Echoes of the Drag

Chapter 5: The Smoke Between Worlds

The world didn’t shift all at once—it bled.

Kade blinked, and the shadows around him started to ripple. The corners of his room no longer obeyed geometry. The walls curved slightly, the ceiling breathed in and out like a lung. The cigarette still burned between his fingers, but the air around him was… wrong.

A soft humming noise filled his ears—no source, no rhythm, just a sound that made his bones ache like they were remembering something he had never lived.

He stood slowly.

> (You ever feel like you're somewhere else before your body catches up?)

(Like the future’s already happened and you’re just lagging behind in meat form? No? Just me? Figures.)

Kade walked to the mirror again. This time, the reflection wasn’t just smiling—it was mouthing words.

But there was no sound.

Only static.

And then—

Flick.

The cigarette's glow pulsed, and in a blink—

He wasn’t in his room anymore.

The sky was grey. Not clouded—just... grey. Like the concept of color had been forgotten. The buildings around him were the same as his city, but faded, ruined, overgrown with black ivy that pulsed faintly like veins. The streets were dead silent.

> (Alternate universe? Dream? Drag trip? Who’s to say?)

Kade stepped forward and saw something moving between the alleyways. It wasn’t human. Not anymore.

They looked like people—almost. But their eyes were hollow, their movements twitchy. And worse, they didn’t walk.

They glided.

They didn’t breathe.

But they listened.

Every time he moved, they turned slightly toward him.

> (Oh great. Monsters that hear your heartbeat. That’s new.)

Kade reached into his coat pocket—empty. No phone. No lighter. No weapons. Only the half-burned cigarette.

Then a whisper behind him:

"You're not supposed to be here yet."

He turned.

A girl stood at the edge of the broken street. Pale skin, crimson eyes, her voice sharp like broken glass—but familiar.

“Do I know you?” he asked.

“You will,” she replied.

Before he could ask more, the world twisted again. The grey sky cracked like glass, a spiderweb of light bleeding through.

Snap.

Kade gasped awake.

Back in his room.

Only a second had passed.

But the cigarette had burned down to the filter.

And his heart?

Still racing.