030. Shadows

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2100

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2100

Yuka's sleep had become a prison, a place where every time she closed her eyes, she was dragged into a twisted world of nightmares. The dreams, once scattered and fragmented, had now taken on a sinister consistency. They began innocuously enough—a familiar place, a calming scene—but quickly morphed into something far more sinister, far more horrifying.

Tonight was no different. As soon as she slipped into unconsciousness, Yuka was thrust into the heart of a nightmare so vivid, so tangible, that it felt less like a dream and more like a premonition.

She found herself standing in the middle of an unfamiliar city. It was eerily silent at first, the kind of silence that weighed heavily in the air, pressing down on her chest and making it hard to breathe. The sky above was a sickly, bruised color, an unnatural mix of purples and greens, swirling together like the aftermath of some toxic storm. The sun was nowhere to be seen, its light blotted out by a thick, choking blanket of smoke that hung low in the air, casting everything in an ominous, suffocating gloom.

The buildings around her, tall and imposing, were already showing signs of decay, their once proud structures now cracked and crumbling as if they had been abandoned for years. Windows were shattered, their jagged edges like teeth waiting to bite, and the streets were littered with debris—broken glass, twisted metal, and the remnants of what looked like personal belongings scattered as if people had fled in a hurry.

But the city wasn't just decaying. It was dying, and Yuka could feel its death throes reverberating through the ground beneath her feet, which trembled with each passing second. The vibrations started off faint, almost imperceptible, but they quickly grew in intensity, each tremor stronger than the last, until the earth itself seemed to be quaking in fear.

Then, without warning, the first explosion erupted. It was a deafening roar that split the air and sent a shockwave tearing through the city. Yuka felt the force of it hit her like a physical blow, knocking the wind out of her lungs and sending her stumbling backward. She tried to steady herself, to find some sort of balance amidst the chaos, but the ground wouldn't stop shaking, wouldn't stop buckling beneath her feet.

She looked around, her eyes wide with terror, trying to make sense of the destruction that was unfolding before her. Fires had broken out in multiple places, the flames licking hungrily at the buildings, consuming everything in their path. The heat was unbearable, so intense that it made her skin feel like it was burning even from a distance.

The air was thick with the acrid stench of burning flesh and debris, each breath a painful reminder that she was trapped in this nightmare, unable to escape. She could taste the smoke on her tongue, feel it clawing its way down her throat, making it almost impossible to breathe. And the sounds—oh, the sounds. The city was alive with the cacophony of destruction. The constant barrage of explosions, the crackling of flames, the groaning and creaking of buildings on the verge of collapse—all of it blended together into a hellish symphony of chaos and death.

Potential • Shoto TodorokiWhere stories live. Discover now