The sky above the city twisted.

  At first it looked like heat rising from the road on a hot afternoon. A faint shimmer in the air, barely noticeable unless you stared directly at it.

  But this was different.

  The distortion grew larger.

  Wider.

  Like invisible fingers pulling at the fabric of the sky.

  “What is that?” I asked again.

  Elias’s grip tightened around my arm.

  “That,” he said quietly, “is the beginning of the fracture.”

  Mr. Moyo stepped forward, studying the strange phenomenon in silence.

  His expression had become serious.

  “Earlier than expected,” he muttered.

  “Earlier?” Elias snapped. “This shouldn’t be happening at all.”

  The distortion expanded again.

  People on the street began pointing upward.

  Some took out their phones, recording.

  Others simply stared.

  Then the air made a sound.

  A low vibration.

  Like the hum of distant machinery.

  My chest tightened.

  “I don’t like this,” I said.

  “You shouldn’t,” Elias replied.

  A car alarm suddenly blared somewhere down the road.

  Another joined it.

  Then another.

  Lights flickered inside nearby buildings.

  Streetlamps blinked rapidly.

  And then—

  Reality cracked.

  The distortion in the sky split open like glass under pressure.

  For a single terrifying second, I saw something beyond it.

  Not clouds.

  Not sky.

  Something else.

  A city.

  But not our city.

  The buildings were broken, their structures twisted like melted metal. Fires burned in the distance, casting orange light across a dark horizon.

  The vision vanished instantly.

  The sky snapped back to normal.

  Several people screamed.

  “What was that?!” someone shouted.

  Elias stepped back slowly.

  “That shouldn’t have happened yet.”

  “What did we just see?” I asked.

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  “The future.”

  My stomach dropped.

  “That was 2080?”

  “Yes.”

  Mr. Moyo shook his head.

  “No.”

  Elias looked at him.

  “What do you mean no?”

  “That wasn’t your future.”

  “Then what was it?”

  Mr. Moyo’s voice lowered.

  “A possible one.”

  The ground trembled lightly beneath our feet.

  Not an earthquake.

  Something else.

  The same humming vibration filled the air again.

  This time stronger.

  More unstable.

  Elias turned sharply toward the research facility.

  “The Resonance Core,” he said.

  “What about it?”

  “It’s reacting.”

  “To what?”

  “The fracture.”

  Mr. Moyo nodded slowly.

  “The machine is trying to stabilize the timeline.”

  “Then that’s good,” I said.

  “No,” Elias replied.

  “Why not?”

  “Because it means someone has already activated the second phase.”

  I blinked.

  “There’s a second phase?”

  “There are several.”

  My head began to hurt.

  “So let me understand this,” I said.

  “There’s a machine that can break time…”

  “Yes.

  “And now it’s reacting to something tearing time apart?”

  “Yes.”

  “And both of you are acting like this is normal?”

  “No,” Elias said quietly.

  “This is very bad.”

  Suddenly the vibration intensified.

  Windows along the street rattled violently.

  A loud cracking sound echoed through the air.

  The distortion in the sky returned.

  But this time…

  It wasn’t above the research facility.

  It was directly above us.

  The air twisted violently.

  And something stepped through.

  At first it looked human.

  But as the figure emerged from the distortion, I realized something was wrong.

  Its movements were jerky.

  Unnatural.

  Like a broken puppet trying to imitate a person.

  Its eyes glowed faintly with pale light.

  Elias swore under his breath.

  “That’s impossible.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer immediately.

  Instead he pulled something from inside his jacket.

  A small metallic device.

  “Run,” he said.

  “Run where?”

  “Anywhere!”

  The creature tilted its head slowly.

  Then it began walking toward us.

  Mr. Moyo sighed.

  “Well,” he said calmly.

  “I suppose the future has finally arrived.”

  The creature’s head tilted again, as if studying us.

  Rain fell straight through its body for a moment before suddenly splashing against it as if it had just become solid.

  My heart began pounding in my chest.

  “That thing,” I whispered, “is not normal.”

  “No,” Elias said quietly. “It isn’t.”

  The creature took another step forward.

  Its movements were wrong.

  Not just unnatural—broken.

  Like someone had recorded a human walking and then played the movement back incorrectly.

  Its arm twitched.

  Then snapped back into place.

  Then twitched again.

  “Temporal instability,” Elias muttered.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “It means it shouldn’t exist here.”

  Mr. Moyo stepped slightly in front of me.

  “Stay behind us,” he said calmly.

  “You say that like you plan to fight it,” I replied.

  “If necessary.”

  The creature suddenly stopped moving.

  For a moment it simply stood there, rain falling around it.

  Then its glowing eyes locked onto me.

  My stomach dropped.

  “Why is it looking at me?” I asked.

  “Because,” Elias said slowly, “the fracture is connected to you.”

  “That is not comforting.”

  The creature moved again.

  This time faster.

  Too fast.

  One moment it was ten meters away.

  The next it was only three.

  “What the—” I began.

  “Move!” Elias shouted.

  Mr. Moyo grabbed my shoulder and pulled me backward just as the creature lunged forward.

  Its hand struck the ground where I had been standing.

  The pavement cracked.

  I stared at the broken concrete in disbelief.

  “That thing just punched the street!”

  Elias lifted the metallic device in his hand.

  A faint blue light spread across its surface.

  “Temporal stabilizer,” he said quickly.

  “Is that supposed to help?” I asked.

  “I hope so.”

  The creature turned toward him.

  Its glowing eyes flickered violently.

  For a split second, the air around it distorted again.

  And suddenly there were two of them.

  I blinked.

  Then one vanished.

  Then it returned again.

  “Great,” I muttered. “Now it’s multiplying.”

  “It’s phasing,” Elias corrected.

  “That doesn’t sound better.”

  Mr. Moyo stepped forward.

  His movements were calm.

  Measured.

  Like someone who had done this before.

  “You’ve encountered these before?” Elias asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And you didn’t think to mention that?”

  “I assumed the future had already taught you.”

  The creature lunged again.

  Mr. Moyo moved faster than I expected.

  He stepped sideways and struck the creature’s arm with the palm of his hand.

  A strange ripple spread through the air.

  The creature stumbled backward.

  I stared.

  “Did you just hit a time monster?”

  “It’s not a monster,” Mr. Moyo replied.

  “What is it then?”

  “A fragment.”

  “A fragment of what?”

  “The fracture.”

  Elias activated the stabilizer.

  The device released a pulse of blue light.

  The air around the creature vibrated violently.

  For a moment it seemed to freeze in place.

  Then the distortion around its body began to collapse inward.

  The glowing eyes flickered.

  Its body twisted unnaturally.

  And then—

  It vanished.

  The street fell silent again.

  Rain continued falling.

  Cars in the distance began moving again slowly.

  People who had been watching from far away whispered nervously.

  “What… just happened?” I asked.

  Elias lowered the stabilizer.

  “That,” he said quietly, “was only the beginning.”

  Mr. Moyo looked toward the research facility again.

  “The fracture is growing.”

  “How bad is that?” I asked.

  Neither of them answered immediately.

  Finally Elias spoke.

  “If we don’t stop it,” he said quietly,

  “tonight was just the first crack in reality.”