When Elena woke up, her heart was racing. The gray-eyed man's words lingered: "Now everything changes."
However, she was not where he had left her. She was back in her bed, sunlight flowing through her home windows. Luna purred peacefully on the ledge, alive, fearless, unaware to the horrors that lay.
Her cellphone revealed that it was 7:15 a.m. The same time.
Elena clutched it with shaky hands as she dialed Sofia. Every ring stretched like an eternity, until "Morning! "You are up early," Sofia replied enthusiastically. "do not inform me you are already stressing approximately the quarterly record."
"Pay attention to me," Elena's voice broke. "Do not visit paintings anymore. Live at home. Please."
"What? Are you OK? "You sound."
"I'm coming over Now. There is something I need to tell you."
Elena dressed quickly, packing her emergency bag with additional supplies. The streets were deceptively nonviolent, with no fractures, portals, or crystalline monster tracks. Now, not but.
Sofia waited at her condo door in pajamas, a challenge written on her face. "You appear like you've visible a ghost."
"Worse," Elena pushed by her, heading straight for Sofia's computer. "I need to expose you something." She searched the neighborhood information websites for any early warning signs and symptoms. There is a short article on a unique seismic pastime.
"Elena, you are scaring me."
"properly. "You should be scared." Elena grasped Sofia's shoulders. "In precisely four hours, an earthquake will strike downtown. Homes will crumble. After that, something terrible will come through"
"thru what?" Sofia took a lower step back. "Have you ever drowsed? Maybe we need to name"
A knock on the door made them all jump.
"Are you waiting for someone?" Elena whispered.
Sofia shakes her head.
Elena approached the door with caution, remembering the liquid shadow thing with golden eyes. But through the peephole, she spotted an elderly man wearing a tweed jacket and leaning on a cane.
"Ms. Crawford?" he called through the door. "This is Dr. Elias Mayfield." We need to discuss the portals.
Elena's breath became caught. She carefully opened the door, keeping her frame between the stranger and Sofia.
"How did you realize"
"The same way you do, my dear." His eyes reflected a familiar tiredness. "I've seen them earlier than now."
Sofia improved. "Elena, what's occurring?"
"Perhaps we need to sit," Dr. Mayfield said, knocking his cane against the ground as he entered. "We do not have a great deal time."
They gathered in Sofia's living room, with the morning sun spreading long shadows across the ground. Elena noticed that Dr. Mayfield's palms trembled slightly as he placed his bag down.
"You've been through the loops," he explained. It was not a question.
Elena nodded. "How did you discover me?"
"The changes within the timeline cause... ripples. Those who do not forget can perceive them." He took out an old magazine, its pages covered with diagrams of the gateways. "The loop from the previous day became more obvious. You changed something basic.
Elena muttered, "The vintage guy," "I stored him this time."
"And the female with the child seemed," Dr. Mayfield nodded. "Movements have an impact, especially on a broken timeline. But it is not the issue for me." He opened the magazine to a web page with unusual symbols. "It was something you discovered later on. "The creature with gold eyes."
Sofia stood up at immediately. "This is insane." "You both want help."
"Sofia, please," Elena asked. Simply wait. Within 3 hours"
The room trembled. A photograph fell from the wall, shattering.
Dr. Mayfield's face turned pale. "No. It is too early. The timescale is accelerating."
Elena's phone vibrated. "Time breaks while mirrors shatter."
Outside, automobile alarms began to sound. Elena hurried to the window. Violet light cracked over the sky in the distance, but it was brighter and more powerful than before.
"We want to move," Dr. Mayfield insisted, struggling to his feet. "The library basement"
"May not survive this time," Elena discovered. "The modifications... everything's exclusive now."
Sofia grasped her arm. "Elena, what's happening?"
Before she could respond, the ground heaved. A shockwave swept across the building, causing windows to explode inward. Elena pulled Sofia down to protect her from the glass.
"The university!" Dr. Mayfield yelled over the chaos. "The old tunnels beneath the physics building. They have been designed to withstand"
The ceiling cracked. Elena looked up to find a doorway developing right above them, but it wasn't the whirling blackness she recalled. This one shimmered like mercury, with crystalline edges.
"Run!" she exclaimed, pushing Sofia closer to the entrance. Dr. Mayfield noted, transferring extremely swiftly regardless of his cane.
They stepped directly into a nightmare. Multiple portals studded the sky, each with a different arrangement than she'd seen before. Creatures flowed from them, not just shadow entities, but also crystal and light particles moving with the same awful intelligence.
"They're hunting," Dr. Mayfield exclaimed as they raced. "they have in no way hunted before."
They made it three blocks before the golden-eyed beast emerged. It sprang from a wall like ink spilling through paper, its obsidian edges reflecting the violet light.
Elena pushed Sofia behind her. "pass, Get into the tunnels. "I will hold it"
"You cannot combat it," Dr. Mayfield said, grabbing her arm. "Not but." You do not grasp what it is."
The monster cocked its head to read them. Its form flowed, and Elena spotted something impossible: her own face reflected on its floor, but older, scarred, and with the same golden light.
"What am I?" she asked quietly.
Dr. Mayfield strengthened his hold. "The query does not reflect who you are. It is who you will become.
The beast lunged. Elena shoved Sofia clean, feeling razor-sharp edges cut through her jacket. Pain erupted over her side.
"Elena!" Sofia yelled.
Elena spotted Dr. Mayfield retrieving something from his briefcase - a tool with the same odd symbols as his diary. Golden mild pulsed from its core.
The beast retreated.
"Run!" Dr. Mayfield ordered, keeping the device higher. "Discover the grey-eyed man." He knows how to"
The creature's tail swung forward and impaled him in mid-sentence. The item clattered to the ground, and its glow faded.
Elena noticed further gateways opening as darkness fell. Extra creatures are appearing. Above it all, the sky continues to fracture like a reflection struck by lightning.
Sofia screamed as she heard the final issue.
Then came darkness.
Elena opened her eyes this time, but she wasn't in her mattress.
She wasn't even at her international.
The grey-eyed man stood before her in a space between realities, with fractured timelines stretching like shattered glass in each direction.
"Now you recognize," he added softly. "Why we maintain failing."
Elena could see her own reflection in each shard of time.
Her eyes shone bright in every mirror.