A faint ray of light pierced through the cracks in the wall, brushing softly across his face like the hesitant touch of morning that no longer existed.
Yuri stirred.
His eyes fluttered open—slow, heavy, like they'd been glued shut by months of darkness. A wave of dizziness washed over him, rolling through his skull in nauseating pulses. For a moment he couldn't tell if he was awake or drowning in another delirious dream. His thoughts were scattered like broken glass, sharp in places, but mostly blurred and useless.
He forced himself upright.
The room around him came into focus little by little… painfully.
It was a bedroom. Or something pretending to be one.The walls were cracked so deeply it looked like they'd been clawed apart. Paint peeled in long strips, curling up like dying bark on a rotted tree. The window had been shattered and boarded over, letting in just enough light to illuminate the dust choking the air. A dresser lay collapsed in one corner, drawers spilled like entrails. A cupboard slumped against the far wall like a wounded animal. The ceiling sagged ominously above, one good shake away from crushing him.
Yuri's breathing quickened.Questions stormed through his mind, violent, relentless, like a tempest tearing through a ruined coast.
Then he noticed his body.
Bandages—thick, tight, wrapped around his chest and torso. His wounds were stitched up. Sloppy in some places, careful in others. Not healed, but treated. Somehow. By someone.
Before he could process any of it—
The door creaked open.
Yuri froze. His body went rigid, instincts snapping awake like a trap. Fight or flight surged in his veins. His pulse spiked. His lungs held still.
Someone stepped in.
A girl.
She walked with steady, weary steps, two heavy jugs of water slung over her back. Her dark brown hair was tangled and uneven, as though she'd cut it herself without a mirror. Her eyes—coffee-brown and lifeless—darted around the room with practiced caution. She wore a sleeveless tan-black jacket, fur-lined around the armholes, collar wide and rugged. Every part of her looked tired, carved out, like a survivor long past the point of breaking.
Panicking, Yuri slumped back down and shut his eyes, forcing his breathing to slow. He left one eyelid cracked open—watching.
She set the jugs down with a grunt. Picked up a metal cup. Poured water.Sat on a small wooden stool beside him.
And drank.
Slowly. Carefully. As though savoring the water like a precious memory.Her throat worked with each sip, her shoulders loosening only slightly. When she finished, she poured another cup… and stood.
She walked toward him.
Yuri shut his eye fully, heart hammering beneath his ribs.
"You can stop pretending now," she said, voice cold and flat."Here. Drink."
His eyes snapped open. Embarrassment flushed his face. But he sat up carefully, accepted the cup, and drank greedily—gasping between gulps. It felt like he hadn't tasted real water in years. Maybe he hadn't.
"Uh… thanks," he muttered, wiping his mouth."But… who are you? How did I even get here? How long was I—?"
The silence that followed was heavy. Pressing.
At last she answered:
"Who I am? I'm the one who saved you.""How you got here? I carried you.""And how long…"
She hesitated. Something flickered in her eyes.
"…two and a half months."
Then sharply:
"No more questions."
Yuri nearly choked on air.
"WHAT?!" he rasped. "Two months?! Wh—what do you mean no more questions?! I don't even know what's happening!"
She stared at him for a long moment, her expression unreadable.Finally, her voice softened. Barely.
"You really… don't remember anything?"
"No!" Yuri snapped, panic creeping into his voice. "Everything feels like—like a dream or a nightmare or—hell, I don't even know. I don't know what's real and what isn't."
She let out a slow, tired sigh and turned toward the cracked wall.
"It started three months ago," she said quietly. "A global blackout.Total darkness. Three straight days of night… and after that—"
Her voice trembled.
"—the world never saw daylight again."
Yuri's blood ran cold.
"On the first night," she continued, "forty percent of the population vanished. Just… gone. No bodies. No screams. No signs of struggle. They simply… blinked out."
She paused, pressing fingers to her forehead as if steadying herself.
"Then, as the darkness stretched on, twenty percent more fell into comas. Alive. Breathing. But empty. Like their souls had stepped out for a moment… and never came back."
Yuri's fingers twitched. His heartbeat echoed in his ears like a drum.
"Only the rest of us remained awake," she said. "Watching. Waiting. Hoping it would end."
Her tone darkened.
"But the ones who vanished… came back."
She turned to face him, eyes hollow.
"They looked human. Sounded human. Remembered everything. But they were wrong—wrong in ways you can't understand unless you've seen one up close."
She swallowed hard.
"Monsters wearing the faces of the people we once loved.We call them Shape Shifters."
Yuri's breath hitched. Fear spiraled up his spine in a cold, burning rush.
"N-No…" he whispered. "Please. Please… no…"
She looked at him with pity—real pity—before looking away.
"After the third day," she went on quietly, "everyone remaining saw the same message. Burned into the mind. Like it was carved into the soul itself."
She recited it slowly, as if the words were still etched on her tongue:
"LET'S PLAY.BE THE LAST ONES REMAINING,AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED."
The silence afterward felt endless.
Yuri's breathing became shallow.His vision blurred at the edges.
Without a word, she went to the decaying cupboard and pulled out a small stack of folded clothes—his clothes. Cleaned. Patched. Pressed as neatly as she could manage.
"I washed these," she murmured. "You need to get going."
Yuri blinked."Going where?!" he cried. "I don't know anything—I don't have anywhere to go—!"
Her patience snapped.
"THEN YOU CAN'T STAY HERE!" she shouted. "For all I know, I rescued a damn Shape Shifter! I don't have the luxury of trust. Just go. I don't care where."
Yuri stood shakily, emotions spiraling.
"Then why save me?!" he shouted back. "Why go through all this—just to throw me out?!"
She froze.Her back stiffened.
"…I don't know," she said quietly. "But please. Be gone before I return."
She stepped out the door.
And vanished into the dead silence.
Yuri stood alone in the ruined room.Cold. Confused. Shaking.
After a long moment, he dressed slowly—each button, each buckle, a small act of survival. When he was done, he took one last lingering look around.
Then he stepped outside.
And the world hit him like a punch.
The sky was a void—starless, sunless, endless.Black like ink.Black like death.
The city around him was rubble. Twisted metal. Collapsed buildings. Streets broken open like cracked bones. No people. No animals. No wind.
Only the cold.
Only the silence.
He walked.
He didn't know where or why. His feet moved without meaning, pulling him through the city's corpse.
Eventually, he found himself standing before what remained of Kaya's Café.
His old workplace.
Once noisy, warm, chaotic.Now nothing but an empty, skeletal shell.
He stepped inside.Dust swirled around him.Old memories surfaced—unwanted, painful, warm.
He hated this job.But now…He missed it more than anything.
He had thought freedom would taste sweet.
It didn't.
A noise cut through the silence.
Soft. Breathing.
From behind the kitchen doors.
Yuri's pulse spiked."Hello…?" he called out, voice trembling."HELLO?! Anyone there?! Please—please—"
The door creaked open. Slowly. Painfully.
He braced himself for a monster.
But then—
She stepped out.
Brunette hair with a single white streak.Brown eyes wide with disbelief.Clothes torn, stained with dirt and blood.Bruises trailing up her arms.Shaking.
Her voice cracked when she spoke:
"N-Yuri…? Yuri… is that you…?"
His breath stopped.
His world stopped.
"…Nina?" he whispered, tears forming instantly.
His coworker.
His closest friend.
Alive.