Chapter 107: Reality Storms
Omniscient POV
The tree burst backward through time.
Sarah watched in fear as the ancient oak beside her shrank from a mighty giant to a sapling, then to a seed, then to nothing at all. The spot where it had stood for three hundred years now held only empty air and confused birds that had been nesting in trees that no longer existed.
"Everyone stay close!" she yelled to the group of survivors huddled behind her. "Don’t touch anything that’s shimmering!"
Around them, the world had gone completely crazy. The Reality Storm had hit their hiding spot five minutes ago, and since then, the rules of nature seemed to be playing a cruel joke. Gravity worked sideways in some places. Fire burned cold and froze the air. Rain fell upward into a sky that kept changing colors like a broken TV.
Sarah had been a teacher before the Void Walkers came. She’d spent her days helping eight-year-olds learn math and reading. Now she was trying to keep twelve terrified people living in a world where two plus two might equal purple.
"Ms. Sarah," mumbled Tommy, the youngest survivor at only ten years old. "My mom... she’s glowing again."
Sarah’s heart sank. Tommy’s mother, Janet, was caught in a time loop. Every thirty seconds, she would repeat the same moment - reaching for her son’s hand while screaming his name. The loop had been getting lighter each time it repeated, which probably meant something terrible was about to happen.
"It’s okay, sweetheart," Sarah lied, pulling Tommy closer. "We’ll figure this out."
But she had no idea how. When the Reality Storms first started three days ago, they thought it was just another weird thing the Void Walkers did. Then Elder Iris, the old fae woman who’d been helping plan their resistance, explained the horrible truth.
"The barriers between worlds are ripping apart," she’d said with fear in her ancient eyes. "Magic itself is falling down. These storms are reality trying to fix itself, but it doesn’t know how."