The hallway lights had already shifted to emergency red when Lira yanked me out of the office.
"Elias, MOVE!"
Her voice cut through the sirens bleeding into the vents.
The building felt alive — and angry.
THREAT DETECTED, the overhead speakers blared.
FACILITY LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS. DO NOT ATTEMPT EVACUATION.
We ran anyway.
The metal shutters along the corridor began to slide shut, sealing floor by floor.
A cold draft swept across my skin, raising goosebumps. The emergency seals tasted like static and iron — the flavor of the building's fear.
Lira cursed under her breath and grabbed my wrist.
"Mnemosyne's going to shut down the whole floor. We need to get to the east stairwell before the shutters close."
"I can't leave," I gasped.
"The audit—"
"The audit will kill you!" she snapped.
But that wasn't what scared me.
"It'll erase her."
Lira froze for half a heartbeat — long enough for the next shutter to slam closed inches from her face.
"Go!" she shouted.
We sprinted down the corridor.
87%.
The number pulsed against my vision like a second heartbeat — even though the screen was far behind us. I didn't know if it was a hallucination or some bleed-induced overlay in my mind.
87%.
Too close.
My legs burned, breath tearing through my chest, but the fear of losing her pushed me.
The building trembled — servers powering down one by one, systems isolating, gates locking. Mnemosyne was sealing the infection.
The infection being me.
Lira swiped her clearance badge at the stairwell door.
ACCESS DENIED.
LEVEL QUARANTINED.
She swore.
Then turned to me.
"Elias, listen to me. Mnemosyne only quarantines a floor when it detects—"
"Consciousness contamination," I finished.
Her face paled.
"That's not possible. Echoes can't—"
A distant voice cut her off.
"…Elias…"
Ari.
Not from my memory.
Not from inside my mind.
From behind us.
In the corridor.
Lira stiffened, eyes wide.
She heard it too.
"Was that—?" she whispered.
But I didn't answer.
Because the red emergency lights flickered—
and a figure stood at the far end of the hall.
A silhouette.
Slender.
Still.
Hair drifting as if underwater.
White blouse stained with faint static distortion.
Ari.
I staggered back.
"No—no—this isn't real—"
But Lira's grip tightened around my arm.
"Elias," she whispered, "I'm seeing her too."
The figure stepped forward.
Not walking.
Sliding.
As if her feet weren't touching the ground.
My breath locked in my throat.
Ari's head tilted, soft and unnatural.
The lights overhead buzzed violently, choking on static.
Her voice drifted down the hall like something half-formed:
"…Run…"
Lira gasped, "Elias—she's not fully rendered. She's—she's glitching. This is like an Echo fractal—only external—"
"A hallucination," I whispered.
But it wasn't.
Hallucinations don't make the lights short out.
Hallucinations don't leave cold air in their wake.
Hallucinations don't speak in voices the world can hear.
Ari lifted a hand — trembling, distorted — and pointed behind me.
At the stairwell door.
The badge reader blinked green.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Lira's jaw dropped.
"No," she breathed. "No—no—no—she forced the system override."
Before she could say more, Ari's figure flickered violently, pixels tearing across her form. Her face distorted, breaking into slices of old memories — the café, the hospital, sunlight on her smile — looping and slipping out of sync.
It hurt to watch.
"Ari?" I whispered.
Her head snapped toward me—
and for a split second, her face went blank.
Then:
"…Hurry…"
The emergency shutters began lowering along the corridor, slamming toward us.
"Go!" Lira shoved me through the stairwell door. "MOVE!"
We tumbled inside as the shutters closed behind us with a metallic scream.
The stairwell was dark except for a faint emergency glow at the bottom.
We descended fast — too fast — slipping on the metal steps as alarms rattled through the walls.
The lower floors were worse.
Fog hissed from the vents — sterilization gas.
"Containment gas," Lira choked. "Mnemosyne's isolating you like a contagion."
"It thinks Ari's consciousness is a pathogen," I said quietly.
She didn't deny it.
Because it was true.
The smell of jasmine drifted through the sterilization fog.
Not real.
Not possible.
Not here.
My knees buckled for a moment, hand gripping the rail.
"Elias?" Lira called down. "You okay?"
I didn't answer.
Because the fog was thickening into shapes.
Familiar shapes.
Tiny echoes of Ari's silhouette, forming in the mist and dissolving instantly.
Dozens of them.
All whispering my name—
Elias
Elias
Elias
Not loud.
Not frightening.
More like a broken chorus of memories that didn't know they were gone.
I covered my ears.
"Stop—please—stop—"
Lira climbed back up a few steps and grabbed me hard.
"Stay with me! Look at me!"
The fog churned.
Ari's whisper slipped inside my skull:
"They're coming."
Then, for the first time—
"…I'm scared."
Something inside me shattered.
"Ari—"
"Elias, don't respond to her!" Lira ordered.
I shook her off.
"I can't let her fade!"
"She's not fading—she's spreading!" Lira snapped. "Every second you stay connected, the bleed gets worse. Mnemosyne is going to use force if it detects a full crossover!"
"What does that mean?" I demanded.
She swallowed.
"Brain death."
The stairwell vibrated as the upper door locked with a heavy bolt.
Containment robots were flooding the floor above.
"We have to reach the sublevel exit," she said. "Now."
We kept moving.
My vision wavered.
The steps blurred.
The whispers thickened.
At the second landing, something new cut through the noise:
"Neural audit: 98% complete."
Oh god.
I grabbed the rail.
"She'll be gone."
Lira shook her head fiercely.
"Not if we reach the Echo servers first. Elias — your only chance is to cut Mnemosyne's access before it finishes."
My throat dried.
"Where?"
"Sublevel Zero."
A restricted floor.
The memory cold-storage vault.
Dead Echoes.
Corrupted files.
Locked consciousnesses.
A place never meant for the living.
My pulse hammered.
"Lead the way."
We descended the final flight just as the last emergency shutter slammed shut above us, cutting off any retreat.
The sublevel door was ahead — heavy, reinforced, humming with sealed energy.
Lira raised her badge—
—and paused.
"Elias," she whispered, voice trembling. "Before we go any farther… you need to know something."
I forced my scattered mind to focus.
"What?"
She met my eyes.
"I don't think Ari is just bleeding into you."
A pause.
A breath.
A truth she hadn't wanted to speak.
"I think she's trying to get out."