The first thing he remembered… was screaming. His own.
Not loud. Not wild. Just quiet, broken—like something had shattered, but not all the way.
He was sitting upright in a chair he didn't remember sitting in, drenched in flickering blue light. The air smelled like burnt wires and iron. His fingers trembled.
[SYNC RESUME: 8%]
A line of code slid across his vision, blinking red.
[MEMORY CORRUPTED — RESTORING...]
Then, a voice.
A girl's voice.
"You weren't supposed to wake up yet."
He turned his head, slow, like his neck was caught in static. A silhouette stood in the doorway—too small to be a threat, too still to be trusted.
A little girl. Maybe ten. Maybe made of light. Her head peeked into the room… but her eyes—
She was horrified.
Not scared. Horrified. Like whatever she saw wasn't him—but something that never should've come back.
He tried to speak. Nothing came.
[VOICE LOCKED — SYNC INCOMPLETE]
Another flicker. The room pulsed. And then he saw it.
A mirror.
Himself.
Only... not. The eyes were wrong. Too hollow. Glitching at the edges. His reflection smiled before he did. And when it blinked—it didn't use his eyes.
He backed away. The chair screeched. The little girl vanished.
"Kael Sarin," the voice said again. But not hers. His own. But older. Sharper. Colder.
"You gave consent. Don't pretend you forgot."
The door slammed shut behind him.
And the lights went out.
[PROTOCOL RESUMING... 12%]
[SUBJECT ZERO ONLINE]
He didn't scream this time.
Not because he wasn't afraid.
But because something else was already using his voice.