Jude exhaled slowly. The city was still. The buildings no longer breathed. The unnatural colors above had dimmed, as if the moment had passed. But something had changed. He could feel it in the way the air pressed against his skin, the way the ground hummed beneath his feet.
He wasn't alone anymore. Something had shifted. And whatever came next, he knew one thing. There was no turning back now.
Jude remained still long after the figure had vanished, his breath controlled but his body tense. The silence that followed was not empty, it was heavy, dense with the presence of something unseen. He could feel the city itself adjusting, shifting in ways he could not fully comprehend.
The hum beneath his feet was fainter now, like the last echoes of a conversation that had ended abruptly. He rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the tension, but it clung to him, a weight he could not remove.
