As I took in the sight in front of me, I froze.
The world I once knew—my city—was gone. The towering skyscrapers, the flashing traffic lights, the jam-packed roads, all erased.
In their place stood an eerie medieval landscape. Lush forests stretched as far as the eye could see, their canopies thick and impenetrable. The air was heavy, the shadows deeper than they had any right to be.
Nothing about this felt safe.
Around me, people who managed to stumbled out of their buildings earlier, their faces twisted in confusion. Some turned in circles, trying to make sense of the impossible.
Then, the first scream shattered the fragile silence.
Panic erupted.
People scattered, shoving, tripping, sprinting for any semblance of cover.
I followed their gazes—and my stomach dropped.
The shadows at the end of the street rippled unnaturally, something moving too fast to be human.
The air felt wrong—thick, electric.
Then they took shape. Wolves. But not any wolves. Their bodies seemed to absorb the light around them, eyes gleaming with something primal, something hungry.
And they were coming for us.
A pack of them, their bodies fluid like living darkness, their eyes gleaming with hunger. Shadow wolves. Tearing through the crowd, sinking fangs into flesh.
My breath hitched. Fear lodged in my throat, tight and suffocating. The screams—faint at first—grew louder, closer. I couldn't process what I was seeing.
The city… warping around me.
"What the fuck?" The words escaped me in a whisper.
My mind kept asking, 'What happened? Is this real?'
But the jagged cracks in the sky screamed otherwise. This wasn't some nightmare. This was happening.
Beside me, Chase stood frozen, his usual laid-back demeanor stripped away. His face was pale, his voice barely audible. "Did you hear what it said? About what happens when the world resets?"
I couldn't answer. My throat was dry, my thoughts paralyzed with terror.
Then instinct kicked in.
Run.
"We need to move." I whispered, though the words felt hollow. I wasn't sure if I was trying to convince him or myself.
Everything inside me screamed to stay put, to wait for this nightmare to end. But the world around us was changing.
And if we didn't move, we wouldn't have a chance to figure out what came next.
Like everyone else, I turned and ran. My legs burned, my lungs screamed, but I dared to glance back just once.
I didn't need to guess anymore. This—this was the answer.
Chaos.
That's what happened when the world reset.
But before that, it was just another morning.
Like always, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. sharp, showered, and dressed, buttering toast while watching the morning news. Traffic updates. Economy dips. Weather forecasts. Then, static. The screen flickered before cutting to black.
I frowned. "Damn secondhand smart TV," I muttered, taking a bite of my toast. Should've known better than to trust an online deal that had no returns accepted in bold red letters.
It was a typical morning, just like any other.
With a sigh, I switched it off and grabbed my laptop, tucking it into my bag. Another workday. Another battle of corporate survival.
I left my apartment, still munching my toast, crumbs dotting the front of my white blouse. I swiped at them with my free hand, only to make it worse. Great.
The elevator dinged, signaling its arrival. The doors slid open.
And there he was.
Chase Hendrix.
Perfect.
He leaned against the railing, looking far too comfortable for someone who, quite frankly, annoyed the hell out of me. His messy brown hair, perpetually tousled as if he'd just rolled out of bed, only added to his I-don't-care attitude.
He glanced up from his phone, gray eyes glinting with amusement, that infuriatingly smug grin already in place.
"Morning," he greeted, voice dripping with fake enthusiasm. A 1000-watt smile. Manufactured. Calculated.
I ignored him.
Why did he have to live in my building?
Memories of our first encounter flashed in my mind. Work orientation day. A teamwork exercise. We were supposed to brainstorm a creative marketing campaign. Emphasis on teamwork.
So much for that. Chase had taken over like some self-proclaimed genius, dictating every move. Didn't even bother to include me in his so-called brilliant ideas.
We placed second.
Second.
I never came second.
And the worst part? He had the audacity to act like it was the greatest achievement of his life. Probably was.
"Still the little miss grumpy, are you?" he teased, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Don't tell me you're still sulking over coming in second?"
A low chuckle escaped him.
I shot him a withering glare before turning away, choosing silence over his taunts. I was better than this. I wouldn't indulge him.
Exhaling slowly, I steadied myself. Stay calm. He wasn't worth the reaction.
The elevator doors shut, trapping us in awkward silence. I exhaled slowly, counting down the floors in my head.
We had almost reached the ground floor when, without warning…
The lights flickered.
Then the building shook.
The elevator lurched, stomach-churning. My hand shot out to grab the railing, but the walls seemed to be moving too. The lights flickered—then went out. Panic surged.
Chase swore beside me, his voice suddenly void of his usual arrogance.
"What the hell?" he muttered.
A tense silence filled the space, heavy with the same unease creeping through me.
Then—
A mechanical ding echoed from above, but it wasn't the elevator. A metallic voice cut through the tension, its cold precision slicing the air.
"Attention, inhabitants of Earth. Your world has been reset. Your survival is no longer guaranteed."
The words sent a cold spike down my spine. Chase and I locked eyes, our rivalry momentarily forgotten in the face of something far more terrifying.
The elevator doors open.
Without hesitation, we bolted out from the elevator, our footsteps echoing through the trembling building.
The moment we burst outside, the air felt different—thick, charged with something unnatural.
Outside, the cityscape warped.
The sleek skyscrapers twisted, their steel and glass morphing into towering black spires.
The streets cracked, vines creeping through the asphalt like living veins.
Billboards shimmered, their advertisements twisting into something grotesque—warped, distorted into nightmares.
The billboards weren't just changing—they were melting, colors dripping down like blood. My favorite café—gone. In its place stood a twisted, decayed ruin. The scent of coffee and fresh bread replaced by something acrid, something wrong..
The sky itself ripped open, revealing something vast, something watching.
And then, hanging in the sky like a cosmic executioner, something appeared.
A floating, luminous entity, its form shifting between crystalline elegance and cold machinery. Its voice rang out again.
"Humanity has been deemed lacking. Your world is now a trial."
The words seemed to warp the very air around me, a suffocating presence that pressed down on my chest.
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. I Could only stare at the glowing figure in the sky that watched us like ants.
My mind refuses to process the words. The logical part of my brain scrambles for an explanation—prank? Glitch? But the shifting world around me leaves no room for denial.
What did it mean by "trial"? Were we supposed to play along?
What if we failed?
No. No time to think. Survive first. Question later.
"Restore the fairy tales to their original forms. Or perish."
The ground beneath me was no longer concrete but cracked stone. The air itself vibrated, thick with magic—or something darker.
My mind raced for any answer. Fairy tales?
The first thing that came to mind was an old bedtime story I hadn't thought of in years.
Snow White. Hansel and Gretel.
Were we supposed to 'restore' them somehow?
I had no idea what the hell was going on, but the message couldn't be more clear: this world had turned into some twisted version of a storybook—
No. No, this wasn't real.
Couldn't be.
That thing didn't just rewrite reality. Right?
Whatever this was, we were in it now.