Chapter Ten: Collapse
Gibson
"If I'm the doorway… then I can close it."
The words didn't echo.
They anchored.
For the first time, the world around Gibson didn't just react—it resisted him.
The cracks in the ground surged with blinding light, spreading faster, crawling up his legs like veins of something alive. The air grew heavy, pressing down on him as if the world itself was trying to crush the thought out of his mind.
"You will erase yourself," the presence said.
Calm.
But no longer distant.
Gibson smiled faintly, even as his body flickered.
"Better me… than everything."
He slammed his hand into the glowing fracture beneath him.
The world broke.
Not shattered—folded.
Space twisted inward like paper being crushed in an invisible fist. The trees bent violently, snapping into impossible shapes. The sky cracked open wider, revealing something deeper behind it—
Not darkness.
Not light.
Something unfinished.
The presence reacted instantly.
"STOP."
But it wasn't a command anymore.
It was… fear.
Killian
Back on the road, Killian felt it.
A violent pressure slammed into his chest, forcing him to his knees.
The "Gibson" in front of him froze.
Then—
glitched.
For a split second—
Killian saw through him.
Not a body.
Not a person.
But layers.
Endless layers of something trying to take shape.
Killian gasped.
"What the hell are you…?"
The thing snapped back into form.
But now—
it wasn't perfect anymore