The world had advanced beyond imagination.
With every passing year, the boundaries between science fiction and reality had blurred. Nations rushed to outdo one another — AI cities, quantum defense systems, education modules powered by virtual minds. Every country wanted to be the future.
It was supposed to be a normal summer.
A season of warmth, of vacations, of family memories. My parents and little sister had gone on a trip — a week-long getaway we'd been planning for months. I was meant to be with them. But then, the fever hit.
Just bad timing, I thought. Nothing serious.
So I stayed back. Alone.
With only the hum of my fan, the glow of my phone screen, and two blinking names on my screen: Kaori and Noah.
We met online. From different corners of the world.
Kaori — bright, sarcastic, and a bit too obsessed with space.
Noah — quiet, always observing, the kind of guy who remembered things you thought no one noticed.
And me?
I'm Rem
I don't know how we became this close. It just… happened. One late-night message at a time. Our bond grew over memes, deep talks, shared dreams — the kind only digital soulmates understood.
That day, we were just chatting like always.
Joking about the future.
Complaining about the present.
Pretending the world was okay.
But then...
Kaori's message popped up.
"Rem… is your sky… red too?"
My fingers froze on the keyboard.
At first, I thought it was a joke.
Then my room trembled.
Before I could type a response, the tremor hit.
A low, unnatural rumble vibrated through my bed, through the walls, through my chest.
The lights blinked violently. The fan spun and cracked.
And then — the ground shifted.
fan above me spun violently before stopping mid-air. My laptop glitched. And then — a SOUND. Not thunder, not an explosion, but something ancient... as if the earth itself was cracking from within.
I rushed to the window.
Outside, buildings leaned. Roads split.
I grabbed my phone and ran.
Down the staircase. Past the crashing windows.
But before I could get out — the apartment shook again.
A thunderous crack roared above me.
____
People Screamed....
The street was chaos.
People were running. Screaming.
Buildings in the distance leaned like they were melting. And the sky... it wasn't just red. It was bleeding.
I looked up —
A building was collapsing.
KR-RRRAAACK!...Thud
Bricks, steel, and glass rained down like bullets.
I dove behind a broken counter.
My phone flew from my hand, skidding across the floor.
I crawled to reach it — hand bleeding, heart pounding.
The screen was glitching. Almost dead.
But just before it blacked out —
One last message flashed.
From Kaori.
"WTF"
The screen shattered.
Darkness swallowed everything.
That was the moment I knew —
Borders didn't matter anymore.
Because the world…
Had Become ONE...
---
[End of Prologue]