The dwindling rays of sunlight pierced through the overarching buildings of Keoton city and directly into Jerome's eyes, who squinted in response. He always enjoyed this time of day, just before all the blinding neon lights came on but just enough lighting to make the city look almost picturesque. Even if it was just for a bit. As he stared at the buildings, contemplating if he should take a photo or not, a loud ding broke his attention, the signal that his tram home was arriving. As it did, Jerome slowly stood up from his seat, others around him taking a slight glance at him before turning away. Slightly more self conscious now, Jerome turned the music up louder in his headphones, trying to focus on the ground below him rather than the people around him. The tram was one of the newer transportation systems in the city but it was also the most popular by far, especially since the recent bus strikes. Getting on the tram, he continued to look at the floor, the only thing that wouldn’t judge or look at him with beady, judgy eyes. 

 It was a stupid thought, he knew. Why would anyone look or care about some random stranger on a train? He knew it was stupid but he couldn’t get the feeling of dread in his stomach everytime he made accidental eye contact with another person, he just couldn’t handle it. The only way he could get around that inherent awkwardness was to just look down at the floor or out a window, no interaction with strangers was better than one. Finding a corner seat, he immediately pulled out his phone, scrolling through his social media. After a few memes, a news post about the recent killings in town caught his eye and he gripped his phone tighter. Over the past few weeks, at least 15 people had been killed in suspected Aberrant attacks across the sector Jerome lived in but it hadn’t been caught yet. Aberrants were something that Jerome still had a hard time understanding, creatures that came from seemingly nowhere appeared across the world, each Nation facing an entirely different species. Despite the devastation that they wreaked upon the world, humanity eventually adapted and began to take back their world. Now most Aberrants are treated like serial killers, with new stories like these churned out almost weekly. Despite that, Jerome still felt anxious about the entire thing, the threat of seeing an Aberrant on the loose in his general area made him shiver. As he continued to read, he could feel a strong gaze searing into his head, a strong sense of despair coming over him. Unlike the other stares he had gotten, which were usually ones of shock, this one felt malicious in intent, which just made Jerome break out into a cold sweat. He could feel his heart getting squeezed, which forced him to take deeper breaths in an attempt to calm down. Looking up quickly he saw the source of the gaze; staring directly at him was a salesman with a dark blue blazer and suit that looked directly out of some office drama show. His hair was brown and slicked back with a fake, plastered-on smile but what almost made Jerome yelp was the man's eyes, they looked like the ones zombies would have in some of the crappy dramas Jerome used to watch, with an almost milky white dead stare directed purely at him. The two held their gaze for what seemed like hours until the automated voice announced Jerome's stop, which gave him the excuse to break eye contact. He almost ran out of the tram once it stopped, looking around for the salesman but he couldn’t find him, either in the tram or at the stop. 

Breathing a sigh of relief Jerome started to make his way home, winding through the crowded streets of downtown, weaving through numerous clumps of people. The beautiful sunlight was now replaced with the gross neon lights of downtown Keoton, with a new promotion for a drink or store on every corner. Despite that he was now a few minutes away from the tram stop, the anxious feeling hadn’t gone away, he felt like he could still feel that gaze coming from everywhere. He continued to make quick glances around him until he saw a glimpse of the salesman making his way down a back alley behind him. He didn’t stay to try and confirm what he saw, briskly making his way back to his apartment but as he tried to move his legs, they wouldn’t budge. None of his body parts could move except for his eyes as he looked around to see everything around him completely frozen, from the other strangers to even the cars passing by. The anxious feeling came back with a vengeance as his mind started to spiral but he tried to keep himself calm with things like, ‘This can’t be real’, ‘This is all some hallucination’, but they only delayed the inevitable. 

Before his mind could spiral further, a loud crack! resounded as an armored truck burst through the bubble, screeching to a halt as the bubble closed behind it. Two men exited the vehicle and Jerome immediately recognized them as the Aberrant Execution Force, a government force that consisted of the only people who could hunt against the Aberrants. People idolized the A.E.F for their heroics but Jerome couldn’t care less for them or, at least was told not to. He also couldn’t imagine going out on patrols and possibly sacrificing your life for complete strangers, the thought would’ve made his body shiver if it could move. As he was deep in thought, the two men walked closer to him which gave him a better look of the two. One looked like the very definition of gentleman, at least from his face. He looked to be in his mid 20’s, with a perfectly trimmed fashionable middle part, his hair a seemingly bleached grey. He had an incredibly sharp gaze that was surveying the scene, a slightly annoyed look emerging on his face. “Are you quite certain that Aberrant is roaming about here? The ping in this sector doesn’t seem close to an E.B.” 

“Well the miss back at IT said it was so I believe her!” A brash country accent emanated from the other man, who had the exact opposite look from the gentleman. He had curly bright red hair that stuck out under a wide brimmed cowboy hat and had a giant unkempt beard as well, with little bits of food littered across it. Other than their facial features, Jerome also noticed some other things about them, particularly their armor and weapons. The suits they wore had a sleek metallic structure and seemed to support the body types of the two men, with each model supporting the men and their supposed fighting style, with a smaller more agile model for the gentleman and a more armor heavy model for the Texan. The weapons matched their armor as the two wielded a pair of daggers and a gigantic warhammer respectively, each glowing a faint ethereal blue. The two continued to chatter about their work as they moved behind Jerome and into the back alley he had seen the salesman go down earlier. It didn’t take him long to connect and his eyes grew wider as he realized “The salesman was an Aberrant!” A deep feeling suddenly welled up inside of him, the humans' fight or flight response and every fiber of his being was telling him to run. Despite the impossibility of it, Jerome tried to force his body to take a step, to do anything rather than sit and wait for his probable death. After a strenuous few moments, one of his legs finally moved forward and he fell face first onto the ground, breaking through what felt like a brick wall. He winced at the pain but quickly rolled over to the side to try and behind a giant garbage bin, just in time too as he saw a body fly out of the back alley, slamming into the side of a car. The two men were close behind, their weapons now glowing a stronger blue as they pointed them towards the salesman. 

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 “Why d’ya keep running ya darn Aberrant?! Just let me kill you already!” With an exaggerated motion, the Texan swung his Warhammer down onto the asphalt, making sure not to hit any of the frozen people. As it made contact a blue light exploded from it, the impact flinging chunks of asphalt into the air with the same blue light surrounding them. The light seemed to have a similar effect as the time bubble as the chunks seemed to slow down, allowing for the Texan to make a grand swing of his weapon, hurling the chunks directly towards the downed Aberrant. With some sickening crunches, it quickly realigned itself and jumped out of the first two projectiles but the third one made direct contact with its shoulder and it hit the ground with a sickening thud. As it writhed around, an inhuman screech emanated from its gaping mouth, a robotic voice soon following it.

 “Why do you attack one of your own? Do I not act like a human, do I not look like one?” The voice was met with silence as the men only gripped their weapons tighter, the gentleman seemingly getting ready for another attack. After another few seconds, the screeching stopped and the Aberrants body went limp, a heavy silence falling over the street once again. Jerome breathed a sigh of relief and he could see the gentleman slightly lower his guard but as he did, the body suddenly lurched upwards, the once human body changing into something utterly horrifying to Jerome. He could only watch in terror as he saw flesh tear and bones crack and rearrange, the salesman slowly turning into what he could only describe as a fleshy dog. Its body had grown twice in size and bright red flesh swarmed around its body, the Aberrant now bearing a set of gigantic razor sharp teeth. It now towered over the two A.E.F members, two sets of the many swarming eyes on its body locking onto them. The Aberrant charged forward, the Texan meeting it with a clean strike to the left side of its jaw, slamming it right in front of Jeromes hiding spot. The Aberrant struggled to get up but as it did, one of its many eyes spotted Jerome's figure, quickly changing its focus. Without a moment to lose, he forced himself to get the hell out of there, running directly into the road, the Aberrant close behind

“How the hell did someone get past the Isolation Zone?!” The Texan yelled but the gentleman didn’t respond, instead he gripped his daggers tighter and bolted towards the Aberrant. As he did, a concentration of dark red emanated from the lower part of his suit which gave more power towards his legs, giving him an extreme boost as he jumped high above the creature. Daggers in hand he dove towards the creature who was still locked onto Jerome, plunging his daggers into a set of its eyes with a sickening squelch. Blue light emanated from the contact and the Aberrant let out an inhuman howl, thrashing and slamming its tail around, knocking around cars and frozen pedestrians like dolls. Jerome put his hand up in a guard motion as the tail slammed into him, bashing him directly into a wall. He could hear a loud crack as he made contact, all the air being pushed from his lungs. As Jerome once again fell face first into the ground, gasping for air he could see the Texan running towards the thrashing beast, the blue light surrounding his warhammer growing even brighter now.

“NOW, BUCK! DO IT!” The gentleman yelled as he jumped away from the Aberrant, Buck grunting in response as with one swift motion, he leaped into the air and brought his hammer down directly onto the head of the beast. As its head was slammed into the asphalt, blue light quickly coursed throughout the Aberrants body, its body suddenly exploding into a thousand fleshy bits that rained down across the street. Putting away their weapons, the two men breathed a sigh of relief, the Texan slamming the back of the gentleman with a loud guffaw. Jerome was slowly regaining his breath, slowly starting to feel relieved until out of the corner of his eye he could see something… wriggling? As he turned his head, he realized that he had been too slow as what seemed to be a fleshy worm lunged towards him, crawling into one of his ears. He could feel the slimy worm crawl deeper into his ear as he frantically tried to do anything to get it out of his ear but nothing worked. As tears started to stream down his face, in a last ditch effort he called out towards the two men but just as he did, a searing pain rang throughout his body. The last thing he saw before passing out was the gentleman jogging over to him, hand outstretched.