It was a Tuesday like any other for Lucas. He got up at 7 am when his alarm went off, took a shower, dressed in his blue janitor uniform and left his small apartment to take the train to the hotel.
During the ride he checked the news on his phone, although nothing really caught his interest. Headlines about politics, economics, the weather forecast... nothing relevant to Lucas. His life felt trapped in endless monotony.
Upon arriving at the hotel, he completed his routine tasks. He mopped the floors, cleaned the windows, took out the trash, checked that the hallways were in order. The rest of the staff passed by him without paying much attention to him, as if he were invisible.
During his lunch break, Lucas sat alone at a table in the staff restaurant. While he ate in silence, he watched the rest interact with each other, chatting animatedly. But no one came to talk to him other than to give him some work-related advice.
Finishing his shift at 3 pm, Lucas returned to his apartment to change before going out to wander aimlessly through the crowded streets of Shinjuku. Always walking alone in the crowd, one more anonymous face lost in the immense city.
Walking down a narrow alley to shorten the journey to his apartment, Lucas couldn't stop thinking about how monotonous his life had become. "I wish something would happen, anything to shake me out of this boring routine," he thought.
Suddenly, he heard a strange sound coming from the shadows, like a gelatinous mass crawling. Lucas stopped short, trying to discern what was making that disturbing noise. Driven by curiosity, he cautiously approached a particularly dark corner of the alley.
"Hello, is anyone there?" He asked nervously. There was no response, but the sound intensified. Lucas swallowed thickly and walked around a garbage container to investigate better. What he saw left him petrified with horror.
There was a semi-solid looking amorphous mass writhing on the ground. It had no defined shape, but was constantly mutating, with dozens of appendages emerging and contracting like worms. In its center was a circular cavity filled with misshapen teeth that crushed undefined pieces of meat.
Lucas put a hand to his mouth, suppressing an exclamation of terror. The entity, attracted by the noise, turned part of its gelatinous mass towards him, opening a bloodshot eye the size of a baseball.
A tentacle full of suction cups emerged from its body and crawled towards Lucas. "Stay away, you abomination!" Lucas shouted, throwing a brick that went through the tentacle, splashing greenish liquid.
The creature let out an inhuman screech and lunged at Lucas, who escaped by stumbling down the alley. "Help, someone help me!" He screamed desperately as the amorphous mass chased him, crawling at high speed.
Lucas ran without looking back until he reached a busy avenue. Gasping, he leaned against a wall as people passed by him, unaware of his terror. Whatever that thing was, it was gone.
Still shaking from the encounter with that horrifying amorphous creature, Lucas hurried out of the dark alley and back into the illuminated streets of the city. He walked nervously through the crowd, constantly glancing back to make sure he wasn't being pursued.
After walking several blocks trying to calm down, Lucas noticed a burning sensation in his left arm. He lifted the sleeve of his shirt and saw a strange scratch that wasn't there before. It must have happened when the creature attacked him in the alley.
"Damn, I have to disinfect this soon," Lucas muttered worriedly. He quickened his pace towards his apartment, wanting to get there quickly to clean the wound. It felt like the scratch mark was throbbing and burning more and more.
Suddenly, the reality before his eyes briefly distorted, as if a ripple had passed through space. The people became blurry for an instant. Lucas stopped bewildered and looked at his hands, which had become semi-transparent, allowing him to see the pavement beneath them.
"What the hell is going on!" he exclaimed scared. He ran his hands over her body and everything solidified again. The incident only lasted a few seconds. The passersby around him didn't seem to notice anything strange.
"I must be hallucinating from the shock," Lucas said to himself, shaking his head. With renewed fear, he hurried to take a shortcut down a little-traveled alley that would take him directly to his building.
Already in the solitude of the alley, the strange scratch began to pulse as if it had a life of its own. Lucas grabbed it in pain when his hands began to become translucent again in front of his eyes.
"Not again..." he groaned. His entire body began to flicker, becoming blurry like an image with interference. The walls of the alley also began to distort and fragment.
Dazed by the strange distortion of reality he had just witnessed, Lucas leaned against the alley wall trying to regain his composure. His entire body was shaking uncontrollably and his mind was a whirlwind of confusion and disbelief.
"I must be hallucinating from the shock of that encounter in the alley. Yes, that must be it..." he said to himself, running a hand over his face drenched in cold sweat.
Suddenly, strong arms grabbed him from behind and a large gloved hand covered his mouth, muffling his cry of surprise. Lucas struggled in vain to free himself from the powerful grip.
"Do not resist and you will answer my questions if you value your life" a deep voice whispered in Lucas's ear.
Lucas nodded terrified and the man let go of him, turning him roughly around to face him. The weak light of the alley illuminated the imposing figure dressed in a long black coat, his face hidden behind a featureless silver mask.
"I saw when that creature attacked you. Where did it go?" The masked man asked in a guttural voice.
"I-I don't know...that thing disappeared, I didn't see where it went" Lucas responded stuttering.
"You lie. You should have seen his escape route. Answer me!" The man demanded, shaking Lucas violently by the collar of his shirt.
"I swear I don't know! That thing disappeared like it vanished into thin air," Lucas pleaded, his voice breaking with fear.
Cursing under his breath, the masked man let go of Lucas, who fell to his knees trembling. It was then that his body began to flicker again, becoming semi-transparent at times.
"Oh no...not again," Lucas whimpered on the verge of tears, watching as his hands became intangible again and again. He looked up at the masked man. "Please...help me...I don't know what's happening to me..."
The man observed the strange phenomenon that affected Lucas with his arms crossed, impassive. "That creature that attacked you was not from this world. By making contact with you, it has contaminated you with its anti-spatial energy...now reality itself is rejecting you."
Lucas felt panic seize every fiber of his being. "It can't be...there has to be some way to stop this..."
"There isn't any," the masked man stated coldly. "Except eliminate the creature before the effects become irreversible. But seeing your weak condition, you will most likely disintegrate within hours."
Dejected, Lucas held his head with both hands, understanding the magnitude of the nightmare he was experiencing. The masked man placed a hand on his shoulder before turning to leave.
"I'm sorry, but you're dead. Enjoy the little time you have left in this world."
After saying this in a sinister tone, the mysterious man walked away and disappeared into the shadows of the alley, leaving Lucas plunged into utter despair.