Read a Sample
Here’s an excerpt from the opening of Quantum Shadow:
New York, Central Park – 2025
He stood barefoot, dressed in a thin linen tunic, his gaze distant and unfocused, as if he had no idea where he was. The few passersby who happened to be in Central Park on that cold November morning paid him little attention. New Yorkers were used to all kinds of eccentrics – exhibitionists, drifters, and people from the bottom of society’s ladder.
He turned around slowly, searching for something familiar to anchor himself to, but everything seemed strange and unreal. The first thing he noticed was how different he looked from everyone else – both in clothing and in manner. The others walked briskly, certain of their destination, wrapped in curious but obviously warm garments.
He didn’t recognize the buildings around the park, nor the strange moving objects gliding at their base. The city’s noise confused him – it was as if the entire world was humming around him. Only the park, with its magnificent rows of trees, the small lake, and the arched bridge, offered a sense of meaning.
He didn’t know how he had ended up in this strange place. He couldn’t remember anything. The absurdity of the situation was slowly sinking in, and with it came a creeping sense of fear, tightening his chest and seeping into his bones. He remembered nothing – not his name, not who he was, not where he had come from.
Panicked, he ran toward a couple walking from the opposite direction and anxiously asked them where he was and what the name of this city was. The man and woman stared at him, startled, unable to understand a word from the torrent of sounds that came from his mouth. They skirted around him across the grass, glancing back now and then, wary, making sure he wasn’t following.
After several failed attempts to speak to passersby, he sat down on a nearby bench and buried his face in his hands. He wondered what was happening to him. Was this just a dream that would soon fade away – a nightmare that felt too real? The chill that crept through his body reminded him that this was no dream. He was shivering, partly from the unpleasant drizzle that had begun to fall, partly from the despair closing in on him. Hunger and thirst began to stir inside him. He sat there, alone and abandoned, in a city of millions whose very name he didn’t know.
A sudden voice pulled him from his thoughts. Someone was speaking – to him, it seemed. He opened his hands and raised his head. Before him stood a tall man in some kind of uniform, speaking words he couldn’t understand. The man’s posture was firm, authoritative, yet not hostile.
He tried to explain his desperate situation, the fact that he remembered nothing at all. But when he saw the puzzled look on the uniformed man’s face, he realized the truth – he wasn’t being understood. Reality was crueler than fear itself.
He sank back onto the bench, covered his face, and began to sob quietly, trembling in the cold.