The city hums like it's alive .... a low, endless vibration beneath the soles of my boots.
Everywhere, the lights throb in rhythm with something I can't name. I call it the Pulse.
Others call it electricity, static, noise.
They don't hear it the way I do.
To them, the city of Vareth is just steel and rain, glass towers and old bridges drowning in fog.
But to me, it's a heartbeat.
And tonight, it's restless.
I stand under a cracked awning across from a tram line, trying not to breathe too deeply.
Every inhale pulls the city inside me ... fear from the woman clutching her briefcase, guilt leaking from the man on the bench, anger pulsing from the kid tagging the wall behind me.
It's too much.
It's always too much.
I press a hand against my chest. It's burning again, just below the sternum, right where the Pulse coils tightest.
Breathe, Eren. Just breathe.
A train screeches past, throwing mist and noise into the air. In the glass reflection, I barely recognize myself .... dark coat, eyes too tired, jaw clenched against invisible noise. The kind of face people look at and quickly look away from.
Vareth reflects everyone differently. It shows you what it thinks you deserve.
A voice cuts through the static.
"You're here again."
It's Reya.
She slides out from an alley, rain caught in her lashes, a flicker of neon pink bouncing off her cheekbone piercings.
"Couldn't sleep," I mutter.
"Couldn't or wouldn't?"
She leans against the wall beside me, tugging a cigarette from behind her ear. "You look like you wrestled a thunderstorm and lost."
I almost laugh. Almost. "You still dealing emotions, Reya?"
She grins, lighting up. "Only the pretty ones. You want one? Got a vial of calm, freshly bottled."
I shake my head. "That stuff doesn't work on me."
"Yeah." She exhales a thin ribbon of smoke. "You burn through everything."
The smoke twists in the air .... and for a second, it forms a shape. A hand reaching. Then it fades.
I can't tell if it's my imagination or if the Pulse is playing tricks again.
Reya eyes me sideways. "You've been hearing it more often, haven't you?"
"The Pulse?"
"Yeah. The city breathing. Everyone's been whispering about it again ....buildings flickering, streetlights humming. Someone said the river started glowing last night."
I don't answer. The Pulse always grows louder before something happens.
It's been a month since the last incident .....when the east sector collapsed under a wave of static light. They said it was a power surge. I knew better.
The Pulse was hungry then. It's hungry now.
**
We walk through the tram tunnel together, her voice echoing against the tile. She tells me about a job gone wrong, about a man named Marlow who's paying good money for people who "feel differently."
I keep quiet. I've heard the name.
Marlow runs the Vareth Observatory .... the place where they study the things science doesn't talk about anymore. I don't want his attention.
When we part ways near the river, she says,
"You look worse every week, Vail. One day the Pulse is gonna eat you alive."
I tell her, "Maybe that's the point."
She laughs softly. "You're morbid as hell."
Then she's gone.
The rain follows me to the river. The water's black and trembling under the bridge lights. I crouch, drag my fingers along the metal railing, and feel it .... faint, humming, like the city's veins are alive beneath my skin.
The Pulse doesn't talk in words. It talks in memory.
And tonight, it shows me one.
A flash ..... white tiles, a boy with wires strapped to his head, a voice whispering "Breathe, Eren. Don't fight it."
Then the memory shatters, and the river looks normal again.
I wipe my hand on my coat and mutter,
"Why now?"
**
The sound of footsteps answers me.
Slow. Deliberate.
Someone's crossing the bridge .... one of the few who doesn't rush.
I don't turn immediately. I already feel his presence, calm and quiet, a void cutting through the noise.
It's strange ..... the Pulse dims around him, like even the city holds its breath.
When I finally look up, he's there.
Tall. Gray eyes that don't belong to this world. Coat soaked through but no shiver in him.
He stops a few feet away.
For a heartbeat, we just stare.
"You keep walking into storms, Eren Vail," he says. His voice is low, smooth, almost unearthly.
Something in me tightens. "Do I know you?"
He doesn't answer. Instead, he glances toward the river, where the light beneath the surface flickers once, like it's acknowledging him.
The Pulse listens.
And for the first time in weeks, it feels... still.
"Who are you?" I ask.
He tilts his head slightly. "Someone who remembers what you forgot."
The words hit too close. "What does that mean?"
But he's already turning away, heading toward the stairway leading down from the bridge.
"Wait," I call out. "You can't just...."
He pauses. Looks over his shoulder.
"Not yet," he says quietly. "The city's not ready."
Then he's gone, swallowed by the fog.
**
The Pulse starts to tremble again.
It's angry .... or maybe afraid.
Either way, my chest burns like fire.
"You keep walking into storms, Eren Vail".
His voice loops in my head like a curse.
I stagger back against the railing, trying to steady my breathing. The rain's falling harder now, masking the glow that spreads faintly beneath the river's surface.
And in that glow, for a second, I see them.... outlines of people, shapes made of static light. Faces I almost recognize.
Then they vanish.
The Pulse falls silent.
Completely silent.
And that's what terrifies me most.
Because the Pulse never stops. Not for anyone.
**
I don't remember walking home.
The city blurs into sound and light ..... screens flashing ads, drones humming overhead, the faint static buzz of invisible eyes watching from the rooftops.
By the time I reach my apartment, my hands are still shaking.
I close the door, lean against it, and let the silence press down.
My apartment's small .... concrete walls, a broken lamp, a shelf filled with vials of bottled emotions Reya once traded me.
I uncork one ..... "Calm."
Pour a drop on my tongue.
Nothing. The Pulse rejects it.
I laugh under my breath. "Figures."
Then I notice something on my table.
A folded piece of paper that wasn't there before.
No name. No mark. Just one sentence written in gray ink:
"When the Pulse stops, so does the city."
My stomach drops.
I walk to the window.
Across the skyline, every light flickers .... just once, but long enough to feel like the city blinked.
In the silence that follows, the Pulse doesn't return.
Only one thought crawls up my spine:
Maybe he took it with him.
**
Later, in my dreams, I'm back under the river .... weightless, surrounded by light.
Kael's voice comes again, distant but clear:
"Not yet, Eren. Not until you remember why you were chosen."
I wake with my hand pressed to my chest, the burn deeper than before, veins faintly glowing beneath the skin like threads of light.
And for the first time, I'm not sure if I'm still alive .....
or if I'm just what the city left behind when it forgot how to breathe.
** ** ** ** **
Author's Note :
I hope you like this story ....pls add to library, comment your thoughts, send a review.
Xoxo
LaniVerse_