I gasped for air like I had just breathed through broken glass in the middle of an irregularly paved alley.
I could feel the scavenger that would have attacked me only a few feet away—the smell alone should have suffocated me.
But now, the scavenger was gone. Somehow, it had created some kind of time warp or glitch in reality.
A pulsating, creepy sound came from different parts of the area, like groups of humans doing things together in—
I dropped to my knees when the first rupture happened, but I didn't seem to notice.
I looked down at my right hand and made a sound I didn't recognize.
My fingers weren't gone, but they were fading. The skin looked white, thin, and transparent, like a cheap piece of plastic.
I could see the wet cobblestones on the ground through my palm. There was no blood and no bone—just a blurry, wobbling outline of where my hand used to be.
Trying to move it felt like moving a hand made of pins and novocaine. Heavy. Impossible.
"D… Don't stare at it," a voice from the shadows said. "The more you look at it, the more you lose."
I turned around, and my boots slipped in the black sludge.
A man sat on a pile of crates. Dark liquid seeped out of them like blood.
He wore a coat that looked sewn together from shadows, and his hat covered most of his head, leaving his face in darkness.
He wasn't breathing.
He just buzzed.
"Who are you?" I asked in a broken voice.
That was his first Delete," the stranger said.
He had jumped from a great height, smashing into the ground with such force it made a metal noise. He moved with a pronounced limp, dragging his left leg as if it were lifeless.
Finally, when he stepped into the flickering light of the street, I could see his face; one of his eyes was human (pale blue, frightened), the other an amber slit, glowing.
"You're a Shaper," I said, stepping back.
"I'm a ghost that still has a heart," he replied, pulling out a cigarette. Although not lit, the cigarette leaked out gray smoke.
"And you're an idiot; you used a General Delete on the bottom of the food chain. Do you know what that cost you?"
"It would have killed me!" I shouted.
"It would only have chewed on your shoes, " he said as he came closer. His amber eye flashed, illuminating the night.
"However, you reached into the code and created a hole in it; the universe hates holes and will fill them," he continued, "and, as it will with you, will take parts from the one who created them."
He held on to my slowly dying wrist. His touch was not cold like ice; it was as if he could no longer feel anything at all.
Look at your arm; the area where you can see through? That is empty space; you gave up a part of yourself to have that erased, so let me ask you: Ethan Thorne, what can't you remember?"
I took a step back.
"I have memory; London, apartment—my sister…"
I was stopped by the sudden void that exploded in my head.
I tried so hard to see her face. I could see her hair (brown; curly), her sweater (that GREEN thing), and I could hear her laugh.
But as hard as I tried to see her eyes, I couldn't; there was a foggy white space.
"I don't remember what colour her eyes were," I said.
"Doesn't matter now; MARROW owns them," said the guy.
"You wanted that thing gone? You got rid of the way your sister looked at you when I was 10 year old. Bye bye; gone, replaced with static."
I choked back a sob.
The weight of it all was unbearable; it felt like an anvil sitting on me.
"The people who are alive have intent," the man said in a loud voice. "You are a Biotic and have no intent. You have created a signal saying 'I'm here, come delete me!'"
The Marrow vibrated with reverberating sounds similar to an enormous bell ringing beneath the surface of the water. The ground shook while the vibration was going through it.
"The Wardens" was whispered by the stranger. Eyes darkened as he said, "They have detected the Delete and know this place is going to be wiped clean. If you want to reclaim that crud in London, you must train to Shape yourself so you do not become one with Matter."
"How can I do that?"
"You must accompany me to the Black Market. Run, Blank, Run; run as if you'll have legs and feet."