The city didn't look like New York anymore.
Elias opened his eyes to a skyline drowned in red. The glass towers were breathing, lights pulsing under their skin like veins. Every few seconds, the sky flickered white, then red again, like a heartbeat too loud for the world to hold.
His own pulse followed it. Slow. Then faster. Then faster still.
He sat up on the cracked pavement, dazed. The air was thick, heavy with a metallic taste. Street lamps buzzed, the wires alive with faint golden threads that still carried her touch. Aria.
He pressed his palm to his chest. The faint light beneath his skin was no longer gold. It was turning crimson.
"Aria," he said quietly. "If you can hear me, say something."
For a moment, there was nothing. Just the faint hum of the broken city. Then,
You shouldn't have woken up here.
Her voice. Soft. Distant.
He turned around, searching, but the streets were empty.
"Where is here?"
Sector Twelve. The Crimson Zone.
