Chapter 55: Behind Us

Kyle was running, and he had no idea exactly what he was running from.

That was the worst part. If he knew what it looked like, he would know how to react. But all he could hear were rapid footsteps behind them and the sound of something dragging a metal object across the ground—and he was not ready to turn around and find out.

"Danna, I can’t run any faster than this!" Danna shouted from behind him.

"Then run at the same speed, but faster!"

"That doesn’t make any sense!"

"I know!"

Mira was beside him, occasionally gripping his arm to keep her balance, while Nadia brought up the rear, turning every few seconds to look back, even though Kyle yelled at her not to every time.

"Don’t look!" he said. "Just run!"

"I want to know what’s chasing us!"

"That won’t help you while you’re running!"

They reached an intersection. Three paths stretched out before them, all of them identical—gray and empty.

"Right," Kyle said, without any real reason.

"Why right?" Danna asked.

"Because someone has to decide!"

They turned right. The footsteps behind them drew closer.

Kyle had begun to feel something strange in his wrist. It was not the usual glow, but something fainter—a small flicker, as though the device was trying to tell him something but could not find the way.

Plain Text

[Warning: Unregistered entity approaching]

That was all that appeared. No details, no danger rating, nothing.

"Great," Kyle said aloud. "Thanks a lot."

"What did it say?" Mira shouted.

"It said something is approaching. I already knew that."

"Very useful."

They stopped abruptly at the end of the alley. A wall. There was no other exit.

"No," Danna said. "No, no, no."

Kyle turned around. Now, finally, he saw what had been chasing them.

It was not a massive monster, nor one of the Registry’s guards, nor anything resembling what they had faced before. It was a man—tall, wearing a dull gray coat and carrying something that looked like a metal rod, which he dragged behind him across the ground. That was the scraping sound they had heard.

The man stopped a few meters away and looked at them. He smiled, but there was nothing reassuring about it.

"Finally found you," he said. "I’ve been looking all night."

"Who are you?" Kyle asked, standing in front of the others.

"I’m nobody important," the man said. "I’m just someone who was given a job. Find the man with the red mark. They didn’t tell me why they wanted you, only that I was to bring you in."

"Who are they?"

The man raised the metal rod slightly and waved it carelessly, as if using it to gesture at the weather. "I don’t know their real names. But they pay well and don’t ask many questions, and that’s all that matters to me these days."

"Bounty hunter," Nadia said from behind Kyle. "He’s just a bounty hunter."

"Harsh wording," the man said. "I prefer ’independent contractor.’"

"We’re not going with you," Kyle said.

"I didn’t expect you to agree easily." This time, the man raised the rod all the way. Its tip lit up with a faint red glow, similar to the color of Kyle’s own mark. That alone made his stomach twist. "But I don’t need your agreement."

He attacked.

His movement was not supernaturally fast, but it was deliberate—the movement of someone who had done this many times before. Kyle barely dodged the first strike, feeling the heat pass beside his ear.

"Danna!" he shouted.

Danna needed no further instruction. She rushed in from the side, unarmed this time, using only her fist, and struck the man in the side with enough force to surprise even Kyle.

The man staggered back a step, but he did not fall.

"Strong," he said, sounding more impressed than angry. "That’s rare."

He turned toward her and raised the rod again.

"No!" Kyle shouted, lunging between them.

He did not think about what he was doing. He simply grabbed the rod with his bare hand and immediately felt the heat burn his palm, but he did not let go.

Plain Text

[Energy level: Low] [Warning: Continued contact may cause damage]

"Wonderful," Kyle thought. "Thanks for the late warning."

He pushed with all the strength he had left, twisted the rod to the side, and heard the man gasp—not from pain so much as surprise.

At that moment, Mira appeared from the other side and grabbed the man’s free arm—not to fight him, but to hold him in place for a moment. A moment was all Kyle needed to pull the rod completely from his hand and throw it away.

The rod hit the ground and switched itself off, as though it had lost interest in the matter the instant it left its owner’s hand.

The man stood there unarmed, looking at all four of them. He was still smiling, but the smile had changed slightly.

"Well," he said. "That didn’t go as planned."

"You can leave," Kyle said, breathing hard. "There’s no need for this to end any worse."

The man looked at him for a long moment, then at Danna, then at Mira, as if calculating something in his head.

"The people paying me won’t like this," he said at last. "But the people paying me aren’t here right now. There are four of you, and I’ve lost my rod." He raised his hands slightly, an incomplete gesture of surrender. "I’ll consider this an acceptable loss."

He began backing away slowly, then turned and walked. Then he quickened his pace until he disappeared into the darkness at the far end of the opposite alley.

The four of them remained standing there, breathing heavily. No one moved for several seconds.

"Did we really just let him go?" Danna said. "After all that?"

"We didn’t have many options," Kyle said. "It could have ended much worse."

"So there are people looking for you now," Nadia said, pulling out her notebook despite everything. "People who are paying money. This... this is new."

"I feel like I should be more afraid of this than I am," Kyle said.

"You’re just tired," Mira said. "The fear will come later, once you stop running."

He looked at her. She was right, as usual.

He looked at the palm of his hand. It was red and slightly burned, but it was not as bad as he had expected.

Plain Text

[Level increased: 3]

"Level three," he said aloud, more to himself than to anyone else.

"Fast," Danna said. "You were level two only two hours ago."

"Maybe fighting gives more than eating."

"That’s completely unfair."

Nadia laughed despite herself—a small, tired laugh—and they started walking again, slowly this time. They were no longer running, just walking without a clear destination through a city that no longer resembled the one Kyle had known.

No one said anything for a long time. There was no need. Everyone was thinking more or less the same thing: the night was not over yet, and there was at least one other person in this city who knew Kyle’s name, wanted him alive, and worked for someone they had not met yet.

"We need somewhere to sleep," Kyle said at last. "Somewhere safe. Or the closest thing to safe that exists here."

"I have an idea," Danna said. "You’re not going to like it."

"Go ahead."

"My father’s old shop. It’s been locked up for years. No one knows it exists except me."

"Sounds perfect," Kyle said.

"I told you that you wouldn’t like the idea."

"I didn’t say I liked it. I said it sounds perfect. Those are two different things."

The four of them walked there—exhausted, slightly injured, but alive. That was all Kyle could think about at that moment: they were still alive, and the night, no matter how long it lasted, had to end somewhere.

.