The Time Gambler's Curse

Chapter 18: Beneath the Surface

Damian's heart thundered in his chest long after his younger self vanished into the faceless crowd. The city warped around him, twisting with each breath he took, as though the fractures in time were tightening their grip on reality itself. He could feel the world shifting beneath his feet, the streets darkening, shadows stretching unnaturally, their movements no longer tied to the fading light of the sun. The fractures were spreading—quickly, violently—threatening to tear everything apart.

He stumbled forward, desperate for something solid to hold onto, but the ground felt unreliable, as if the street itself might dissolve beneath him. People moved in disjointed patterns, their forms flickering like broken film reels, each face a blur of color, smeared like oil across a slick surface. Distorted, unreal. He wasn't just losing the world around him. He was losing his place in it.

"I've already made my choice."

The words echoed in his mind, stabbing through him with the finality of a closing door. He had thought—foolishly—that confronting his younger self would halt the collapse, that preventing that first reckless leap would patch the fracture. But time didn't bend to regret. It had no mercy for the mistakes of men who sought to manipulate its flow.

His hand brushed against a brick wall, the cold roughness grounding him for a fleeting moment. But even the solidity of the wall felt fragile, as if it, too, was caught in the unraveling. Damian could feel the pull now—beneath the flickers, beneath the surface of reality itself—something deeper, darker. Something hidden within the chaos he had created.

It surged.

A blinding flash. A violent tremor.

The fracture exploded outward, and the city vanished.

Damian gasped as the ground beneath his feet seemed to dissolve, pulling him into a swirling abyss of darkness. He couldn't see, couldn't think—just falling, tumbling through cold, endless space. His body twisted, weightless, as though time itself had released its grip on him.

And then, with a bone-rattling jolt, he landed.

The impact knocked the breath from his lungs, but there was no pain—only the eerie, overwhelming silence that followed. Damian opened his eyes, his vision swimming as he struggled to orient himself. The world had changed again, but this time, it was not the city. No fractured streets or blurred faces. This was something else.

He stood slowly, the air thick with dampness, the heavy scent of earth and stone filling his lungs. He was in a cavern—a vast, dark place where the walls pulsed with a strange, faint light, as though they were alive. Flickers of energy danced across the stone, more pronounced here, as if the fractures had coalesced into something tangible.

Alive.

This wasn't just a place—it was the heart of the fractures. The origin of the chaos that had consumed the world above.

Damian's breath came in shallow bursts as he walked deeper into the cavern. Each step echoed around him, swallowed by the oppressive silence that pressed down on him like a heavy cloak. The walls seemed to shift as he moved, shimmering with an unnatural energy, the flickers now pulsing like veins beneath his skin. Every movement, every breath felt tied to the fractures themselves, as though they were reacting to his presence, drawing him deeper into their web.

And then, he saw it.

The cavern opened into a vast chamber, its ceiling lost in the shadows above. At the center of the room stood a stone pedestal, worn with age, its surface carved with strange symbols he couldn't decipher. But it wasn't the pedestal that caught his attention—it was what rested atop it.

A time device.

Identical to the one he had used to make his jumps. Copper dials gleaming faintly, its surface unmarred by the damage that had destroyed his own. Damian's heart skipped a beat as he stared at it, his mind racing. This couldn't be real. He had destroyed his device—broken it beyond repair. But here it was, pristine, untouched by time's ravages.

No. This wasn't just any device.

It was the device. The original. The source of everything.

Damian's hands trembled as he approached the pedestal, the air around him crackling with a strange, malevolent energy. The flickers intensified, swirling around the device like moths drawn to a flame. He could feel the power radiating from it, the same power that had torn the fabric of time apart, the power that had fractured reality.

This was the heart of the fractures—the point from which everything had spiraled out of control. Every jump he had made, every decision, every gamble, had been feeding into this. And now, here it was, waiting for him beneath the surface of time itself.

His breath caught in his throat as he reached out, his fingers hovering above the cold metal of the device. It pulsed beneath his hand, alive, humming with the power that had caused the fractures. But it wasn't just power—it was hunger. A hunger to consume, to warp, to control. It had been waiting for him all along.

And in that moment, Damian understood. The fractures couldn't be healed from the surface. He couldn't simply undo the chaos with a single choice, couldn't outrun the consequences of his actions. Time had been broken at its core, and to fix it, he would have to go deeper—he would have to destroy the source.

His mind raced, panic clawing at the edges of his thoughts. He had thought he was done. He had believed he had accepted his fate, his role in the game. But now, faced with this final test, he realized the truth. He had never been in control. The device, the fractures, the jumps—everything had been leading him here.

His hand shook as he gripped the device, the metal cold and unforgiving beneath his touch. The air around him pulsed, the walls of the cavern trembling as though they, too, were caught in the grip of time's collapse.

One more move. One more chance.

Damian closed his eyes, his heart pounding in his chest. The weight of the choice pressed down on him, suffocating, but there was no turning back. Not now. He had set this in motion, and only he could end it.

With a deep breath, Damian activated the device.

The cavern trembled.

The walls shuddered violently, the flickers exploding into blinding light. The ground beneath his feet shifted, and Damian felt the pull of time itself collapsing around him, dragging him deeper into the heart of the fractures.

And then—silence.

Time ceased to exist.