2023-05-29 15:37:43"Ugh!"
Andrew jolted, his eyes snapped open. He looked around and the bloodstains on the walls reminded him of the altercation with Orlando. Strangely, Andrew didn't feel any pain in his body. In fact, he felt much fresher now.
His hand reached for his head, still leaving traces of blood. But the wound has healed. "Shit. How is this even possible? I thought I was badly hurt."
As if disbelieving the situation he found himself in, Andrew rose and approached the mirror in the corner of the room.
"I'm okay. But... Where's my necklace?"
Andrew felt his neck, and the necklace that had been with him for almost 20 years was gone. He had no idea that the heirloom necklace from his family was what gave him the power to be reborn.
"Oh no, I lost the necklace from my great-grandmother. Argh! Everything I had is gone!"
However, the bloodstains on the walls and his body that felt so different slowly brought Andrew to memories of decades ago, to be precise just before his grandpa died.
“Andrew, wear this necklace. Take care and don't lose it. It will help you, when the time comes, no one will be able to beat you.”
Andrew then widened, he again felt his neck and muttered. "Is it all because of the necklace that grandpa gave to me?"
The ringing of the cellphone was then heard and interrupted Andrew's reverie, he immediately went to take the cellphone and found a call from the deputy director of the company where he worked.
"Hello, sir."
"Andrew, can you come to the office now? There are some things we need to discuss."
"Yes, sir. I'll be there soon."
"Great, I'll be waiting for you at the office."
Andrew furrowed his brow and muttered, "Maybe I should tell them what I heard from Orlando earlier. I can't stay silent and let them trap me."
He threw his phone onto the bed, then walked toward the bathroom to clean himself up. The photo of him and Nadine displayed on the wall near the kitchen in his apartment seemed to emit a different vibe. Andrew used to always feel excited when he saw his lover's smile, but now, it only left him with disappointment.
"You're the worst woman in my life, Nadine," he murmured.
**
Thirty minutes passed, and Andrew arrived on the fifth floor of his office to meet the deputy director. His steps appeared confident and self-assured, disregarding the cynical and condescending gazes of the other employees.
"Good afternoon, sir," Andrew entered the deputy director's office, bowing his head.
However, his confidence was disrupted when he saw Orlando, who was none other than present in the room as well.
"Ah, Andrew. Hello, thief!" Orlando greeted sarcastically.
"Andrew, please have a seat."
Andrew tried to stay calm and focused on the deputy director, who invited him to sit next to Orlando. However, Andrew's mind began to suspect the purpose of this summons.
"Mr. Douglaz, you should just speak up to Andrew. It's not good to let a thief like him stay in this company for too long. Surely, you don't want him to successfully take all the employee data, right?"
Andrew turned to Orlando, his anger no longer containable, and he said, "What do you mean, Orlando?!"
"Andrew, you're fired."
Andrew's eyes widened as the words came out of the deputy director's mouth. His gaze shifted away from Orlando. He looked at the white-haired deputy director and asked, "I'm sorry, sir, but what happened? What did I do? If this is all because of the adult videos found in the presentation earlier, it's all a misunderstanding. I didn't do it, and it was a trap set up by Orlando. I heard everything he said to bring me down, sir!"
"I'm sorry, Andrew, but we found evidence that you stole Mr. Orlando's data and sabotaged his identity, causing harm to Orlando and his family. There is enough evidence to make you leave this company," the deputy director replied.
"I didn't do anything, sir! Clearly, this is all a trap orchestrated by Orlando to get rid of me! Can you explain what benefit I would have from sabotaging Orlando's identity and files that I didn't even know existed?"
"Enough, Andrew! You're just jealous and bitter because Nadine no longer wants to be with you. You deliberately hacked into my social media accounts, changed the existing identities, and sent numerous embarrassing portfolios to my colleagues! Don't deny it! Do you want to destroy our family? Well, my father really liked you and wanted to give you a better position than what you have now."
Andrew stood up and pointed at Orlando. "I never did any of that, and you know it!"
"Andrew, calm down! Fighting against what has been decided will only worsen the situation. Our decision is final and cannot be questioned. You have to be fired. If you still don't believe it, let me show you the evidence," the deputy director said. He handed Andrew several sheets of paper filled with photos.
There, a social media platform displayed a user with Andrew's name and photo offering a significant amount of money for Orlando's data. The next sheets showed conversations between Andrew and a man believed to be a hacker hired by Andrew to hack and sabotage all of Orlando's social media accounts.
Orlando wore a sly smile and said, "Looks like he wants more evidence. I'll bring it to you, Andrew."
The man in the blue shirt got up from his chair and left the room. Meanwhile, Andrew spoke to the deputy director again, clasping his hands and saying, "Sir, you have to believe me, this is all Orlando's trap. He's angry because his father wanted to give me a good salary and position. Besides, he also attacked me. The wound on my head can serve as evidence of his cruelty earlier. I--."
The door opened again, and Andrew stopped his sentence as he saw Nadine entering with three other men.
"Okay, Andrew. This is real evidence of all your crimes. I prepared this so that you can't deny it and admit your mistakes. Nadine knows about your plans, and everything is recorded in the conversations on Nadine's phone. Furthermore, these three people are a group of hackers who have breached my data. So, what other excuses do you have, Andrew?"
Andrew looked at Nadine, the woman he loved, as she raised her head and put on a scornful expression. Andrew clenched his fists and turned to the deputy director. The thick-mustached man shrugged his shoulders and said, "Andrew, you are fired. And you will pay the company for all damages. Total 500,000 dollars."
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4-49
The world reassembled without courtesy, snapping into place like bones set without anesthesia.Andrew hit solid ground hard, air tearing from his lungs as gravity reclaimed him with obvious irritation.He rolled instinctively, shoulders screaming as muscle memory compensated for power that no longer answered.Dust and ash coated his tongue, bitter and metallic, grounding him in harsh reality.When his vision cleared, he recognized the skyline immediately.They were back near the coastal ruins where the city had first fractured weeks ago.The sky here was wrong.Clouds hung unnaturally low, stretched thin like torn fabric, light bleeding through uneven seams.Every shadow felt sharper, more deliberate, as if cast by intention rather than physics.Andrew pushed himself upright slowly, careful not to provoke whatever invisible tolerance the world still extended.A faint warmth pulsed beneath his sternum, unfamiliar yet persistent.Not the Sapphire.Something else had taken root in its ab
4-48
Andrew woke to silence that felt artificially enforced rather than naturally earned.It pressed against his senses with an unnerving precision, like a system holding its breath.He lay unmoving for several long seconds, afraid that movement itself might trigger retaliation.The Sapphire beneath his sternum was inert, colder than it had ever been before.No pulse answered his cautious focus.No resonance acknowledged his existence.Panic threatened to rise, sharp and feral, but Andrew strangled it before it reached his throat.He had survived worse than emptiness.When he finally pushed himself onto an elbow, pain answered immediately and enthusiastically.Every joint protested as if resentful of being asked to function again.The chamber was gone.In its place stretched a vast plain of cracked obsidian, extending endlessly beneath a sky drained of color.No horizon was visible, only gradients of gray folding into one another.Andrew’s breath fogged faintly in the air, though there was
4-47
The throne did not activate immediately, and that delay unsettled Andrew more than sudden violence ever could.Silence pooled inside the chamber, thick and deliberate, pressing against his ears like an accusation waiting to be spoken.Noir straightened slowly, his movements stiff as if invisible restraints tugged at his joints.The cracks along his arms glowed brighter, leaking shadowed light that flickered with unstable rhythm.“You feel it,” Andrew said, forcing his voice steady despite the tremor in his legs.“This place isn’t choosing yet. It’s waiting.”Noir exhaled sharply, eyes never leaving the empty throne at the chamber’s center.“It’s verifying compatibility,” he replied. “Seeing which of us breaks first.”The walls began to shift almost imperceptibly, reliefs of shattered suns rearranging themselves.Stone groaned as ancient mechanisms awakened, responding to proximity rather than command.Andrew took one step forward, and the chamber reacted instantly.A wave of pressure
4-46
Andrew did not fall so much as he was unstitched from where he belonged.Space peeled away in layers, each one tearing loose with a sensation like breath being stolen mid-inhale.There was no up or down, only momentum without direction and time without patience.His body tumbled through overlapping fragments of places that never fully existed.He saw cities mid-construction and mid-collapse simultaneously, buildings flickering between futures.He saw oceans frozen in vertical walls, waves paused like indecisive thoughts.Pain arrived late, dragging itself behind awareness like an afterthought.Every nerve screamed out of sequence, confused about what it was supposed to protect.Andrew tried to summon the Sapphire instinctively, reaching inward the way he always had before.The response came delayed, distorted, like an echo bouncing through unfamiliar caverns.Light bled through his veins unevenly, blue-white pulses stuttering instead of flowing.It felt less like power now and more li
4-45
The first thing Andrew noticed when consciousness fully returned was the sound of breathing that was not his own.It was slow, deliberate, and layered beneath the ambient hum of fractured reality, creating an unsettling counterpoint.He opened his eyes cautiously, every muscle tense with the expectation of resistance.The world did not recoil this time, but it did not welcome him either.Andrew lay inside what appeared to be a circular chamber carved directly into black stone.The walls were smooth yet alive with faint, moving sigils that pulsed in irregular intervals.Each symbol carried a resonance disturbingly familiar to his Sapphire.Not identical, but close enough to feel like a distorted reflection.He pushed himself into a sitting position, jaw tightening as a dull ache rippled through his spine.The pain was manageable, but the absence of feedback from the Sapphire was not.“Still alive,” a voice said calmly from somewhere behind him.Andrew turned sharply, instincts flaring
4-44
The moment Andrew opened his eyes, the world felt heavier than it ever had before.Not physically crushing, not painfully oppressive, but fundamentally resistant, as if reality itself hesitated to acknowledge his existence.The sky above the fractured city trembled faintly, its color unstable, shifting between shades that should not logically coexist.Clouds froze mid-drift for a fraction of a second before resuming their motion, creating an unsettling rhythm that made Andrew’s chest tighten.He tried to sit up, and pain answered him immediately.It was not the sharp agony of broken bones or torn muscle, but something deeper and colder, radiating from beneath his sternum.The Sapphire pulsed weakly inside him, its once steady resonance now irregular, like a heart struggling to remember its purpose.Andrew clenched his jaw and forced himself upright anyway.His breath came slower than usual, measured not by exhaustion but by uncertainty, as if his lungs were negotiating with time itsel
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Reader Comments
interesting but where is the heirloom
aww! poor Andrew
interesting
Interesting
wow this is cool