The Tales from Urban Nights

If you had a choice, you would give your sould to leave this world for it was no more the world you knew. It lost its healthy green and warm blue, the graceful red lost its warm hue, the roads were dead and the world had turned brown, it was the end of the world. The concrete jungle we built lay in jagged fragments, overgrown by nature's vengeful reclamation, but nature too was tired and the pollution overwhelmed her as well. The sky was a perpetual haze, bleeding sunlight into muted grays and reds.

Well, it had been this way for as long as he could remember, which wasn't long at all.

He had woken up in the middle of this wasteland, his mind a blank slate. No name, no memory, just a nagging pull in his chest, like a whisper threading through his veins.

He felt this tug, a scratching pain that just didn't want him to rest, the dull pain in his head made him wonder if he was attacked by something, by someone, well he will never know because he was alone. He wandered aimlessly, chasing that sensation. It was soft and persistent, a call that seemed to echo from far away, urging him to move forward. Well, what else could he do? That pain was the only thing keeping him sane in the godforsaken land of nothingness. 

Days bled into weeks, weeks into months, but he had yet to find another being like him, all he had was his aching body and that call that wanted him. Yes, his boots were worn, his face weathered by the blazing sun, his resolve to find the source of that voice remained unbroken, still he wanted something, someone...anything, anyone, he didn't want to be alone anymore, it was more painful that not finding anything to eat or drink for over a month now.

But there was no one to ask, no one to guide him. He wandered around for another few days, wondering if some mysterious creature could come to take him away, his mind was on the verge of a breakdown, could he just give up? "One more day", he thought. Well, maybe the Lord of another land heard his plea, in a far away place he saw smoke. With everything having come to a standstill, that was the first thing he saw in months that was moving. He ran, he ran desperate to find something there and at the source of the smoke he stumbled upon a group of survivors gathered around a dying fire.

They eyed him cautiously, their faces hollowed by hunger and fear, but he couldn't help but cry. He was not alone. There are others like him. Seeing a grown man with an unkempt beard cry like that, the group let him into their circle, well, nobody had any food, what else will this man steal? After telling them everything that he knew and went through, they were more welcoming of this poor soul who couldn't even remember his own life. They decided to fill him in, but this was a decision that would lead to their doom for their words sparked something in him, a dark gloomy fire lit his pathetic life. 

"There was a woman," one of them said, their voice trembling as though speaking her name might summon her ghost. "She gave everything for the world. She could've lived, but she didn't. Some say she was a saint. Others…"

"Others say she was a fool," another interjected bitterly. "She had the power to save herself but chose to save us instead. The man who was with her… He couldn't stand it. Said she was pretending to be noble, said she was selfish for leaving him alone. They say he shouted at her before she—"

"Before she was killed?" he asked suddenly, his voice sharper than intended.

The group fell silent, their eyes flickering with unease.

"No one knows the truth," the first survivor whispered. "But if she was murdered… who would've done it? And why?"

The man stared at the fire, the flames dancing in his dark eyes, even the flames were unable to warm the chill that wanted to devour his whole being. Slowly, a smile began to creep across his face. It was faint at first, then stretched unnaturally wide, splitting his expression into something that didn't quite belong to him.

The survivors shifted nervously.

"Hey… are you okay?" one of them asked.

He chuckled softly, a low, guttural sound that made their skin crawl. "Ah… So that's it. That's who she was." He turned on his heel and began walking away, the call in his chest now a roaring certainty.

"Wait!" one of the survivors called after him. "Where are you going? What do you know about her?"

But as they tried to follow, their legs buckled beneath them. One by one, they fell, gasping for breath as an invisible force pressed them to the ground.

"Ah…" His voice drifted back to them, amused and sinister. It was his body, but that voice wasn't. "It was fun to act desperate for a while, but I think I'm done playing now."

He didn't look back as he disappeared into the shadows, his unsettling smile the last thing they saw before darkness claimed them.

Somewhere far ahead, the whisper grew louder. A name floated to the surface of his fractured mind, and he laughed softly. "So, you're the one who wouldn't let me forget…"

And as he vanished into the wasteland, the world seemed to shudder, as if it, too, feared his return.