It took only a moment for Nikola to realize where the odor was coming from. Blending in with the smell of rainwater and wet leaves wasn’t a good idea. A strong opposition, a contrast, like a diverse diet; an apt comparison, because the odor was a beast, devouring everything in sight, unrelenting and vicious. It made Nikola’s head spin. The intoxication, or whatever it was, made him instinctively look towards the source, though it was obscured.

He squinted, peering behind a thick curtain of rainwater.

“Must be a drunk”, he reassured himself, “Nothing to see here.”

Yet he stood in place. There was still another layer of obstruction – the alley and its impenetrable darkness. And behind that – truth.

Truth?

What exactly was he trying to accomplish? Was it his curiosity? – no, he denied that possibility. He never was a curious person if it was for a pointless endeavor or if it led to a direct source of danger. This was surely the latter. Certainly, the odor was peculiar, brimming with intensity, something he never encountered before. But that wasn’t enough reason to get shanked by a homeless person in some damp corner of the city. Of course, that can’t have been it.

Yet, strangely, he couldn’t come up with any other reasoning for his action, or perhaps, inaction, to get as far away from there as possible. As if something primordial woke in him, an urge without a name, perplexing and wonderful at the same time, that was enticing him, beckoning.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“This is a turning point in my life”, the thought inexplicably wormed its way into his mind. “After this, everything will change”

He was not himself anymore. Those thoughts were not the Nikola that was molded into being throughout his life. An alien personality took a step forward, then another, then another. The dark barrier had been passed, and he engulfed.

He almost wanted to drop his umbrella, as if it impeded his progress.

A step forward.

How can it be this dark? It was still evening, the sun behind him, it should have illuminated his surroundings. But the matter around him was tangible, barring entry to anything but him. Sentient?

A step forward.

Nikola’s eyes adjusted. Then there must be some light, after all. Light perhaps only for the thing he had to see.

Another step.

There was nothing in front of him. An alleyway continued until it intersected with a street. But below…

Step.

He could finally make out something there, on the dirty concrete. No, it can’t be. His glasses? He touched his face. No, they were there, resting on the bridge of his nose. And there, on the floor. Rims green, slightly bent on one side from when he smothered them, having forgotten that he left them on his bed.

There was something else besides them, a mass, a hill, a pile of junk. Just one more, just one more…

…Step.

In front of Nikola, as if fused with the ground, lay a mangled corpse of a man, its blood diluted in the puddles around it.

His body. Nikola’s body.

He didn’t have the strength to scream.