The elevator was dead. Wires were slashed, panels torn open. Whatever power once kept this place running had been gutted like everything else Dive touched.
"Shit," Harper muttered, slamming the console. "We're trapped."
Andy checked the corners of the room. Cracked lights, leaking pipes, blood already dried on the tiles. "We can't stay here. If he followed us down..."
"He didn't," Kaila said quietly.
Harper turned. "What do you mean?"
Kaila was staring down the corridor. Her eyes didn't blink.
"He's not chasing. He's waiting."
Scene: The Voice in the Walls
The lights flickered. Once. Then again. Then everything went dark.
For a few seconds, there was no sound.
Then a hiss crackled through the ceiling speakers.
At first, it sounded like radio static. Then it turned into a voice.
"Do you know what it feels like... to forget your own heartbeat?"
The voice wasn't human. It was slow. Digital. But beneath the static, there was something almost organic. Like a man trying to scream through wires.
"You love her.
Love is infection.
Infection spreads."
Andy pointed his rifle at the ceiling. "You want to talk now? Huh? Hiding in your vents?"
No reply.
The speakers let out a low glitching buzz. The lights turned red. All of them.
Kaila took a step back. She was shaking.
"You will become me," the voice said.
"You will bleed like I bled.
You will scream into metal."
Then it laughed.
Not a human laugh.
A distortion.
Like a machine trying to mimic one and failing.
Scene: The Loop
They moved quickly, checking doors, trying to find another way up. The air was thick. Stale. Every corridor looked the same.
Harper stopped.
"Didn't we pass this?"
Andy looked around. "No. Different corner."
Kaila walked ahead.
She turned left. Walked through a narrow hallway lined with broken Dive lockers.
Came out on the other side.
Same hallway.
Andy looked confused. "The hell?"
Kaila walked again.
Same hallway.
Again.
Same hallway.
Harper cursed. "We're looping."
The Skate inside Kaila pulsed hard.
Suddenly her head snapped back. Her body dropped to her knees.
She clutched her chest. Eyes rolled white.
Scene: The Visions
She wasn't in the hallway anymore.
She stood in a white room with no ceiling. Paintings hung in the air, floating.
One painting showed her mother, eyes carved out, still smiling.
Another showed Andy, standing in the middle of a mirror maze, each reflection showing him more twisted.
A third painting bled ink. It showed a fetus. Not human. Made of mirrors and flesh and glass teeth. It was crying. Her mother's voice came from inside it.
"You're not ready for love.
Love breaks you.
Beauty ends the world."
Kaila screamed.
Scene: Andy Pulls Her Back
Back in the real world, Kaila collapsed to the ground.
Andy rushed forward and grabbed her face. "Kaila. Hey. Fuck. Breathe. You're here."
She gasped like she'd drowned.
Harper pulled out a flash charge. "If this is mental warfare, I swear to God I'm fragging this whole corridor."
Kaila coughed. She looked at Andy. "I saw it. Skate's showing me things. Things I'm not supposed to understand."
Andy looked shaken. "Then stop looking. Focus on staying alive."
Scene: The Body
They moved into a sealed room. The lights flickered. Something was lying in the center of the floor.
A body.
It looked fresh.
The skin was pale, no eyes, no tongue, ribs cracked open.
But it was breathing.
Harper took a step back. "Nope. No fucking way."
Andy stared. "How's it alive?"
Kaila knelt near it. She didn't touch it.
The chest rose and fell. Slowly. No sound. No pulse.
Then the body opened its mouth. Despite having no tongue, it whispered.
"She brings the end.
She is not the first."
Then it died.
Just like that.
Scene: The Confrontation
As they turned to leave, a blast tore through the far wall.
Draton stepped out of the smoke.
Red eyes glowing. Flesh hanging in strips over metal bones. His arm was still dripping from a kill.
No warning. No build-up.
He was just there.
Andy raised his weapon. "You want a rematch, you freak?"
Draton tilted his head.
"You scream like I screamed."
He pointed at Kaila.
"Give her to me.
She is regression.
She is beauty.
Beauty must burn."
Kaila took a step forward.
"You talk a lot for a corpse."
Draton charged.