After that, things didn't stay even close to normal.
Sylvia, who had spent her entire life confined within rules, structure, and a controlled environment, threw herself completely into the opposite once she got a taste of freedom.
What began as curiosity quickly escalated into reckless behavior, and she didn't hold back in the slightest. She dragged Daniel into high-speed chases through the streets using stolen cars, laughing while police sirens echoed behind them, taking sharp turns without thinking twice, and crossing into areas she had never even seen before.
There was no hesitation in her actions, no sense of fear holding her back, only excitement and the thrill of doing something unpredictable for the first time in her life.
Daniel, on the other hand, mostly watched.
At first, he followed along, but over time he found himself observing her more than participating, occasionally questioning how someone raised in New Greenwich could act like this the moment she stepped outside its control.
It didn't match her background at all.
"She was definitely born in the wrong place," he thought more than once, watching her treat danger like a game instead of something to avoid.
While Sylvia chased excitement, Daniel drifted toward something else.
Boredom.
And for someone like him, boredom never stayed harmless.
At some point, he created something that didn't belong in that world at all.
People would later call it a virus, though it didn't behave like any normal infection. It spread silently, passing from person to person without symptoms, without pain, and without any visible indication that anything had changed.
For a while, nothing happened.
Then it activated.
The effect was precise and selective. Whenever it encountered someone holding an excessive amount of time, far beyond what they realistically needed, it began siphoning it away.
The process wasn't violent or immediate, but it was unavoidable, steadily reducing what they had accumulated over years.
That stolen time didn't disappear.
It was redirected.
Transferred to those who needed it most—people whose clocks were nearly empty, people who would have died within hours or days if nothing changed.
No one could see the transfer.
No one could track the source.
To the system, it looked like an error.
To the wealthy, it felt like something was being taken from them without permission.
To the poor, it felt like something impossible had suddenly begun working in their favor.
***
The time to leave that world finally came when the dimensional travel option became available again.
A portal formed in front of them, its surface shifting like liquid space, distorting everything around it in a way that made it feel both close and unreachable at the same time.
Sylvia stood in front of it, her eyes fixed on it as she tried to take it in.
"Wow… so this is what a portal looks like?" she asked, her voice quieter than usual. Seeing it in person felt completely different from just imagining it.
Daniel glanced at her.
"Yeah," he said. "And are you sure about this?"
His tone was more serious now.
"You're leaving everything behind. Your family, your world… there's no guarantee you'll come back."
Sylvia didn't hesitate long.
She had already made her decision.
"Yes," she said.
There was no doubt in her voice.
Going back meant returning to a life that felt empty despite having everything. Staying meant stepping into something uncertain, unpredictable, and real.
She chose that.
Before Daniel could say anything else, she stepped closer, reached up, and pulled his head down slightly.
Then she kissed him.
It was something she chose, just like everything else she had done since leaving New Greenwich.
"I like the time I spent with you more than my entire life there," she said softly after pulling back.
Daniel looked at her for a moment, then exhaled.
"Ummm… I should probably warn you about something," he said. "There might be a bit of a surprise waiting on the other side."
He didn't elaborate.
But from the way he said it,
It wasn't going to be small.
They stepped through the portal, and the distorted space around them collapsed back into something solid.
The next moment, they were inside Daniel's house.
The shift was immediate, but before Sylvia could even process the change—
Chaos.
Tamara was chasing Art across the hall, her movements fast and aggressive while Art ran for his life, dodging furniture and nearly slipping as he tried to escape.
"Forgive me! I didn't know it was yours!" Art shouted, panic clear in his voice as he glanced back, only to see her gaining on him.
Sylvia froze.
Daniel blinked once, taking in the scene.
"Ummm… what is happening?" he asked, genuinely confused as he watched what looked like a live version of a cartoon chase unfolding inside his own house.
Art saw him.
"Boss!" he shouted immediately, changing direction without hesitation and rushing straight toward Daniel as if he had just found salvation itself.
He moved behind him instantly, using Daniel as a shield.
Tamara didn't stop.
She was about to lunge forward.
Daniel stepped in.
He caught her by the waist mid-motion, stopping her momentum before she could reach Art, holding her firmly in place as she struggled.
"Tamara, calm down," he said, his tone steady but firm. "He's a servant. You can't just eat him."
That word made Sylvia pause.
Eat?
Art froze, clearly not wanting to test whether that was serious or not.
"He ate my cream!" Tamara snapped, still trying to push forward despite being held back. "I was saving that for today!"
"I didn't know!" Art said quickly, his voice rushed. "If I knew it was yours, I wouldn't have touched it!"
"That's not the point!" Tamara shot back, her frustration clear as she tried to break free. "Let me go. I'll teach him a lesson so he doesn't try it again!"
Daniel didn't release her.
Instead, he tightened his hold slightly, keeping Tamara from moving forward no matter how much she struggled.
"No," he said, his tone firm. "We're not doing that."
Sylvia stood a few steps away, watching everything with growing confusion. Her eyes shifted between Tamara and Daniel, trying to make sense of what she had just heard.
Eat him?
Her expression stiffened slightly.
"Sylvia," Daniel said, glancing toward her, "this is Tamara."
"She's a mermaid," he continued. "In the past, she used to eat humans."
*****
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