The shadow had been following me ever since that night, lurking just at the edge of my existence, waiting for my next brush with death. I began to feel its presence long before danger appeared, like a cold breath on the back of my neck or a flicker in the corner of my vision. Each time it got closer, I’d be thrown into another time, another place, but always barely escaping.
Weeks had passed since the first incident. I tried to live normally, but every time I felt that creeping cold, I knew the shadow was near. My heart would race, my hands would tremble. But no matter how hard I tried to avoid dangerous situations, I knew it was only a matter of time before something else happened.
It did, one night, as I crossed a bridge over the river. The sound of rushing water filled my ears, and the bridge groaned under the weight of my car. Then, out of nowhere, a sharp crack. The bridge’s cables snapped. My car lurched as the road beneath me buckled.
I had no time to think. Just as the car tipped over the edge, plunging into the icy water below, the world shifted again.
This time, I found myself in a small, darkened room. Flickering candlelight cast eerie shadows on the stone walls. The air smelled of damp earth, and I could hear muffled whispers just beyond the door. It took a moment to register, but I was in a dungeon.
I stumbled to my feet, trying to calm my racing heart. I had no idea where or when I was, but I knew the rules by now. Death had been close, and I had slipped through time again to escape it. But I also knew that wherever I went, the shadow followed.
The door creaked open, and a figure stepped into the room. He wore a long, hooded robe, and in his hands, he carried a rusted key. His face was hidden, but I could feel his eyes on me.
“Time does not forgive,” he said in a voice that chilled me to the bone. “It only delays the inevitable.”
I backed away, but there was nowhere to run. “Who are you?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly raised his hand, and the walls of the room began to close in, the air growing thicker. The pressure in my chest increased, and I felt that same icy presence creeping up my spine. The shadow was here again. It was always here.
The figure spoke again, his voice echoing like a haunting melody. “Every leap through time brings you closer to the end. You cannot outrun it forever.”
The walls pressed in tighter, and I gasped for breath. My vision blurred, and in the corner of the room, I saw it—the shadow, twisting and writhing, stretching toward me.
Just as the darkness swallowed me, I was thrown back into the river, the icy water crashing around me. I surfaced, gasping for air, as my car was swept downstream.
But I was alive. For now.
I crawled to the riverbank, exhausted and shivering. The shadow hadn’t caught me. Not yet. But I knew it was coming, and with each jump, the gaps between its appearances grew smaller. It was hunting me through time, and soon, there would be nowhere left to run.
I couldn’t keep living like this. I had to find a way to break the curse. But how do you fight something that exists outside of time? Something that knows your every move?
As I lay on the riverbank, staring up at the stormy sky, one thought echoed in my mind: I couldn’t escape forever.
The shadow would come again. And next time, I might not be so lucky.