Kestrel pushed through the front door, her boots heavy on the threshold.

  She paused, eyes sweeping the interior.

  The dining hall stretched before her-quiet, orderly, untouched.

  The plates from dinner still sat on the table, crusts of bread and a half-empty glass of water catching the dim afternoon light.

  Everything was exactly as she'd left it.

  Yet, the air felt wrong.

  It was too still, as if the molecules in the room had stopped vibrating.

  The usual scent of old wood and hearth-smoke was replaced by a clinical perfect scent that pricked the back of her throat.

  She frowned, setting her bag down. "Vane?"

  No answer.

  Only the ticking of the clock...

  Where did that boy go?

  She moved toward the kitchen, rolling her shoulders to ease the tension of the road.

  She needed water.

  She needed to shake all the stress.

  She neved looked up.

  She didn't see the shadow stretching across the ceiling from the roof above.

  --

  Kai dangled in the air, his feet kicking uselessly.

  Iron fingers were crushing into his windpipe, but there was no heat in the grip.

  No malice.

  It was the grip of a man holding a clipboard, steady and strong.

  Kai's vision tunneled; black spots bloomed like ink in water.

  His mouth opened and closed, but his throat was a collapsed straw.

  The timer for his ability sat in the corner of his mind-motionless, mocking.

  Without a word, the grip vanished.

  Kai didn't fall; he plummeted.

  He hit the shingles hard, the impact rattling his teeth, but the sound was muffled, as if the roof were made of cotton.

  He sucked in air with wet, rhythmic hitches, hands flying to the bruised ring around his neck.

  What the hell was that?

  A voice drifted down, conversational and light.

  "Pulse is high. Adrenaline spiked. But no response. All out of juice, then?"

  Kai forced his head up.

  The man was silhouetted against the Full Moon.

  He wasn't armored like a soldier or draped in the robes of a mage.

  He wore simple traveling clothes, yet he stood with the terrifying posture of someone who owned the horizon.

  His eyes were the worst part-too bright, reflecting things that weren't there.

  "W-who..." Kai’s voice was a shredded rasp.

  The man crouched, his expression shifting from sharp observation to a even sharp, charming smile that felt like a razor across the skin.

  "I'm the Censor assigned to you... Kai."

  The name hit Kai harder than the fall.

  Only three people knew that name.

  The world turned cold.

  "Tch! All of you loyal dogs from the ACA..." Kai’s jaw tightened. Rage was the only thing keeping his knees from shaking. "Won't leave me alone, huh?!"

  He swung.

  A desperate, wide arc aimed at that smug, symmetrical face.

  Wham.

  Kai didn’t see the punch.

  He didn’t even see a shift in the man's weight.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  One moment his fist was moving; the next, his entire world tilted forty-five degrees.

  The pain didn't arrive for a full second-a delayed, sickening explosion across his jaw that sent him skidding sideways.

  His boots scraped wood, then air.

  His stomach lurched.

  His hand shot out, fingers locking onto the gutter.

  He dangled over the drop, heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs.

  He’s not playing by the same physics engine I am. Oh god, I’m a Level 1 mob trying to parry a god.

  Logic died, replaced by the animal need to be anywhere else.

  Kai hauled himself up, lungs burning, and bolted.

  He didn't look back.

  He sprinted for the opposite edge, aiming for the treeline.

  If he could just hit the grass-

  Ting.

  The sound was sharp, like a fingernail flicking a crystal glass.

  Kai’s next step didn't hit wood.

  It sank.

  A sudden, violent chill punched the breath out of his lungs.

  He stumbled, his momentum carrying him face-first into a drift of waist-deep snow.

  He scrambled up, spinning in a circle, his mind Refusing to process the horizon.

  Jagged, white peaks pierced a bruised grey sky.

  The wind howled with a prehistoric hunger, cutting through his thin shirt.

  This... did he...

  Kai’s breath misted, thick and white.

  He looked at his hands, then at the endless tundra.

  One 'Ting' and he just dragged-and-dropped me into the Arctic....Ah! Its so freaking cold.

  The man appeared ten feet away, materializing as if he’d been standing there for an hour, untouched by the gale.

  "Don't be so reactive. Let me introd-"

  Kai turned and ran.

  He didn't think; he just moved, his legs churning through the powder.

  Dammit! My lungs are turning into popsicles.

  Behind him, he heard a soft, weary sigh.

  Ting.

  Kai’s boots hit nothing.

  The world vanished.

  Then, a sensory overload of salt and ice.

  He plunged into the dark blue of the ocean, the shock of the cold locking his joints instantly.

  He thrashed upward, breaking the surface and retching brine.

  He spun, treading water in a slow, panicked circle.

  Endless blue.

  Oh no no no. Give me a break. If the next stop is a volcano, I’m officially resigning from life.

  The sun was directly overhead, a blinding white eye in a cloudless sky.

  It had been evening a second ago. Now, it was high noon.

  The man appeared beside him, sitting casually in a wooden kayak, one hand resting on an oar as he bobbed on the swell.

  "Remember, Kai," the man said, his voice carrying perfectly over the waves. "Never... never trust the Joker inside you. It's a manipulative monster. Not a friend."

  Kai didn't listen.

  He couldn't.

  He turned and swam, his strokes messy and desperate.

  He wasn't swimming toward land; he was just swimming away from the man.

  "Haven't you given up yet?" the voice asked, trailing behind him like a shadow.

  The man snapped his fingers.

  The ocean didn't wave-it shuddered.

  A deep, subsonic vibration groaned from the abyss, vibrating in Kai’s very marrow.

  He froze, suspended in the water.

  Something rose.

  Two eyes, each the size of a carriage, broke the surface.

  They were ancient, glowing with a cold, pale light.

  Then came the maw-a circular nightmare of serrated teeth, spiraling down into a throat that looked like the entrance to hell.

  The sheer scale of it blotted out the sun, casting Kai into a cold, wet shadow.

  The water began to drain toward the center.

  Kai was being pulled backward, a speck of dust being sucked into a vacuum.

  He didn't scream at first.

  The terror was too large to fit in his throat.

  Damn! that’s a biological disaster....I refused to be a snack-sized portion for a creature that shouldn't exist.

  A single tooth, the size of a grown man, brushed against his heel.

  That was the breaking point. His logic short-circuited, replaced by pure, unadulterated terror.

  "ALRIGHT!" Kai shrieked, his voice cracking into a high sob. "TAKE ME BACK! I SURRENDER!"

  Ting.

  The rooftop snapped back.

  Kai collapsed onto the shingles, his chest heaving, his hands clawing at the wood.

  He frantically patted his chest, his arms, his legs.

  Dry. His clothes were bone-dry.

  That 'Ting' sound... it’s the sound of reality breaking. Every time I hear it, my life gets significantly worse.

  The moon was setting exactly where it had been.

  There was no salt, no snow.

  Only the lingering, phantom ache of the cold in his bones.

  He looked up, shivering uncontrollably.

  The man was crouched in front of him, his expression neutral-the look of a teacher waiting for a slow student to catch up.

  "The name's Balthazar Bone-Smyth," he said softly.

  Kai stared, his breath ragged, the image of the kraken still burned into his retinas.

  He couldn't move.

  He couldn't even think of running.

  The world was Balthazar's toy, and Kai was just caught in the gears.

  Balthazar tilted his head, watching the light return to Kai's eyes with terrifying patience.

  "Now," he said, his voice dropping to a low, inevitable hum. "Are you ready to listen? Or do we need to visit the sun next?"