Nightmare Mythos

'Vermillion Painted Hand… Low Whispers… Snickering Bridge… Mendeleev. They have one thing in common and they appear to be frozen in time due to their irregularities. No one dared to approach because not only do these things have mysterious problems to deal with, but they are pretty much unknown to everyone.

'Now that there's a clue and I visited it in real view, the answer might've been because the time worked differently from the outside…'

Taking that matter into the point, the mysterious disappearances of the people as well. How come nobody saw them vanish and only been reported to be missing once they did. Those victims aren't even small numbers, yet not a single one was spotted?

'A delay? Disruption of time?'

All the weirdness they felt throughout everything they went over was because the time in the city was disordered.

It was the corrupted area at first, but then what if the influence creepily affected the entire city and slowly made its way until it covered the whole town itself?

What if the time had already been affected without them knowing, and peering through the 'real' reality made Vin to be in that worse condition?

Cesar's foot involuntary shook as this discovery was too complicated to understand even further. By the looks of it, he even barely scratched the tip of its strangeness.

But there is something.

"Hey guys, what do you think is the date for today?"

Cesar asked in a slightly jesting manner that was filled with nothing but a harrowing matter that needed to be taken care of.

The squad, who noticed how weird Cesar's question was couldn't help but be silent since asking for the day in this situation is highly likely to be asked.

It's not like they were in the park, running around.

The group stiffened and became vigilant, thinking it was a sign that Cesar was seeing something they were unable to see.

"Chill, nobody's around. I just wanted to know the date today just because,"

Jacqueline who usually talked out to whatever shenanigans Cesar pulled off, held back this time upon noticing the change of his tone that was slightly fearful. It was subtle but it is there.

Hence instead of going around the circles, Jacqueline surprisingly answered, "It's the 24th of July. A week away from the 30th. Why did you ask?"

Cesar got up from his place before he dashed out of the abandoned house and went straight through a nearby building and grabbed a mechanical calendar, a machined clock, and any equipment that could tell them what the day is today for them.

The group followed up, seeing how paranoid he was, thinking he was losing his mind.

They weren't entirely wrong because he was about to be.

'No, this is not it. It's impossible! How, how!'

Cesar was looking through these things in his hands with wide eyes as his sight appeared cloudy and a bit apprehensive.

His vision was betraying him.

Because right in his hands, the time he was supposed to be seeing was the 24th of July but everything indicated the 29th, a day right before the 30th. Whenever he blinked for a few seconds, it changed from 24th to 29th to 24th to 29th once again, leaving him more in disbelief that he almost found it funny.

As if there was a glitch in the system that only he could peer through.

'Ridiculous! This is absolutely nuts!'

Cesar looked at his group with a slightly contorted expression as he placed it right in front of them and asked.

"Let me ask you again, what day do you think it is now?"

Reyna and the rest of the squad started to become afraid of the new Cesar they were seeing but a bit suspicious at the same time. Still, they looked at those things in his hands before answering altogether.

"24th?"

Cesar was about to go crazy but still, he remained sane, albeit already standing at the tip of insanity. He continued observing, shifting his attention from the group and to the clocks on his hand, and could see the same bug that kept flickering on his front.

It was ever-changing, confusing, and supernatural.

If he was only able to see it, Cesar knew he had to do something about it.

He then remembered the other word that Vin had spoken before he was put in the unconscious state.

Cesar dropped the things on his hand before stating in a slightly disorienting tone, "We need to leave. We need to escape from this forsaken city!"

Hearing the rushed and raised tone from Cesar, the group didn't stop him. All they did was follow him around, trying to understand the uprising emotions he was feeling. Right now, they were trying to recognize his unknown feelings.

'Fuck this deathtrap of the city! It's been tricking us the whole time!'

Cesar mused inwardly as he gradually sped up his pace, trying to reach the borders of the city, wanting to confirm something that he could only accomplish at this moment.

He kept running and running still.

Eventually, the view of the border of the city was close. His group was with him and it would only take a few hundred meters away to leave.

That was their current goal; Leave the city of wheels.

See if all of this was just nothing but a pure imagination and overthinking that Cesar had developed after being in the cursed city.

They were very close.

But right at the heels of its borders, Cesar's pace gently stopped until he took a complete halt once he saw a figure draped in a black priest robe guarding the borders.

The squad on his back also halted once they saw the same figure standing on Cesar's way, its face completely obscured by the veil of darkness that made onlookers unable to peer through the robe.

Seeing the same attire, same demeanor, and same mysterious figure on his front that he hadn't seen in a while, Cesar clicked his tongue and solemnly stated.

"Move aside, heretic,"

The heretic chuckled and retorted evenly, "I knew you would be the only one who will manage to peer through the astonishing power of His greatness. I mean, for some reason, you are related to me, and to our god after all,"

The group who had only heard this for the first time except Quentin couldn't help but frown. Just the way they were talking to each other could only mean they'd met once or twice and were able to strike up a conversation.

They didn't know about it.

"Hey, Quentin…"

Just as they were about to ask him a question, they saw him warily looking at the heretic, slightly nervous at this encounter. His wary gaze was different when encountering an unknown being as it looked like he was more afraid of meeting the figure again.

"Ahh…"

Once they saw that Quentin was acting weird, the group quickly deduced that only he, Cesar, and Vin probably knew the existence of the heretic and hid from everyone else… but probably for a good reason.

Cesar didn't know what was happening in his squad at all. His attention was solely on the heretic, trying to gauge his next plan.

In spite, Cesar replied after a long silence of watching each other, "Don't lump me with the likes of you. Your bullshit god is a fucking trash. If you're going to convince me to come to his church, I might as well kill myself now,"

The heretic chortled, "Kill you? Nah, everyone here is rather useful in being alive than dead. Don't worry, you have your own purpose and I have mine. At the end of the day, it's a matter of who is more useful,"

Unable to contain his confusion any longer, Cesar knew he was losing his mind.

"Ah, I wanted to shoot you right now. Your mouth just keeps spouting bullshit that I just don't know what to think anymore," Cesar grasped the revolver out from his holster before pointing it at the heretic.

As usual, the heretic remained unfazed.

Cesar strongly gripped the handle of his gun before relaxing for a moment and putting it down. He then continued in a more distant tone.

"Can I just leave alone?"

The words that they didn't expect to come from Cesar made them shock. The heretic, watching it all from the sidelines couldn't help but chuckle loudly.

"What? Hahaha! You're going to leave your squad alone in the ditch?" The heretic paused, "Okay if you shoot to them right here and now, I might as well let you leave,"

Cesar's mood instantly changed once he heard the demand coming from the heretic. In an instant before the squad even moved slightly, he was already raising his revolver at Jacqueline's head.

Clicking the barrel, Cesar solemnly spoke, "No hard feelings,"

It was abrupt, it was sudden, and it was a high-pressure situation.

Cesar who appeared to have lost his mind, clicked the trigger of his revolver.