RIFT & REQUIEM – BOOK ONE: FRACTURE

PROLOGUE

The first time Jalen erased Chas, it didn’t work.

For exactly 3.2 seconds, Chas flickered out of existence. No air displaced where he once stood, no footprints remained in the dirt. Even the memory of him wavered in Jalen’s mind, like a skipped note in a song. But then—he came back.

Chas stood there, smirking, hands in his pockets. “That all you got?”

Jalen clenched his fist, the air around him warping, sound fading into absolute silence. “You’re not supposed to exist anymore.”

Chas tilted his head. “Guess I missed the memo.” And then—he was gone.

Not dead. Not erased. Just… somewhere else.

And that was when Jalen knew—this wouldn’t be easy.

---

CHAPTER ONE: THE MAN WHO SHOULDN’T EXIST

Jalen stepped through the burning wreckage of New Haven. The city wasn’t supposed to look like this. It wasn’t supposed to exist at all.

Thirty-six hours ago, he had erased this place. Wiped it clean from history, its buildings swallowed into the void, its people scattered into the whispers of time. There was no record, no memory. It should have been gone.

And yet, here it was—standing. Alive.

Because of him.

Jalen turned the corner, his coat brushing against scorched brick. A single neon sign flickered above a diner, casting red light onto the street.

Inside, waiting in a booth like this was just another Friday night, was Chas.

Feet kicked up, drink in hand, grinning like he hadn’t just undone an entire erasure.

Jalen didn’t hesitate. He stepped forward, his hand already reaching for Chas’s throat. The moment he touched him, it would be over.

But in the blink of an eye—no, faster than that—Chas wasn’t there anymore. The drink sat in mid-air for a fraction of a second before gravity remembered it existed and sent it crashing to the floor.

Jalen exhaled. “You’re really gonna make me chase you again?”

A voice whispered from behind him, far too close. “You make it sound like you ever catch me.”

Jalen spun, his fingers brushing against Chas’s sleeve. Just for a second. Just enough for the faintest bit of reality to distort, for the fabric to flicker like static.

And then—gone.

Chas was across the room now, perched on the counter, grinning like he hadn’t just dodged the thing that should have erased him from history. “C’mon, J. You know the rules by now. You erase, I rewrite. We could do this forever.”

Jalen narrowed his eyes. “That’s the problem.”

He launched forward. This time, faster—more calculated. But Chas was already slipping through space, bending light, dodging the unavoidable.

Because nothing was unavoidable for him.

Jalen’s fingertips grazed his shoulder. The moment stretched—just enough.

Chas’s smirk faltered. He stumbled, the air around him distorting as his existence flickered between timelines.

Jalen saw it—the hesitation. The briefest moment where Chas wasn’t sure if he could escape.

Jalen pressed forward, power surging through his hands. Just one touch. That’s all it would take.

But then—Chas disappeared.

Not a teleport. Not a dodge.

He rewound himself.

Jalen felt it—the warping of cause and effect. Chas had jumped back a few seconds, erasing the mistake before it even happened.

And then, standing by the door like none of that had just occurred, Chas rolled his shoulders. “Whew. That was close.”

Jalen’s jaw clenched. “You can’t keep running forever.”

Chas met his gaze, for once, without a smirk. “I know.”

And then, before Jalen could react—he was gone.

---

CHAPTER TWO: THE RIPPLE EFFECT

Chas landed hard, skidding across the rooftop as the timeline stabilized around him. His hands were shaking.

That was too close.

For the first time in years, Jalen had almost won.

Chas exhaled, staring up at the broken sky above. A faint crack ran through the stars—evidence of all the things they’d undone, all the loops they’d stretched too thin. The universe wasn’t happy.

Too bad.

Jalen would never stop. Chas knew that. His whole existence was built on order, on fixing things, on erasing mistakes.

And to Jalen, Chas was the biggest mistake of all.

But Chas wasn’t planning to lose. Not now. Not ever.

Because Jalen thought he understood the rules. But what he didn’t know—what he could never know—was that Chas had seen the ending.

And he was going to rewrite it.

---

TO BE CONTINUED…

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***