The Time Gambler's Curse

Chapter 8: A Game of Shadows

Damian fell through the fractured layers of time once again, the familiar sensation of twisting, bending reality pulling at his very existence. Colors smeared into each other, distorting his vision, and for a heartbeat, he felt as if his entire being was unraveling. Then, with a violent jolt, the world snapped into focus.

He hit the ground hard, staggering to his feet in a narrow street. Pale morning light cast long shadows across the pavement, the sun hanging low, as if time itself was unsure of how far to move forward. The city was waking, but the rhythm of it was wrong. Too slow. Too muted.

Damian's chest tightened with dread. Something was terribly wrong.

He glanced at the device on his wrist—the copper dials were blackened, scorched from overuse, and deep cracks ran through the casing. The timepiece was a reflection of his desperation. He had jumped, but not to where he needed to be. He wasn't back at the moment of his first mistake. He wasn't where he could stop the fracture.

The city around him seemed familiar, yet entirely alien. People moved through the streets, but their motions were strange—stilted, broken by brief flickers of distortion. A man walking past him shimmered for an instant, his suit turning from gray to black before snapping back to gray. A woman across the street blinked out of existence for a breath, only to reappear in a different spot. Time itself was malfunctioning, and Damian could feel the fracture growing wider, its pressure pushing against the world.

His pulse quickened. The Eraser was out there. Somewhere. And now, this broken version of reality was no longer just a glitch in time—it was a trap.

He ducked into a side alley, the cold, rough bricks pressing against his back as he tried to steady his breath. He scanned the streets, every flicker of light a potential threat. The shadows here were wrong. They stretched unnaturally long, twisting across the ground like living things, stretching toward him. It was as if the light itself was being bent and warped.

And the hum—that persistent, oppressive hum—was growing louder.

It's getting worse. The fracture is spreading faster than I thought.

Damian's mind raced as he moved deeper into the alley, his footsteps quickening. Reality was losing its grip, and the game he was playing with time was turning against him. Shadows flickered in his peripheral vision—people, buildings, entire blocks shifting and flickering in and out of existence. Each moment passed like a ghost, an echo of what the world should have been.

He turned a corner, only to freeze in his tracks.

There, at the far end of the alley, was another figure. For a second, Damian thought it might be the Eraser. His breath caught in his throat, his heart slamming against his chest. But then he saw the face.

It was his own.

The other Damian stood at the end of the alley, his posture stiff, his features pale. His eyes—wide and hollow—bored into Damian, but they seemed empty, as if they held the weight of every mistake he had ever made. The figure flickered, its body distorting for a second, then snapping back into place like a broken image trying to fix itself.

Damian's pulse raced. This isn't real. It's just another trick. Another ripple from the fracture.

But the other Damian didn't disappear. It kept moving toward him, each step slow, deliberate, as though it was stalking him.

Panic surged through Damian. He turned and ran, bolting through the narrow passageways between buildings, his mind a blur of fear and confusion. He didn't know what that thing was—whether it was a twisted reflection of his own mistakes, or something far worse, some new manifestation of the fracture. But he wasn't about to find out. Not like this.

The world around him warped as he ran. Street signs flickered in and out, buildings blinked like broken lights. Time wasn't just broken anymore—it was shattering.

Damian sprinted into a small square, his feet pounding against the pavement, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He stopped in the center, doubled over, hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. But something was wrong. The square felt... hollow. The shadows that clung to the edges of the buildings seemed darker, heavier. And they were watching him.

Damian's eyes darted around, his senses on high alert. The world flickered again, warping, bending, and then—

There it was.

The Eraser.

It stood still, watching him from across the square. No flickering. No distortion. Just an unrelenting presence, its hollow eyes locked onto him. The world around it seemed to ripple, bending and warping like reality itself was being sucked into a void. Damian's blood ran cold. The Eraser was a living manifestation of time's vengeance, and now it had found him.

He couldn't run anymore.

The weight of his mistakes pressed down on him, each reckless jump, each greedy gamble, all of it led to this moment. The fracture was spreading, and time itself had sent the Eraser to erase him.

Damian's mind scrambled for a solution. Think, damn it. Think!

But there was no solution. Not here. The shadows twisted around him, stretching and warping, as if they were closing in, preparing to consume him. The Eraser took a slow, deliberate step forward, its presence growing stronger, the hum of its approach making the very air vibrate.

Damian's hand flew to the time device on his wrist. It was damaged—barely functional—but it buzzed faintly, still clinging to life. He hadn't landed in the right place, but maybe he could make one more jump. Just one more. He didn't know where it would take him, but anywhere was better than here. Anywhere was better than facing the Eraser's hollow gaze.

The Eraser took another step, its skeletal hand outstretched, reality bending in its wake.

Now or never.

With shaking hands, Damian twisted the dials on the time device, setting it to a random point—he didn't care where, as long as it was far away from this nightmare. The gears groaned, the dials cracking further, but the hum returned, faint but steady.

The Eraser was close now. Too close.

Damian slammed his thumb down on the activation button.

Time folded in on itself, and for one terrifying second, Damian was nothing but a flicker in the shadows.

And then, in an instant, he was gone.