Scavenge. Steal. Sleep.
Everyday was a struggle to survive.
That day wasn't an exception. It was the same.
Albeit... with a few variables. But that day might have been the first time...
The first time I've felt alive.
-------------------
'Huh?....' a few guards questioned as Bast had let out a shout -- the 'I want to escape', still fresh in their minds. Who was he talking to? And why did the air seem... different?
Fwwip!
The coin struck his palm like a falling star -- descending down with an eerie steadiness. Then--
Silence.
Not quiet.
Not muffled.
Silence.
Total.
Absolute.
Wrong.
All the shouts that escaped every guard -- "Stay still!" "Show us your hands!" -- vanished. Even the sounds of Silver's sharp inhale, the sounds of blaring alarms, and the crackles of radios at waists -- they all vanished in an instant.
It was like someone had pulled the sound of the world and muted their surroundings.
Bast's eyes widened.
He couldn't hear his own breathing. He couldn't hear his heartbeat. He couldn't even hear the patters of rain anymore.
Everything looked the same; the guards were still right there, all pointing flashes of lights that dressed his person... but it felt like everything had been dipped underwater.
That's when the text came:
[Outcome Registered]
[Effect: World Muffling/Selective Silencing Activated]
[Impulse Override: Flee]
As soon as the distortion of sound came, every guard seemed to stumble at the loss of their own heartbeats. Had they gone deaf? It seemed like it. Some quickly darted to their ears as some sort of reassurance they had still had them intact. Others had their flashlights wobble, as the loss of sound had seemed to mess with their core mechanics.
'W-What's going on?' they all seemed to question. They all seemed like a shell of their previous hardness... all except one.
Silver.
His teeth ground as he stared in front, his eyes never leaving Bast. Something inside told him, this was definitely his doing, and that he must stop him from escaping. Their had already been enough Relic thefts and unregistered holders already.
For Bast, although sound was void, there was something else hidden beneath the surface. It was subtle at first -- a strange looseness in his wrists, a lightness in knees.
Then it all hit at once.
His limbs stopped feeling like limbs.
'What the--' he thought, as his weight seemed to drop in relevance. His legs felt hollow. His fingers tingled. His chest tightened with a strange, buoyant pressure -- as if even his body had pressed to flee, and it wasn't just a mental or emotional choice.
It had felt like something had uncoiled...
He felt light.
Too light.
Terrifyingly light.
Bast staggered, not because he was weak, but because balance had betrayed him. His feet seemed to want to move on their own -- held back only by the last threads of fear he had held within.
[Duration: 4 seconds]
His breath caught.
A new line of text flooded his vision as his surroundings struggled to adjust. There was no time to think, as his eyes looked up -- and anything he could have voiced out would've been muted.
His pulse felt distant.
'4 seconds?!'
He looked up quickly for a second -- the view of swaying flashlights scattering away from him dizzily. Everything inside him echoed one thing:
'Move! Move! Move!'
Silver's eyes widened right at that moment. It was for the first time that night He was the only still truly watching -- surviving through the dullness.
"Don't--" he tried to voice out, stepping forward.
Too late.
Bast's body fired -- legs kicking off the ground before he'd even consciously given the order. The world blurred as momentum took hold through his spine, and hurled him forward.
'Left!'
It was flash.
Some of the guards hadn't even noticed, still dealing with the effects of their senses muting. The ones who did, tried to voice it out, but couldn't.
The ground felt like it was sliding under him. It wasn't because of the rain -- every step was too light, too sharp, too fast. He weaved between crates and crooked stalls, his movement tight and unnatural, as if something else was charging his muscles for him.
"Fuck...." Silver tried to voice, his lips parting before the clench of teeth took hold.
A half-aware guard swung an arm blindly as Bast shot past.
He was already gone. 'Faster!' he thought, the warmth of the Coin pushing him over the edge.
The thin tunnel at the edge of the Warrens rushed at him like a monster's jaw. His breath hadn't caught up yet. His mind was a few steps slower.
Only his legs moved -- with a type of strength he never had... something that lit a small fire within.
[Duration Remaining: 2.3 seconds]
His heart jumped. He wasn't far enough... so he pushed harder.