The rooftop webbed like a frozen pond as KD landed on the highrise, with Haru thumping hard on its shoulders followed by the rucksack on her back. As always, the sudden kinetic stop made her round frame glasses slide down the bridge of her nose. She pushed it back up, her vision clearing instantly.

The Alderwatch Institute of Technology, also known as AIT, was an overwrought structure of glass and brick that used to house the finest scholars this city had to offer. Through the archways at the entrance was the world of tomorrow, of wonder and progress. Standing tall was a clock tower that stared into the skyline. When Haru was younger, just a child on the shoulders of her mother, she had to tilt her head all the way up to truly take in the magnitude of its height. When it chimed, it rang the exact number of times indicated by the numeral that the hour hand pointed to. The hammer within the iron shell would knock back and forth, tolling the bell for all to hear throughout the city. On that day it rang twice. And at two thirty-six in the afternoon, the arms on the clock tower froze, stunned with horror and shock. That was the exact time when the Folding took place.

“We’re here all right,” Haru said quietly, pushing a painful memory aside.

KD clapped its massive hands together. “The Wave Wobble Modulator is within our grasp, and soon Atomic Shock III!”

“Not so fast, speed demon.” She produced a binocular from her rucksack. “This is uncharted territory here.”

It crossed its arms with a huff. “Fine.”

Windows gleamed in the early afternoon light. The trees stood still as stone. And in the quad was a metal sculpture in a sea of tall grass. Haru grunted and peeled the binocular away from her eyes, frowning.

“It looks quiet down there… Too quiet.”

“Are you saying that there is no threat for me to eliminate?!”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t see into the windows.”—Haru stowed the binocular back into her rucksack—“Stay on your guard though,”—and freed her short sword from its sheath—“Things may get dangerous when we venture into campus.”

KD cracked its knuckles. “It will be my pleasure.”

Then, it compressed its arms, leaned forward and shot them into the air. For a wild moment they were airborne—KD windmilling its arms, Haru whooping maniacally—until it caught the ledge of a shorter building from across the street, then dropped down onto the sidewalk, shattering the windows on the corner store below.

Trash Wizard had provided them a trifold map of the campus, however, it accidentally sailed into the wood chipper moat when he dropped it from the wall.

“Let’s look for an on-campus map,” Haru said as they passed through the archways.

“Maps are for cowards severely lacking in a sense of adven—what is that?” KD waddled over to the grassy quad excitedly.

Casting a wide breadth of shadow was the metal sculpture planted in the quad, far larger than the miniature that she saw from the highrise. It was a tetrahedron balanced on its longest point, with the top facing pyramid peeled down into a delicate curl.

“Do you like it? It’s an origami flower,” a tinny voice echoed from inside the metal sculpture.

Haru yelped as she levelled her short sword at it.

KD scrambled up its fists.

“Whoawhoawhoa! Relax. Chill, my friendos.” Slowly, the tinny voice revealed itself, a Folded creature. “I mean you no harm.”

The Folded creature, like most that were created after the Folding, was beyond bizarre to look at. It had an oversized, pulsating head fitted with large unblinking eyes that sat on top of a stout, saggy torso with wiry limbs tacked on like an afterthought, possibly because of its power to levitate in the air. When it looked into Haru’s eyes with its gigantic black orbs, it tunnelled straight into her mortal soul and—

her life

the universe

everything collapsed into an insignificant kernel

life was meaningless

nothing mattered

existence was a bed of nails that the human condition was forced to lie facing down on

existence was pain

everything was spiralling down into a toilet in an unending void of crap and misery and—

The existential trance ended, and Haru gasped desperately for air. There was a pressure at the back of her throat like she had taken an intense whirl on a rollercoaster and wanted to vomit.

“Sorry about that.” The Folded creature stared at the ground. “I forget that I have an effect on people.”

“What was that? I was like… tripping down an awful rabbit hole or… or… What the heck, man!” Haru waved her short sword at it.

“Calm down, Haru. I believe I may know what happened.” KD waddled over to the Folded creature, leaned to the side and glanced into its reluctant eyes. “Just as I thought. This flabby balloon man here has glimpsed into the Void Realm, where I originate from.”

“Your home is whack, yo! It felt like my soul was pulled apart and put back together again.”

“It is a dimension of chaos and turmoil. That is simply the nature of the Void Realm. And his soul has waded into the thickest sauce of existential dread. Hence his form, all fundamentally distorted. No offence.”

“Oh.” Haru let her short sword drop to her side. Existential dread was hardly a pleasant feeling to go through.

“None taken, actually. As a matter of fact I’m feeling pretty good, like a weight’s been lifted. Thanks.” The Folded creature extended its tarantulay hand. “My name’s Brian by the way.”

KD gave it a firm handshake. “I am the great Kill Death, the Black Hands of Devastation, menace to Creatures of Entropy, forged in the primordial chaos of combat in the Vo—

“You can just call him KD. I’m Haru.” She slapped his hand with a hardy high-five instead.

“Nice to meet you too. What brings y’all here, anyways?” Brian asked.

“We have come to replace our pathetic little box!”

“Your what now, sorry?”

Haru sheathed her sword. “We’re here for the Wave Wobble Modulator. It’s shaped like a pyramid, makes a warbling noise. Know anything about it?”

Brain scratched his chin thoughtfully, then turned to the metal origami flower. Concentration creased its face as it stared. Suddenly, without laying a hand on it, the sculpture started vibrating, then the petals creaked and groaned as they peeled the rest of the way down, revealing the Wave Wobble Modulator inside.

The device was chrome, polished to a painful shine, emitting a blue luminous glow as it crackled and spat out branches of energy while it spun. The warbling noise was surprisingly soothing. An auditory ointment for a wounded soul. A return to the womb, a time more simply. That comfortable amniotic existence. It reminded Haru of her mom gently caressing the helix of her ear. All anxiety slipped away. And the existential dread that dogged her a moment ago was gone.

“I’ve just been calling it the dreidel,” Brian explained. “I found it while I was rummaging through the basement of the Science Department.”

Haru started approaching the Wave Wobble Modulator. “This is exactly what we’re looking for. Now if you don’t mind we’ll be takin—” She froze in mid-step, like her body was abruptly encased in an invisible mould. The only things that she could move were her tongue and eyeballs.

“Well come on, Haru! What are you waiting for?” KD gestured at the coveted device.

Haru was a puppet and Brian had a stranglehold on her strings. She remained motionless no matter how hard she fought for bodily control despite internally being a mad flailing cat. Even her jaw was glued shut.

“Yeah, about that,” Brian said. “I’m afraid you can’t have the Wave Wobble Modulator.”