PART 1 — The Pharmacy Incident
The buzzing fluorescent lights were the only sound inside the pharmacy.
A cold, artificial hum.
A sound that drilled into Elias’s skull and made the entire place feel trapped in time.
The air smelled like disinfectant, old wax, and something metallic.
Something like fear.
Elias stood near the entrance, frozen.
His eyes were locked on the scene unfolding in front of him.
A security guard had Mrs. Gable pinned against the counter.
She was seventy years old.
A quiet woman who lived only a few houses away.
The guard twisted her arm behind her back.
Too hard.
Much too hard.
The sound made Elias’s stomach turn.
A sharp crack.
A sound no human should ignore.
Mrs. Gable cried out.
“Please… my arm…”
Her voice trembled.
“I didn’t do anything.”
The guard didn’t care.
His face was covered in sweat, his expression cold and arrogant.
“Your card is fake,” he said.
“You’re stealing.”
The other customers stood frozen.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Because the guard wanted them afraid.
Elias felt something rise inside him.
Not anger.
Something deeper.
Something ancient.
His fists tightened.
His boots moved.
Step by step.
Until he stood behind the guard.
“Take your hands off her.”
The guard turned.
Slowly.
A cruel smile appeared on his face.
“Who are you?”
Elias stared at him.
“Someone telling you to stop.”
The guard laughed.
“You think you’re a hero?”
He didn’t finish.
Elias moved.
The world narrowed.
There was only the guard.
The woman.
And the need to protect her.
His hands reached forward.
But the moment his fingers touched the guard’s neck…
Everything changed.
The skin wasn’t skin.
It was plastic.
The guard’s face flickered.
Like a broken screen.
The pharmacy lights exploded into white.
Mrs. Gable’s scream became something impossible.
Not a human sound.
A digital distortion.
Elias stumbled backward.
His jacket was gone.
May you like
The pharmacy disappeared.
And he was somewhere else.
