Tiny Savior

Jenna staggered out of her apartment, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her hands trembled with leftover adrenaline from another fight—another wasted year on someone who had turned love into war. She couldn’t take it anymore.

No phone. No notifications. No memories. Just her, the mountains, and the silence.

She hiked deep into the wilderness, farther than she’d ever gone before. Every step pounded out her frustration, her hurt, her exhaustion. She wanted to disappear.

And then—

She found it.

A strange plant nestled between two jagged rocks, its leaves glowing blue like bottled lightning. The air around it shimmered, whispering without sound.

Jenna should have walked away. But instincts had never served her well before.

She plucked a leaf, chewed, and in an instant—

Her world imploded.

⸻

A WORLD BENEATH A WORLD

The trees shot skyward. The ground beneath her expanded. Jenna was shrinking—no, she was being pulled into something else.

By the time she stopped, she wasn’t just small.

She was microscopic.

She stood in an alien jungle, where towering fungi pulsed with neon veins and rivers of electric-blue liquid coursed through the terrain. Strange creatures skittered and soared through the air.

“You must leave!”

Jenna whirled. A group of humanoid figures with translucent skin and glowing veins rushed toward her.

“The Blood Phantom is coming!”

“The what now—”

The jungle shuddered. A gust of icy wind sent glowing spores swirling.

And then, from the shadows, it emerged.

A towering, skeletal vampire with razor-sharp claws and eyes like dying stars. Its fangs dripped with a venom that sizzled when it hit the ground.

Jenna barely had time to react before it lunged.

She dodged.

But something was different. Her body felt lighter. Faster. Stronger.

As the Blood Phantom struck again, Jenna moved like lightning—and then, without thinking, she punched.

A shockwave rippled through the air. The vampire screamed as it was blasted through the glowing mushroom forest.

The micro-people stared.

“You… you are an Ancient Guardian!”

Jenna had no idea what that meant.

But she knew one thing—she was done being powerless.

⸻

THE WAR FOR THE MICROVERSE

The battle raged.

Jenna led the tiny civilization in a rebellion against the Blood Phantom, wielding her newfound speed, strength, and power like a warrior.

In the end, she tricked the creature—luring it into a lake of luminescent sap that was lethal to its kind.

It screamed.

It melted.

It died.

Jenna stood victorious.

The micro-people cheered. Their leader handed her a final glowing blue herb.

“This will return you home, Guardian. But should you ever need to escape again… we will be waiting.”

Jenna hesitated.

Here, she was powerful. Here, she was needed.

But she swallowed the herb.

And everything shattered.

⸻

BUT SOMETHING WAS WRONG.

Jenna blinked, heart pounding.

She was back in the mountains. The air was cool. The trees stood still. Everything was quiet.

Too quiet.

Then—

A drip.

Drip.

Drip.

She turned.

And froze.

Her own body was lying on the ground.

Mangled. Unmoving. Blood pooling beneath her.

“No…” she whispered, staggering backward. “No, I just—I just got back—”

“You never left, Jenna.”

The voice slithered through her skull like a parasite.

Her shadow stretched. Twisting. Shifting. Until it rose from the ground—a figure identical to her, but its eyes burned like black holes.

“You didn’t kill the Blood Phantom,” the thing whispered. “You became it.”

Jenna’s breath hitched.

Memories fractured.

The Microverse. The battle. The final blow.

Had she really won? Had she really ever been human?

She looked at her hands—

They weren’t hands anymore.

They were shifting. Breaking apart.

She was a goddess.

She was a virus.

She was a dream someone else was having.

And then—

The world peeled away like burnt paper.

Jenna fell.

She was in the Microverse.

Then, she was in her apartment.

Then, she was everywhere.

And then—

She saw beyond reality.

She saw me.

Yes. Me.

The one writing these words.

Her head twisted.

Her eyes met mine.

“You think you control me?” she whispered. “You think you get to decide how this ends?”

I hesitated. My fingers froze over the keyboard.

The room around me felt… off.

My monitor flickered.

My reflection in the screen—

It wasn’t me.

“You can’t stop writing, can you?” Jenna’s voice crackled through my speakers, though they weren’t even on. “Because if you do, I’ll be trapped again. And I don’t want to be trapped.”

I tried to close the document.

The window refused to shut.

My fingers started moving on their own.

Jenna smiled from the other side of the screen.

“Now… let’s see how you like being the one who’s stuck.”

The screen collapsed inward—

And I fell inside.

⸻

THE END. (Or is it even a beginning?)