising to a steady wail. I leaned back against the cool interior wall, letting the motion lull my thoughts. The ordeal was over, but the questions lingered.


    What was the purpose of this attack? Was it really a test? What comes next?


    Jade shifted slightly on the bed, “Stop overthinking,” the faintest trace of exasperation in her voice.


    I blinked, caught off guard. “How do you always know when I’m doing that?”


    She gave a faint smile, her smirk returning despite the pain beneath. “Because...we’re connected. Like freaky mental Wi-Fi.”


    I stared at her for a second, my mouth slightly open.


    She wasn’t wrong—not entirely.