The bridge hummed beneath their feet.
Not with soundbut with intention.
Aarav stood frozen, staring into the endless void below. It wasn't darkness. It wasn't space. It was absence, like the universe had erased the concept of "here."
Mira took a careful step forward.
The bridge respondedextending, forming new glowing segments beneath her foot.
"…It's reacting to you," she said.
Aarav swallowed. "I didn't mean to make anything."
"You didn't make it," she corrected. "You decided it should exist."
"That's worse."
She walked back to him, eyes scanning the glowing air.
"This is a Between-Space," she said. "A pocket between probabilities. Architects hate these."
"Why?"
"Because they can't catalogue them."
Aarav let out a shaky breath. "So I accidentally made the one place gods can't spy on me?"
Mira gave a humorless smile. "Yeah. No pressure."
The air shifted.
Not violentlygently. Like a breath.
Aarav felt it in his chest.
"Does this place… feel alive to you?" he asked.
Mira nodded. "Between-spaces usually are. They're made from unresolved outcomes."
"What does that mean?"
"It means this place exists because you haven't decided what you are yet."
Aarav looked down at his hands.
They still glowed faintly.
"I don't want this," he whispered.
Mira softened. "No one does. That's why you're dangerous."
A sudden ripple passed through the bridge.
Aarav stiffened. "Was that?"
"Yes," Mira said. "Something noticed."
Aarav's stomach dropped. "Architects?"
"No," she said slowly. "Worse."
"Define worse."
Before she could answer, the void below them moved.
Not upward.
Sideways.
A shape slid through nothingness, massive and slow, like a shadow swimming through water.
Aarav's breath caught.
"What… is that?"
Mira stepped back.
"That," she whispered, "is a Void-Leviathan."
"Why do you know that."
"Because Between-spaces attract them."
The thing rose.
Not fullyjust enough for part of it to breach.
A massive eye opened.
Not biological.
Not mechanical.
Conceptual.
Aarav felt it look at him.
Not his body.
His probability.
His past.
His future.
His mistakes.
He dropped to his knees.
"Mira"
"I know," she whispered. "Don't look at it."
"I can feel it!"
"That's worse."
The creature's presence bent the bridge slightly.
It wasn't attacking.
It was observing.
Aarav's head throbbed.
"I didn't invite this thing!"
"You created a Between-space," Mira said. "You rang the dinner bell."
"That's not funny!"
"I'm not joking!"
The Leviathan tilted.
The void rippled.
And then
It spoke.
Not in words.
In absence.
Aarav felt something vanish from his mind.
A small thing.
But important.
His favorite childhood song.
Gone.
He gasped. "It took something from me."
Mira's face drained of color. "A memory?"
"Iyeah. A song."
"That's how they eat," she said. "They consume unresolved data. Unfinished selves. Forgotten possibilities."
"Tell it to stop!"
"You can't talk to it."
Aarav clenched his fists.
The symbol on his chest burned.
"I didn't ask for any of this!" he yelled into the void. "I don't want to be a god! I don't want to be special! I just want people to stop dying!"
The bridge trembled.
The void shifted.
The Leviathan froze.
Mira's eyes widened. "Aarav…"
The creature recoiled slightly.
Aarav felt pressure release from his mind.
It was listening.
Not understanding.
But responding.
"It doesn't like you," Mira whispered. "That's good."
The Leviathan began to sink back into the void.
Slowly.
Reluctantly.
When its eye finally closed, the void stilled.
Aarav collapsed forward, panting.
"What… am I becoming?"
Mira knelt beside him.
"You're becoming a variable."
"That's not comforting."
She hesitated.
Then: "You don't have to become anything alone."
He looked at her.
"You said there are others."
"Yes."
"Where are they?"
She pulled out a coin-shaped device and placed it on the bridge.
It projected a map.
Not of space.
Of connections.
Threads. Nodes. Pulses.
"Drifter safehouses," she said. "Hidden between probability clusters."
Aarav stared.
"So there are people like you."
"Not like me," she said. "Like us."
Aarav exhaled slowly.
"Take me to them."
Mira's eyes softened.
"You're sure?"
"No," he said. "But I'm more sure than I was five minutes ago."
She activated the device.
The bridge reshaped.
A doorway unfolded.
But before they could step through
Aarav's phone lit up violently.
PRIORITY ALERT
> Architect Scan Penetration: 0.2%
Increasing.
Mira swore. "They're learning."
"Learning what?"
"How to see you."
Aarav felt cold. "How long until they can?"
Mira checked the readout.
"…Hours."
Aarav's throat tightened. "Then what?"
"Then there will be nowhere left to hide."
The doorway pulsed.
Mira grabbed his hand.
"Welcome to the resistance, Witness."
They stepped through.
They emerged into a city.
Not floating.
Not broken.
Not glitching.
Alive.
Buildings twisted in elegant curves. Bridges connected impossible angles. People walked calmlysome human, some not. Some glowing. Some flickering slightly.
"This is a Drifter hub," Mira said. "We call it Crossfall."
Aarav stared.
A woman with crystalline skin passed them.
A child with glowing eyes laughed.
A man split into two identical versions, then merged back.
No one panicked.
No one screamed.
They knew.
"This is what normal looks like for us," Mira said.
Aarav felt something in his chest loosen.
For the first time since the glitch
He wasn't alone.
A group of people turned.
They sensed him.
Whispers spread.
A man with silver eyes stepped forward.
"You brought a Witness here?" he asked Mira.
"Yes."
"You're insane."
"Probably."
The man studied Aarav.
"You're young."
"Thanks."
"Do you know what you are?"
"Not really."
The man nodded. "Good. That means you haven't been broken yet."
A woman approached, her body partially translucent.
"I felt a ripple," she said. "A Between-space creation."
Everyone turned to Aarav.
He swallowed.
"That was… me."
Silence.
Then murmurs.
"Impossible."
"They can't do that."
"Not this early."
Mira crossed her arms. "He did."
The silver-eyed man stepped closer.
"What's your name, Witness?"
"Aarav."
He studied him.
Then bowed slightly.
"I'm Caelum. And if you're here…"
He glanced upward.
"…then the Architects are already rewriting their plans."
Aarav's phone vibrated again.
This time
No warning.
Just a message.
> Witness Aarav Patel:
Your existence has been reclassified.
You are now a Threat.
Aarav looked up.
"…I think I just got promoted."
Mira gave a tired smile.
"Welcome to war."
Above Crossfall, unseen
The Architects recalculated.
And for the first time in eternity
They hesitated.