Part 3: Nobody's Watching
Corrected Summary:
Riven doesn't train to grow stronger. He moves to think. To clear his head. But something about the way this body reacts bothers him — the way it breathes, the way it recovers. Nothing dramatic. Just small things. Things he can't explain. And for a moment, it feels like the city notices too.
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The lot behind the trainyard was empty.
No foot traffic. No cameras. No one watching.
He climbed the fence without thinking. His hands gripped the cold chain-link. His arms pulled. Legs swung over.
He didn't hesitate. But as soon as his feet hit the ground, he stopped moving.
---
The gravel crunched under his boots. The sky was fading to charcoal, the clouds overhead lit from below by the city's glow.
He didn't have a goal.
Didn't know why he'd come here.
But walking wasn't cutting it anymore.
He needed to move.
---
He dropped to the ground.
Push-ups.
Sit-ups.
Squats.
One after the other. Mechanical.
Nothing extreme. Just movement.
Old habits from a life he didn't wear anymore.
---
He expected it to hurt. He hadn't exercised in days — maybe longer, if this body hadn't before he arrived. The muscles should've cramped. Breath should've caught in his chest.
But they didn't.
It wasn't that he felt strong.
He just… didn't feel slow.
No burn.
No wobble.
No breathless panic in his lungs.
It wasn't a high. Just… muted effort.
Like his body was tuned slightly tighter than it should've been.
He wiped his face. Sweat, but not much.
---
He tried again.
More push-ups.
Slower.
Deeper.
He got winded. That was normal.
But after a short pause, his breath came back too easily. His arms weren't shaky.
Just steady.
---
He sat down against a stack of cracked pallets and stared at the sky.
There was no excitement. No thrill.
He wasn't smiling.
If anything, he looked bothered.
Because something was off.
He couldn't say what. Not in words.
Just the quiet, constant sense that his body wasn't reacting the way it was supposed to.
---
Then it happened again.
The stillness.
Like a pause in the noise around him. The city didn't go quiet — it just stopped noticing him.
A strange hush pressed into the lot like pressure through a straw.
He turned his head sharply.
Looked past the fence.
The street was empty.
No shadows moved.
No lights blinked.
But something felt like it had just been there.
Watching.
---
He stood slowly.
Muscles relaxed. Legs stable.
He didn't feel ready.
He didn't feel confident.
He just felt unsettled.
---
He climbed the fence again, landed without thinking, and disappeared back into the city.
The strangeness in his body didn't follow him.
But it didn't stay behind either.
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