Tiger pressed the palm of his hand against his forehead, eyes squeezed tightly shut against a thudding headache.
"What is happening to me...?" he muttered, grinding his teeth. "I can still hear it. That voice is still echoing in my skull. Argh! Did something break inside my brain?"
Without a sound, reality snapped.
Every beam of light, every color, and every shape vanished into an absolute, suffocating void. Tiger snapped his eyes open, but the darkness didn't change.
"What now?! Why is everything black? How did the whole world just turn dark?!" Rage flared in his chest, his pulse spiking into overdrive. "I feel weird again—worse than before. Why am I only seeing pitch black?!"
He gripped his hair, screaming into the empty space in pure rage: "What is wrong with me?! First I get into a fight, the guy vanishes into thin air, and now total darkness? What is happening? Is my Swiga doing this?! Enough already, just—"
Snap.
The void collapsed. Reality flooded back in an instant. The streets, the light, the surroundings—everything was completely normal again.
Tiger froze, exhaling a trembling, ragged breath. He shut his eyes once more, trying to force his racing heart to slow down. "Seriously... I shouldn't have stepped out of the house today. Every single time I go outside, something completely insane happens." He took a deep breath through his nose. "I'm fine. Nothing happened to me. I'm completely fine."
He slowly cracked an eye open, scanning the quiet area.
"Whatever. I came out here for a reason, so I might as well just do what I came to do." Tiger began walking again, rolling his stiff shoulders. "Stressing out isn't going to fix anything. It just makes you sick. Whatever this glitch is, it'll probably fade away on its own. None of this used to happen before, but lately..."
Mid-stride, the light was torn away again.
Pitch black swallowed him whole. In the suffocating darkness just ahead of him, a faint outline materialized—a silhouette suspended mid-air, hanging limp from a thick rope.
Tiger's breath hitched. He strained his eyes to focus, but the gloom was too thick, the figure too indistinct to recognize.
Before his mind could even register the horror, the hanging figure vanished.
Light snapped back. Normalcy returned as if nothing had happened.
Tiger backed up a step, his breath hitching in his throat. "No, no, no... my mind isn't right. Or it's the Swiga. I'm sick of this. I need to go home right now."
"Hey! Tiger!"
Tiger snapped his head up. Cutting through his mounting dread, a familiar face appeared down the path—Rizard. A wave of genuine relief washed over Tiger. He raised a hand and waved from a distance, the panic in his chest finally subsiding.
Rizard jogged over with an easy smile, holding up a plastic shopping bag containing a few groceries. "What are you doing out here, Tiger? Just taking a walk?"
"Yeah," Tiger said, forcing a calm smile. "Just clearing my head. Where were you headed?"
"Just picked up a few things," Rizard said, gesturing slightly with the bag. "By the way, where do you live around here? Is your place close by?"
"Not a full house, just an apartment," Tiger replied. "Want to come over and check it out?"
Rizard chuckled, shaking his head. "I don't really have the time right now. Maybe next time if I'm free, I'll drop by to see it."
"Sure, sounds good."
"Actually," Rizard paused, leaning in slightly, "could you at least walk me part of the way and show me the route toward your place from here? Just in case I decide to swing by tomorrow or something."
Tiger nodded without a second thought, gesturing toward the street ahead. "Sure, no problem at all. Follow me, it's straight down this way."