Long before Arin stepped outside, the morning felt wrong. He couldn't explain why. Perhaps it was because the air seemed to hold its breath, or the way that clouds hung low as though waiting for something to happen. Mirefall was always gloomy, was always a bit lifeless. but today, silence pressed against the town with an almost palpable weight.
Arin tightened the strap of his backpack and began walking toward school. Normally, the distant hum of life — dogs barking, doors shutting, footsteps from a block away — would reach him before they happened. Tiny echoes slipping from tomorrow. But now…
Nothing.
It was unnatural, as though the whole world had gone mute.
Arin paused near the old fountain. Closing his eyes, he strained to hear anything. Even one heartbeat, a few seconds ahead, would have comforted him. Instead, a cold emptiness settled into his chest.
Then it hit him.
A scream, sharp and metallic and wrong, tore through his skull.
Arin stumbled forward, grasping the edge of the fountain. The sound didn't come from the present. It vibrated with that disturbing distortion only echoes carried-multiple versions of the same cry crashing together from different points in time.
"Run," the voice snarled, "it sees you."
Arin's breath caught. The world around him flickered, a dying light. The street warped for a moment: a cracked wasteland, lamp posts bent as if from melted bone; shadows crawled across the ground, as if alive. In the center stood a tall, twisted silhouette.
It didn't move, but Arin felt its gaze carve into him.
He blinked, and everything snapped back: normal street, quiet morning, nothing there.
But the chill in his spine refused to leave.
He forced himself to move again. Slow steps. Deep breaths. Don't show fear. Don't run. Predators chased anything that fled.
He had just one street to cross before reaching school when he turned a corner and slammed into someone. Hard.
Hands caught him before he fell.
"Easy," a soft voice said.
Arin looked up — and his heart dropped.
The silver-haired man from last night.
Silas.
He was dressed differently now, but the same unnerving aura surrounded him — like someone who belonged to every point in time except this one. His coat was dark and travel-worn, lined with faint symbols that shifted like clock hands.
Silas studied him closely. "You heard it again." A statement, not a question.
Arin stepped back, shaking. "What do you want from me?"
Silas did not respond for a moment, and his eyes scanned past Arin to the quiet street, as if he was expecting something to break through at any moment.
Then he said quietly, "You're in danger."
"I already know that," Arin snapped. "Tell me why."
Silas met his eyes. "Because you're the last Echo-Bearer born in this timeline."
Arin froze. The words slithered into him, cold and unwelcome.
"I don't even know what that means."
"You will," Silas said. "But you won't survive long enough to understand if you stay here." He stepped closer, his voice lowering to a whisper. "Something ancient hunts you. Something that feeds on people like you. Echo-Bearers are rare, Arin. And extinction makes you valuable."
Arin swallowed hard. His pulse roared in his ears. "What is it?"
Silas's jaw tightened. "The Chrono-Harvester."
A gust of wind swept down the street. The air grew cold enough to sting.
Arin's legs quivered. "Is it here?"
Silas didn't reply.
He didn't have to.
A sound cracked through the air behind them-a deep, slow, distorted thud. Not footsteps on pavement. Footsteps on time itself.
Arin froze.
Silas grasped his wrist. "Don't look back."
Arin's instincts screamed to listen.
But fear turned his neck anyway.
He looked.
The world peeled open like fabric tearing. Shadows spilled out, twisting, writhing, forming the outline of something tall and skeletal. Its long limbs were jointed at impossible angles. The air seemed to ripple with every step as if the very moment itself recoiled from its presence.
Time warped around it. Streetlights bent. The sky dimmed; the ground shivered.
The creature cocked its head.
A dozen broken voices whispered from its hollow form:
Found you. Echo-Bearer.
Arin couldn't breathe.
Silas cursed under his breath. "Move." The creature took another step forward. The world screamed.