The fog felt heavier than before.
Lukas followed Felix through the deserted streets, his mind still spinning from what he had just learned. His fingers curled tightly around the folded list of names in his pocket, as if holding onto it would somehow ground him.
The town wasn't just losing people.
It was erasing them.
The streets stretched endlessly ahead of them, lined with buildings that felt too similar, too perfect in their decay. The lanterns flickered, casting long, distorted shadows against the mist-covered cobblestones.
"How many names are left?" Lukas finally asked.
Felix, walking a step ahead, didn't turn. "Not many."
The casual way he said it sent a chill down Lukas's spine.
"How do you keep track?"
Felix let out a quiet breath. "I remember."
Lukas frowned. "And if you forget?"
Felix stopped.
Lukas nearly ran into him. The sudden halt made his nerves coil with tension.
Felix turned his head slightly, enough for Lukas to catch the sharp glint in his ice-blue eyes beneath the dim glow of the streetlamp.
"Then I disappear too."
Lukas's stomach twisted.
Felix smirked slightly, though there was no amusement in it. "I see you're starting to understand."
Lukas exhaled sharply, trying to keep his mind steady. "So you don't just keep records—you remember people so the town can't erase them."
Felix nodded once. "That's the theory."
Lukas's grip on the paper tightened. "Then what happens if you forget even one?"
Felix turned fully this time, watching Lukas carefully.
"They don't come back."
The words hit like a weight in Lukas's chest.
---
They kept walking.
Lukas's boots scraped against the uneven cobblestones, his steps slightly unsteady as his thoughts refused to settle.
He was on the list.
Felix hadn't forgotten him yet.
But that meant…
"How do you even know I exist?" Lukas asked suddenly.
Felix glanced at him but didn't stop walking.
"Because I do."
"That's not an answer."
Felix let out a low chuckle. "It's the only one I have."
Lukas clenched his jaw. "That doesn't make sense. If you're the only reason people don't disappear, then what happens if no one ever knew me to begin with?"
Felix gave him a sidelong glance. "Good question."
Lukas stopped walking.
Felix took a few steps before realizing and turning back, raising an eyebrow.
Lukas felt something dark and cold creep into his thoughts.
What if he had never been real at all?
His memories—fractured, incomplete, out of place—his past before the town blurred at the edges. He had woken up in this life, assuming he had always been here, but—
What if he was just another name on a list, waiting to be erased?
Felix sighed, stepping closer. "Don't spiral."
Lukas snapped his head up, glaring. "I'm not spiraling."
"You are." Felix tapped his temple. "It happens when you start asking too many of the wrong questions."
Lukas took a shaky breath. "What are the right questions, then?"
Felix smirked. "The ones that don't make you disappear."
---
A faint noise cut through the silence.
Lukas tensed immediately, his senses sharpening. It was distant but wrong—a whisper of something shifting where no one should be.
Felix turned his head toward the sound, his expression flattening.
"Someone's here."
Lukas frowned. "I thought the streets were empty."
"They should be."
Felix started moving again, this time with purpose. Lukas followed, his body instinctively tighter, more aware of the air pressing down around them.
The closer they got to the sound, the more the mist thickened. It curled unnaturally at the edges of the street, swallowing the distant buildings too quickly, as if the town itself was shifting while they weren't looking.
A dark figure appeared ahead, standing in the middle of the street, barely visible through the haze.
Lukas slowed.
Felix didn't.
Lukas grabbed his arm. "Wait."
Felix shook him off. "If you hesitate, you're already dead."
Lukas gritted his teeth but followed.
The figure remained motionless. As they got closer, details became clearer—a man, taller than both of them, dressed in a long black coat, the fabric tattered at the edges as if it had been worn for centuries. His head was tilted slightly downward, his face obscured by shadows, but Lukas could see the outline of his features—sharp, too sharp, like something carved out of stone.
Felix stopped a few paces away.
Lukas swallowed hard.
The air felt wrong.
The man didn't move.
Felix took a slow breath. "You're in the wrong place."
A long, dreadful silence stretched between them.
Then—
The man tilted his head further, and Lukas's stomach dropped.
There was no face beneath the shadow of his hood.
Just emptiness.
A void where something human should have been.
Lukas's breath hitched.
The silence broke.
The man moved.
Fast.
Lukas barely had time to react before Felix grabbed his coat and yanked him back—a sharp movement, just as the faceless man lunged forward.
A sharp sound cut through the air—like the wind howling through hollow bones.
Felix shoved Lukas behind him and stepped forward, his coat shifting as he moved. "Don't run," he muttered under his breath.
Lukas could barely process his words, his heart slamming against his ribs.
The faceless man stood only a few feet away now, his body unnaturally still, his presence somehow too large despite his lack of motion.
Then—his head snapped toward Lukas.
A low, distant whisper crawled through Lukas's skull.
His vision blurred.
His pulse staggered.
His mind—
A sharp sound cut through the air—
Felix moved first.
There was a flash of something—a blade?—but Lukas barely processed it.
The faceless man reeled back, his form flickering, distorting like something struggling to exist.
Felix grabbed Lukas's arm and pulled him away.
"Move."
Lukas's legs reacted before his mind did.
They ran.
The fog swallowed the street behind them, but Lukas swore he could still hear the whisper lingering in his skull.
Something had just seen him.
And it wasn't done watching.