I woke up in a sewer.
The water is darkened from pollution.
Strangely enough, there was no smell.
That was the first thing that felt wrong.
The air should have been suffocating, thick with rot and waste, yet all I got was… nothing.
Cockroaches crawled along the walls in slow, jittery patterns. Rats skittered across the shallow water, their bodies glitching slightly, like they were frames out of sync.
Nevertheless, I walked forward.
Pipes lined the walls, some bent at impossible angles, some phasing halfway into the stone like they couldn't decide where they belonged.
Every now and then, droplets fell from above...
Except they never hit the ground.
They froze midair, flickered, then vanished.
The rats didn't run away.
One even stopped in front of me, its head twitching as it stared directly up at me.
"…Yeah, what the fuck is going on?"
My attention shifted.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Metal rang out in the distance.
I turned and followed the sound.
