Anomaly

I’ve always liked to think of myself as someone who had already seen pretty much everything life had to offer. Trust me, even before I became an anomaly, I had something of a ritual: whenever I got the chance, I’d visit haunted houses, horror attractions, and pretty much any other event that promised to give me a good scare.

Naturally, the “ghosts” weren’t actually ghosts. They were just people in costumes, hiding behind doors or waiting in dark corners for some unsuspecting visitor to jump out at. Maybe it was precisely because I knew that that I had never been able to feel genuinely afraid. Believe me, I’d been through all kinds of haunted houses.

Dark hallways, grotesque faces suddenly appearing out of nowhere, fake corpses, deafening screams, actors practically throwing themselves in front of me... I’d seen it all. Some attractions were actually pretty creative, and I could appreciate the effort that had gone into the decorations, but scary? Never. At most, I’d be startled for a moment when someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

A momentary scare, nothing more. My heart would race for a few seconds, but it would quickly return to normal. Thinking about it now, I couldn’t even remember a single occasion when I had genuinely been afraid of something. It wasn’t courage. At least, I’d never considered it courage. I simply... didn’t seem to know how to feel fear.

Come to think of it... isn’t that strange? Initially, when I transformed into an anomaly and suddenly found myself in the middle of a forest, surrounded by those bizarre dogs with mouths where their stomachs should have been, all of them trying to devour me, I didn’t exactly feel afraid. I mean, I was anxious. Definitely.

I remember wondering what would happen if those things managed to catch me. Would I be slowly devoured? Would I die an agonizing death? Maybe those mouths would simply tear my body apart while I was still conscious... A pretty morbid thought, considering that, ironically, I eventually discovered that I couldn’t even feel pain.

But even then, I wasn’t afraid. In fact, if someone had asked me at that moment whether I was scared, I probably would have said no without even understanding why they were asking. It was as if the possibility of dying made me uneasy, but didn’t trigger the instinctive sense of terror I would have expected from a situation like that.

Back then, though, I never really thought much about it. To me, it simply... felt normal. I only realized something was wrong later, when I started noticing that no matter how many absurd and dangerous situations I found myself in, that feeling simply never appeared. I didn’t feel fear. Anxiety, worry, tension... I knew all of those. But fear? Nothing.

At first, I figured it probably had something to do with the fact that I had become an anomaly. After everything that had happened to me, would it really have been that strange if my body or mind had changed somehow? But... if it really was because of my transformation, then why couldn’t I feel fear back when I was still human? That was the part that didn’t make sense. And honestly... I had never really stopped to think about it.

Anyway, with all that said, why exactly am I rambling about this? Actually, it’s pretty simple. Right now, Victor, Rupert, Arthur, my little sister Charlotte, and I were trapped in one of those situations that anyone else would probably describe, without a second thought, as “terrifyingly bizarre”. And honestly? I couldn’t disagree.

I’m not going to lie and say that having multiple people suddenly appear out of nowhere and then surround you while staring at you with completely unsettling expressions is anything remotely normal. Because it wasn’t. It was bizarre enough on its own, and, to make matters worse, it managed to be frightening on several different levels.

Still, there was something that made the whole situation even stranger. It wasn’t just the fact that we were surrounded. It was the silence. Nobody spoke. Nobody asked who we were. Nobody made a comment. Nobody even seemed intent on getting any closer. They simply stood there, forming a circle around us, staring at us with strange, bizarre expressions.

The silence was so absolute that I could notice details that would normally go unnoticed. The sound of our own movements, the breathing of the people beside me, even the faint rustle of the wind passing through somewhere nearby. It was as if everyone was waiting for something. I just had no idea what.

Honestly, at this point, I couldn’t even say what was more frightening: being surrounded by a crowd of strange people with bizarre expressions, or the fact that, despite being completely surrounded, not a single person was saying a word. Naturally, my first thought was to prioritize the safety of my little sister and the others.

Almost immediately, I felt the shadow cast by my own body twist across the ground. Its surface rippled as though it were alive, and, little by little, deep red eyes emerged from within the darkness, staring at the crowd surrounding us. I didn’t need to give it an order out loud. My Alter Ego had responded to my thoughts.

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Although I personally preferred to observe a situation before making any rash decisions, I couldn’t say I felt comfortable enough to simply wait while we were surrounded on all sides. There were too many people. And, worse still, there was something deeply wrong with every single one of them.

It was while these thoughts were running through my mind that a voice finally rose from somewhere within the crowd. A small voice. A child’s voice. It belonged to a little girl who, at first glance, didn’t look any older than five. However, the words that came out of her mouth were far from anything I would have expected to hear from a child that young.

“We don’t want to be disturbed” The voice was completely devoid of emotion. There was no fear. No anger. No curiosity. Not even the childlike innocence that should have accompanied such a young voice. It was cold. Robotic. Impersonal. The little girl tilted her head slightly, her eyes remaining fixed on us: “Do not disturb us. Do not bother us” She paused for a brief moment. For some reason, that tiny silence felt far more threatening than it should have: “This is the only warning you outsiders will receive”

I felt as though an icy wind had suddenly swept past me. Then, in the very next instant, as if everyone had received the exact same command at precisely the same time, the entire crowd repeated the words. Without hesitation. Without any variation in tone. Without even seeming to realize how disturbing it was: “Last warning, outsiders”

A second voice joined the first. Then another. And another. Until dozens of voices overlapped, merging into a single mass of sound that seemed to echo from every direction: “Last warning, outsiders. Last warning” The words were repeated again. And again. Like a broken record stuck on the same line: “Last warning, outsiders”

Needless to say, the entire spectacle immediately put everyone on edge. Rupert and Victor pressed their hands more firmly against the compartments where their weapons were stored, their fingers already hovering near the mechanisms, ready to draw them at the slightest sign that something was about to go wrong.

Rupert spoke again, but this time there wasn't a trace of sarcasm in his voice. His tone was low and controlled, carrying a cold, methodical firmness, like someone who had already set panic aside and was now focused solely on assessing the few options we had left: “We’re surrounded, and our position is terrible” He paused briefly, casting a discreet glance around us: “This crowd doesn’t exactly look friendly enough to let us wander around freely, either”

His eyes swept across the figures surrounding us before he continued: “Backing off now would only make them more cautious... and probably less receptive if we needed to come back” Rupert took a slow breath, keeping his voice low: “So, if anyone has a trick hidden up their sleeve, now would be a good time to use it”

Rupert’s words sounded more like a murmur than an actual declaration. Even so, they were loud enough for all of us to hear, yet quiet enough not to attract the attention of anything that might be farther away from our position. Unfortunately, Rupert’s words received no immediate response.

Arthur, on the other hand, seemed subtly impatient about something, though there was something else in his expression as well... A kind of confusion. His gaze moved methodically across the crowd in front of us, passing from one face to another as if he were searching for something specific.

Or perhaps someone. At least, that was what I assumed. Naturally, I decided to employ my own investigative method as well. The next instant, my eyes began shifting through different hues, rapidly cycling through the various colors of the rainbow. The change was accompanied by an almost immediate transformation in what I could see.

The world around me seemed to lose some of its familiar appearance. The entire crowd before us took on rainbow-like hues, each person displaying subtle variations of color that spread across their bodies like some kind of luminous spectrum. I studied the individuals for several seconds, searching for anything that stood out from the pattern.

Nothing. In short, at least according to my method of investigation, this crowd was nothing more than a simple crowd of human beings. No disguised creatures. No monsters wearing human appearances. No strange entities hiding among them. Just humans. That said, there was something deeply strange about the crowd.

More precisely, something above their heads. Something resembling long, twisted stalks emerged from the top of each person's head. From their ends, thin roots extended upward in spirals, intertwining with one another as they climbed through the air.

They twisted and writhed in an almost organic manner, circling around each other as though they were all part of a single living structure. The sight was uncomfortable. Confusing, even.

The harder I tried to follow the movement of a particular root, the more difficult it became to distinguish it from the others. It was like watching an enormous living web take shape right before my eyes. And yet, there was one thing all those roots had in common.

Although they emerged from different people, from different points within the crowd, they all converged on a single location. The exact intersection where we stood. At first, I thought the roots simply met at the intersection, forming some kind of tangled mass. But a closer look revealed something else.

They weren't merely converging on the intersection. They were passing through the ground. The roots plunged directly through the asphalt, disappearing beneath the surface and burrowing deeper and deeper, as though the street itself were nothing more than a thin layer covering something far larger.

And following the direction in which they disappeared, they all seemed to point toward the same place. Toward something hidden deep below. Whatever was beneath us at that exact moment.

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