Anomaly

Charlotte didn't exactly inspire confidence. That much was obvious. Even so, the truth remained the same: we had one hell of a problem on our hands. I may not have all my memories, and most of the time I don't even fully understand what I'm doing.

Still, if there was one lesson I'd managed to learn since the moment I woke up in the middle of some random forest at night, desperately fighting for my life while being chased by mutant dogs, it was that waiting too long almost always makes things go sideways.

My arm is living proof of that. If those damn mutant mutts hadn't had regenerative abilities that I could absorb, my poor little arm probably wouldn't even be attached to my shoulder anymore. Just remembering that experience, and the overwhelming terror I felt in that moment, sent a chill running down my spine.

That alone was enough to teach me that hesitation usually comes with a steep price. In the end, that was the point. Whether Charlotte looked ready or not, we had to act. From what Selyra had told us, the situation was far more serious than I wanted to admit, and every second we wasted only increased the chances of everything spiraling completely out of control.

And honestly, I was almost certain that if Charlotte and I didn't do something soon, the consequences were going to be... less than pleasant. If there's any comparison to make, the priest's case had a few similarities.

The biggest difference was that he'd released every Concept from any form of restraint, leaving them completely enraged, unstable, and without any sense of direction. The result was a catastrophe that had nearly wiped out every living thing inside the city. At worst... maybe even the entire world.

Neither Emily, Laura, nor I knew the true extent of the destructive dome created by the misuse of the Concepts. There was no way to tell how far it could spread or what would happen if it kept expanding without anything to stop it.

All we could do was watch, come up with theories, and hope we were wrong. On the surface, that was the conclusion I'd reached about everything that had happened back then. But my feelings toward that dome were completely different.

Even without a shred of concrete evidence to back it up, something deep inside me kept sounding the alarm. It was a strange, almost instinctive feeling, as though my very existence rejected the idea that the destruction had a limit.

The longer I stared at that colossal mass of energy, the stronger that conviction became. I simply couldn't shake the feeling that the dome had no true endpoint. To put it simply, swallowing the Earth would be, at best, nothing more than a warm-up before the real catastrophe began.

My point was simple: we were most likely about to face something similar all over again. Maybe this time it would be subtler than everything we'd gone through before, less chaotic on the surface, but that didn't change the fact that another disaster was already knocking on our door, just waiting for the right moment to reveal itself.

On top of that, I couldn't honestly say I was calm. If anything, the word that best described how I felt was frustrated. Every attempt I'd made to get any meaningful information about this new problem had been shut down by Selyra. Not that it was really her fault. I understood perfectly well that there were limitations completely beyond her control, and blaming her for them would have been unfair.

Even so, understanding why didn't make the situation any less irritating. In the end, I'd left... wherever that place actually was... carrying far more questions than answers. And considering everything that had happened so far, that was the last thing I wanted. The less I understood about what I was about to face, the more it felt like I was walking blindfolded straight toward yet another disaster.

My return to reality was just as subtle as the moment I'd realized I was no longer lying in the bed inside my cabin. I simply... woke up. It was a strange feeling, I won't lie. Sleeping hadn't really been part of my normal life ever since I took on this anomalous form.

Just realizing that my consciousness had "returned" was unsettling enough on its own. Ever since I'd become an anomaly, my mind had almost never truly shut off. No matter how much time passed, it always remained awake, silent, but constantly present.

In a way, the sensation was like being trapped inside a pitch-black room, unable to see anything, yet fully awake and completely aware of your own existence. There were no dreams. There was no sense that time was passing. Just a silent emptiness that, strangely enough, had become familiar.

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That's why waking up like this felt... different. Almost as if I'd actually slept for the first time in a very long time. I took a deep breath as I gathered my thoughts, still trying to decide whether everything I'd experienced while I was "asleep" had been nothing more than a dream, a vision, or some phenomenon tied to my condition.

Whatever had actually happened, my first thought came almost instantly. I needed to find Charlotte. That was, of course, assuming she'd experienced the same dream... or the same vision... or whatever that whole thing had actually been. With that thought in mind, I pushed myself out of bed.

In one smooth motion, I jumped down onto the floor, my bare feet landing against the cold wooden planks of the cabin. The chill drew a quiet breath from my lips as it spread through my body.

There was still a faint trace of drowsiness lingering inside me, which was strange in its own right, but it was nowhere near as overwhelming as I'd expected after everything that had happened.

I lifted my gaze toward the window a few steps away from the bed. Thin streams of soft orange light slipped through the gaps in the curtains, washing over the wooden walls with warm hues and announcing the start of a new morning.

That caught me off guard. Did the conversation Charlotte and I had with Selyra... really last the entire night? I frowned slightly. Strangely enough, while we were in that place, it had felt like only a few minutes had passed. If that feeling was accurate, then maybe time flowed differently there than it did in the real world.

It was the most logical explanation... or, at the very least, the least ridiculous one. That said, Selyra had claimed that only our minds had been transported there, not our bodies. But how exactly did that even work? I remained silent for a few seconds, trying to come up with an answer that actually made sense.

I mentally replayed everything she'd told us, searching for some clue I might have overlooked, but the more I thought about it, the farther I seemed to get from any real explanation. Eventually, I let out a long sigh and shook my head.

I seriously doubted I was going to figure it out just by standing here and racking my brain over it. Some questions, it seemed, simply couldn't be answered through logic alone. The walk out of my cabin was peaceful.

Even though this entire place was technically artificial, everything had been built with a level of perfection that bordered on the absurd. The wooden walls were filled with tiny natural imperfections, the faint scent of vegetation lingered in the air, and even the gentle breeze drifting through the forest felt completely authentic.

It was ironic how an entirely artificial environment could feel so unbelievably real that telling it apart from the outside world was practically impossible. Charlotte's parents had reacted the exact same way when they first arrived here. At first, they genuinely believed this place was simply an open valley hidden away somewhere in a remote corner of the world.

The look of pure disbelief on their faces when Emily and Laura revealed that the entire area had been artificially created was something I'd probably never forget. Back then, I had to fight pretty hard to keep myself from laughing at their utterly stunned expressions.

Anyway, the moment I stepped outside my cabin, the first thing that greeted me was the pleasant warmth of the morning sun. Golden rays bathed my faintly translucent body, passing through parts of me before spilling across the ground behind me.

The subtle glow surrounding my silhouette wasn't bright enough to attract attention from a distance, but it was more than enough to make my unusual nature impossible to miss. Just then, another figure caught my attention.

To my surprise, Charlotte was only a few steps away from my cabin, apparently heading straight toward me. The moment she looked up, our eyes met. That brief exchange of glances was all it took for both of us to understand the exact same thing.

The "conversation" we'd had with Selyra hadn't been a dream, an illusion, or something our imaginations had cooked up. It had actually happened. The realization seemed to hit Charlotte like a punch.

Her eyes widened ever so slightly, and the last traces of uncertainty vanished from her face, quickly replaced by a mixture of worry, anxiety, and unmistakable panic.

Without hesitating, she hurried over until she was practically standing right in front of me. I opened my mouth to say something, but Charlotte beat me to it: "Holy shit... holy shit, holy shit! Seriously... that actually happened?" she asked, running a hand nervously through her hair: "The world's... the world's really in danger?"

Her voice faltered between sentences, as though her mind couldn't keep up with the flood of thoughts racing through it. Charlotte was clearly on the verge of panicking. And honestly... I couldn't blame her. I was still trying to process everything that had just happened myself.

She started pacing back and forth, her breathing growing faster with every step: "Oh my God... we're screwed. We're completely screwed!" she blurted out, waving her hands around without even realizing it: "The world's about to end if I can't find whatever this problem is... but how am I supposed to do that? I don't even know where to start!"

Charlotte grabbed her head with both hands, clutching at her hair in obvious frustration: "This is insane... seriously. I found out I even had powers, what... like a week ago? Maybe? And now I'm somehow supposed to track down something that could wipe out an entire planet? How does that make any sense?"

Watching my dear little sister's reaction, who, technically speaking, was supposed to be hope itself incarnate, all I could do was slowly exhale through my nose, fighting back the urge to laugh at the utterly lost expression on her face.

Her eyes were wide open, her mouth hung slightly ajar, and she stood completely frozen, as though her brain had simply given up trying to process everything that was happening. For a few long seconds, silence filled the air.

Then a quiet thought drifted through my mind as I continued watching the almost comical scene unfold: (Well... she definitely freaked out)

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