The Forgotten Future

A New Year

By: Wolfgang Ausserbauer

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The heavy and dark fog rolled in from the Channel like it had a secret to confess. Normandy had seen its share of storms, invasions, and drunken tourists, but this fog… this one carried a hum. A low, electric murmur that vibrated in the bones of the old coastal town’s residents and made the gulls fall silent mid‑squawk.
DocWolf felt it before he heard it. A pressure behind the eyes. A memory that wasn’t his.
He stood on the warped planks of the pier, coat collar turned up against the cold, watching the water ripple in patterns that defied the wind. The sea was supposed to move in waves. Tonight, it pulsed — like something beneath it was breathing.
“Not again,” he muttered.
The Archive had been quiet for months. Blessedly quiet. No echoes slipping through the cracks, no phantom futures whispering in his sleep, no half‑formed entities dripping seawater on his kitchen floor. He’d almost convinced himself he could have a normal life.
Then the fog arrived.
A shape emerged from it — first a shimmer, then a silhouette, then a woman made of water and regret. Fabienne. Her outline flickered like a bad hologram, her hair floating as if she were still submerged in the ocean she came from.
“You’re leaking,” DocWolf said.
“I’m aware, I just came out of the water,” she replied, voice bubbling at the edges. “We have a problem.”
“Of course we do.”
She stepped closer, leaving wet footprints that evaporated into steam. “The Archive is opening on its own.”
DocWolf’s stomach tightened. “That’s impossible.”
“Tell that to the cat.”
He blinked. “Which cat?”
“The one that turned into a bartender and asked why you missed your anniversary.”
DocWolf closed his eyes. “I’ve never been married.”
Fabienne gave him a look that suggested the universe disagreed.
“And there’s something else,” she added softly. “The Breach woke up.”
A cold wind swept across the pier. Somewhere in the fog, a small telepathic voice whimpered like a frightened child.
Wolf… something’s wrong…
DocWolf exhaled through his teeth.
The quiet days were over.