When I fled to this world, I thought

it would be a hiding spot. Short after

establishing, I found a second home

and grew fond of its people. They

reminded me in my youth.

The dark road was lit up by a row of street lights.

Ludwig could feel his left arm burn, the broken bone, the threads keeping it from fluttering all around the insides, the translucent strings coiling around the exterior of his arm, the crimson knife, dangling, cutting the air as it moved.

“You know? I didn’t expect you to put up a fight. I thought it would end real quick,” the woman in front of him said with an unsettling smile. One of joy. “Them missing the telekinesis bit in the report is spicing this dance. Maybe I should tell them to do it more often.”

(Advantage. Acquired. Enemy. Misinformation. Exploit. Weakness.)

She didn’t know about the strings? After all, they were translucent, barely visible in the areas where the light was weaker. And if it weren’t for them…

Ludwig clenched his fist, feeling his fingers warm whilst his palm was cold. His body was in the middle of a battle between the humid chill, and the raging heat, creating an uncomfortable feeling that woke every sleeping part of his body.

He had never been this scared in his life.

“Who’s them?! What report?!” Ludwig said across the street, desperately.

“I think you can get an idea of who would want to get rid of you.”

Fuck! Just a little. Maybe with just a hint of information he would know what to say that could get him out of the situation. Otherwise, he would have to fight, and that in of itself was a dreadful thought. At least for him. She looked like she was longing for it.

That meant the only viable option was talking his way through.

Ludwig bit his lips.

But the woman wasn’t giving any information, neither was she willing to hear what he had to say.

It was infuriating. Yet he had to keep trying.

“Look! Like I’ve said before, I’m not the guy you’re looking for! Maybe he’s somewhere around, or close by, but it isn’t me!”

Ludwig wasn’t very happy at the idea of guiding an assassin to her target. But he did prefer it at the thought of getting his head stomped by the equivalent of a twelve wheeled truck. She had only been tossing him around, but it hurt like hell. And he wasn’t willing to stay out all night with what appeared to be a super psychopath.

The woman's smile grew wider.

“You sure are persistent! Another trait I find attractive! But sorry hun’, I’m not wrong. Wild hair, trimmed beard, military cap, only worker in the only airsoft shop in Wet Wood, named Stan, and with a symbologist knife that rivals bullets. Fits the description a bit too well to be wrong.”

“That’s not me!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Really! I know it sounds absurd, but that's not me! I only said that my name was Stan because the owner told me to! The knife is his, not mine!”

The wicked smile disappeared.

“Hey, stop pushing it around. The joke’s getting kind of boring, don’t you think?” She said with a dry tone. “And there’s a fine line between persistent and botherso-”

The woman spat blood onto the ground.

“Agh! Shit. Where is it?” She said as she began to look for something.

Was she hurt? Ludwig didn’t even do a considerable amount of damage, only a couple of scratches. He couldn’t have been the source.

“Fuckin’ old man,” she murmured as Ludwig began to feel a raising anxiety and anger. “Making me do a fucking show to intimidate this…”

Ludwig then seemed to have caught on the opportunity.

(Run.)

And so he did.

He tried going as fast as he could. As long as he could. As far away from her as possible.

After what he felt what had been quite the moment running, he peeked behind. Ludwig then saw how the woman was putting something in her mouth.

The sound of her swallowing echoed along the silent and damp street.

It also filled Ludwig with dread.

The lady’s figure began growing slightly as she approached Ludwig even faster than before. Only this time, Ludwig got a head’s up this time.

Ludwig stopped as soon as she entered a twenty foot range. He had let loose his threads, still attached to the knife, which began moving with the velocity Ludwig had kept until that moment. Then, he used the momentum, his strings’ physical prowess, and the remaining strength in his arms to launch it towards the woman’s face.

It made a hissing sound as it pierced the air between them. In an instant, it was in front of the woman’s right eye. And yet, she dodged it with ease, tilting her head to the left.

The woman was now five feet away from Ludwig, his knife well behind her, her fist closing in on Ludwig’s ribs.

Luckily, his threads were still connected to the knife.

Ludwig moved the strings closest to the woman’s neck towards it. The knife responded by turning right. It continued the uniform circular movement until it struck the woman’s chest.

It was a solid hit.

The clothes in the area where the knife had hit were cleanly cut, and blood emerged. But they only were just a couple of droplets.

She had said the knife rivaled bullets, and the blow hadn’t been a light one. Was Ludwig fighting a bulletproof potens?

Despite the little penetration it had made, the strike had proven to not be completely useless. It made the charging lady tumble. She had to follow with a roll to avoid falling face first on the ground. She then remained knelt on the ground below a streetlight.

Ludwig’s attacks hadn’t been effective. And it was safe to assume that they weren’t getting any more powerful by the minute. He had to find another method to hurt her opponent if he didn’t want to be flatten out.

He grabbed the threads and launched once more the knife towards her face using both hands.

The eyes seemed to be vulnerable enough of a spot. Besides, there were medical potens.

The lady raised her head just in time to see the knife in front of her. She tilted her head to try and avoid the strike. Yet she was struck just above her right eye.

The knife bounced as if it had collided with an impenetrable wall while a small river of blood emerged from the superficial wound, falling on top of her eye. The woman put her right hand on top of it, trying to clean out the crimson stains.

Ludwig then used his strings to attack with the knife, which was still in the air. He aimed at the other eye.

Her opponent got up in a flash, extending her left hand towards the knife, trying to crush it under her grip.

Ludwig felt how everything slowed down.

The tip of his weapon flew directly to her claw-shaped hand, wet from the puddles on the ground. The color of the threads was becoming visible as they flapped around like a flag. The tears falling from the skies.

Ludwig saw how his only chance of winning was gently fading into nothingness. The knife could only do superficial damage, it wasn’t going to pierce her hand. She was going to shatter it into pieces. Similar to what she was going to do with him not long after.

Everything began to return to its normal speed. Ludwig gave a small breath just as her hand enveloped the knife. He was able to hear a small crack coming from the object. He was able to hear how it was being crushed under…

(Avoid. Danger.)

The knife suddenly looped around her arm at a tremendous speed, the motion resembling the snake-like nature he had previously seen, and cutting her arm as it moved. It then jumped at the end of the extremity towards her left eye.

But it stopped.

The blade was caught between the woman’s teeth. She then tightened her left hand grip, grabbing the now visible and orange threads.

The lady spun Ludwig around before launching him into the air.

He was able to feel the freezing and humid air of the night. He then seemed to stop in mid air, before beginning to fall to the asphalt ground.

Ludwig forced his body to turn around.

After a moment struggling while he descended in a free fall, Ludwig was able to rotate and see his landing zone. He was sixty-five feet above the ground, the number getting lower as he fell with a tremendous speed.

(Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! What do I do? Shit!)

Ludwig reached for his strings and was able to feel that he was missing quite a few. The throw had pulled out some of his threads. He tried and managed to pull out more threads from who knows where just as he approached a post lamp.

He threw them in the street light’s direction. They rapidly coiled around the part parallel to the ground, and Ludwig quickly began to feel his motion sickness come in. The threads began to tear as Ludwig rotated around the street pole until they snapped mid rotation.

Ludwig flew with a forty-five degree angle towards the ground. Using his right leg, he cushioned his fall, breaking it in the process.

“Aargh!” He screamed as he tumbled on the ground, his broken arm also burning with pain.

Once he stopped rolling across the floor, Ludwig tried to use his threads and his non-broken arm to crawl as far away as he could.

It wasn’t very far. The woman stood in his way.

She crouched and grabbed Ludwig by his hair. She then completely lifted him from the ground. Ludwig’s head filled with pain as well as warmth.

(Energy. Low. Preserve.)

Ludwig felt how the remaining energy and strength in his body was ripped from it. He then was faced by the lady, her left eye still covered in blood and with gold slivers around her mouth.

She extended her right arm.

“Bye.”

The woman threw a punch.

Just as she was struck by something in the head.

She recoiled and turned her head to see her new aggressors. The sounds of machine guns firing flooded the night short after.

“Fuckin’ pests!” The woman said with a growl.

She then threw Ludwig as she began to walk towards them.

He was able to feel his arm and leg flop around as he was launched in a crescent arch. His whole body turned in mid air as he descended, which allowed him to see a far away ground.

He then fell for a moment.

Was he hallucinating? He had just hit his head. Maybe his eyes got damaged somewhere. But the ground seemed so far away…

Ludwig saw railings just at the edge of his view.

Of course the ground seemed distant. It’s because it was.

Ludwig tried to pull out some of his strings, but his recent skill to control them was nowhere to be seen. Nor were the quantities he had just pulled out either.

Less than ten threads emerged slowly from his right palm. Ludwig looked around as he fell for an anchorage to tie his strings. He was able to find a set of four pipes going out from the inner walls below him.

He reached for it with his threads.

But they were slow. Too slow.

The strings weren’t able to reach them before Ludwig passed the set of pipes.

He then faced the now much closer ground.

Just as he was about to collide with the ground, something pulled his right arm, making him suffer whiplash damage, but slowing down his fall considerably.

He used his good leg to lessen even more the damage from the fall.

He was able to hear a crack below him.

Ludwig then fell on his side.

Everything was turning dark.

He laid on his back, the darkness around him welcoming him.

His eyes began to close.

Droplets of water fell on his eyelids.

And he soon succumbed to unconsciousness.

—-----

Ludwig.

It was dark.

Ludwig

It was wet and cold.

Ludwig.

Hard… To… Breath.

(LUDWIG!)

Ludwig opened his eyes.

He was being slightly dragged by a current of water that reached his torso.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” He screamed.

Ludwig began to move and fight against the current, which only made both of his legs burn in unbelievable pain.

“Argh!” He grunted as he fell deeper into the water.

He then began moving his right arm, the only extremity that remained unbroken, to keep afloat. The current responded by becoming stronger and quicker, which made Ludwig fall again.

As he lost his footing, Ludwig tried to get a mouthful full of air, but the increasing current made him swallow a bit of water.

(Fuck! Shit!) He thought as he coughed out for air. (Is this… How I die?)

Ludwig’s legs began to weaken even more while the water’s level grew at a constant pace.

(Come on! Think of something!)

(The threads,) a voice in his head answered him.

(That’s right!)

Ludwig extended his broken arm and tried to pull out some threads. He was able to pull more thirty. He then extended them towards the canal’s railing above and coiled them around it.

He pulled.

And the strings broke.

(It… Doesn’t work,) the water was reaching his chin. (Fuck. Fuck! FUCK! I’m sick of it! Of everything! Is it too much to ask for a normal life! One where I don’t lose fifteen years of my life! One where I don’t have to fear some sick gunmen! One where I don’t depend on the mood of some stranger!)

“IS IT TOO HARD TO ASK?!” He screamed into the night. "Why am I so miserable?" He then whispered into the night.

The dark night. His last night. Cold. Terrified. Hurt. Alone…

(Ludwig.)

...What?

(Cross them. The threads. Loop them on each other.)

(Who are you?)

(Like that rope, Ludwig. Loop them like that rope.)

Ludwig looked above him and saw the rope.

It was dangling in one of the pipes he had seen before. And one of its ends was frayed, the small and single threads going around each other.

(It won’t work. They’re not strong enough…)

(Loop them. What else can you lose?)

The dark words were somehow calming.

Ludwig looped his threads just like the rope. He extended them to the railing, and coiled them around it. He then pulled.

At least he would die trying.

Ludwig then closed his eyes, waiting for the moment when the strings snapped. He waited, patiently. Truly patiently, for the first time in his life.

But the moment never came.

Ludwig opened one of his eyes. He saw how the water got farther away from him. He then looked up, and saw the looped and thin string lifting him.

Once he got close enough to the railing, Ludwig used his good arm and pulled himself up with it and the strings.

He got in solid ground.

(This is surreal. All of it. I’m dreaming aren’t I?)

The unconsciousness returned to reclaim his mind.

(No, you’re not, partner.)

—-----

Gravity was jumping from roof to roof in the dark and humid night. She had gotten a call from HQ about a conflict in the west of Wet Wood, close to the connecting point with Expansion Valley. She made herself ten times lighter and jumped from the ceiling to the ground below.

She landed in front of a black van with a man laid on its left side.

He had a hole in his chest.

Gravity had found the area of conflict.

She quickly scanned her surroundings. She was able to find another fourteen bodies. Seven of them were dead. They had holes in their torso or abdomen. Something had pulled out the bowels of one of them and spilled it across the ground. She also found a decapitated head encrusted in another body’s chest.

Surprisingly, the eight remaining bodies were still alive with some minor injuries, like a broken arm or leg.

Gravity tapped her ear two times.

“I’m gonna need eight ambulances at my location.”

“Roger,” said the voice coming from the call. “Could you also check the area one hundred meters away at your three o’ clock?”

“Sure.”

She then tapped the ear piece.

Gravity jumped between the walls in front and behind her to get to the top of the buildings. She then ran across the rooftops until she made her way there.

“What happened?”

Street lights were torn from their places and smashed through a shop that had its window display shattered. She studied the surroundings.

Gravity was able to find a body laying face down and near the drain canal’s railings.

She approached it at a fast pace.

Once she got close to it, she was able to see the bones from his left arm and both his legs sticking out of the skin. She checked for a pulse.

It miraculously had one. Even though he looked like a smashed corpse.

She turned it around...

…Ludwig?

No, no, no, no, no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.

“LUDWIG!”

She reached for his face, which was pale, wet, and cold… What had happened?

Laura grabbed Ludwig by his arm left unbroken and his chest. She then changed the direction of her gravitational pull and began falling upwards before falling to her left.

How could this happen? Why did it happen?

(Don’t leave. Don't leave me again, brother.)

She quickly made her way to the hospital.

Laura descended in a rush, being careful not to tumble and fall. She charged the main entrance’s doors with her shoulder, almost snapping them out of the doorframe.

She then headed to the stairs and changed her direction, falling upwards.

“Doctor Ernesto!” She cried as she made her way to the second floor.

Not knowing where to go, she ran towards the room where her brother had been hospitalized for so many years.

“Doctor Ernesto!” She kept calling.

Laura then left her brother carefully on the medical bed.

“What’s going on?!” The voice of Doctor Ernesto asked as it approached the room.

She turned around, letting him see the destroyed body.

“Please,” Laura whispered with red eyes. “Help him.”

“Good God!" Doctor Ernesto said as he put his hand over his mouth. "Nurse Johnson! Sarah! Come here!” He scremed as he faced left from the doorframe.

A nurse made her way to the room shortly after.

“Give me a toal.”

The nurse nodded before going to the bathroom of the room while Doctor Ernesto approached Ludwig.

“You should go. This will be painful.” He then looked at Laura’s eyes. ”For both of you.”

Laura left the room with a shaky pace, her legs trembling below her.

She then heard her brother screams. Screams of pain. Suffering. Torment.

Laura had never heard screams as desperate as those. She quickly made her way to the stairs, but sat next to the first step due to her inability to walk anymore.

Laura tried to cover her ears to silence the painfuls screams of her brother.

But it didn't work.

She sat there, alone, trying to repress her own tears and screams. Having her brother's screams of suffering as her only companion.

—-----

Ludwig was looking at the white ceiling in the middle of the night.

Again in the same room a week later.

His surroundings were tranquil. The light breeze blowing the treetops, the cars passing next to the hospital, the small conversations that could be heard across the halls. He was calm and alone.

Yet he wasn’t.

“Are you there?” Ludwig asked.

…

(Yes,) the voice in his head answered him. It was relaxing, almost resembling a piece of classical music.

Ludwig was pleased to have received a response. He was worried that he had really gone mad or that it would just ignore him.

“Can I ask you some questions?”

(You may.)

“Who are you?”

(I’m I.)

“No, but like… What’s your name?”

(I don’t have a name.)

“…You… Don’t have one?”

(I do not.)

“Then, how do I call you?”

(I’m I. Refer to me like that.)

“Like… I just call you I?”

(No, I don’t have a name.)

“...”

(Yes, now I see how it may cause confusion in the future. Refer to me as you’d like.)

“Are you… Asking me to give you a name?”

(...You can look at it that way, yes.)

“Okay… What do I call you?”

(It is up to you.)

“Yeah, I know. I was just talking to myself.”

(To me that sounded like a question.)

“It was…”

(Then why do you ask yourself? Wouldn’t you already know the answer?)

“I guess I would… It’s just a thing people do.”

(Mmh. I will have it in consideration for future reference.)

A name… Ludwig only had the voice as reference.

It was very calming. Not quite quiet, but surely silent enough. It reminded him of a piece. A piece about a beach. The sea. The calm and tranquil sea...

Images of the drain canal appeared in his mind.

...A sea that could burst into a furious tide.

“How about Wagner?”

(It is fine by me,) the voice then thrummed.

“Ok then, Wagner. Are you... Responsible for my threads?”

(I’m responsible for your Gate, yes.)

“Gate?”

(Do you need me to repeat what I just said?)

“No I was just… What is a Gate?”

(A Gate is the door that connects you with The Void.)

"...And what's The Void?"

(The space between reality. The space where the laws of the universe do not apply as they should. The place where everything is possible.)

“Ok... Umm... So..."

(I'm detecting something strange in your emotional state. What is it?)

"I... I think you're referring to what's called... Awkwardness."

(Is it dangerous?)

"No...?"

(What was that? Were you asking me a question?)

"I... Don't think so..."

(Hmm... Humans are confusing.)

"You're not wrong about that."