The child-sized silhouette stepped into the thin beam of Lira's trembling flashlight.
But it wasn't a child.
Not really.
Its proportions were wrong—
arms too long, legs too thin, head tilted at an angle that felt almost curious.
It wore no face.
Just shifting shadow.
But when it opened its mouth—
my voice came out.
Calm.
Soft.
Too familiar.
"Do you remember?"
My throat closed.
Lira stepped in front of me with her disruptor held tight.
"Stay behind me. That is NOT part of the Swarm. It's something else."
The silhouette cocked its head.
"She remembers. You don't."
Ari, barely conscious in my arms, flinched violently.
"Elias… don't listen… don't…"
Lira hissed, "Ari, what is it? What is that thing?"
Ari's voice was a broken whisper of static.
"A… leftover. Something Mnemosyne erased, but didn't finish erasing. A memory that tried to stay alive."
The shadow leaned in close, feet silent on the metal floor.
"He belonged to me."
A cold shiver crawled across my spine.
"I—I don't know you," I whispered.
Its head twitched to the side sharply.
"You did."
Lira grabbed my shoulder hard.
"Elias. Think. Mnemosyne never hires Archivists without deep background checks. They erased something from you. Something they thought would interfere."
The tapping sound resumed.
Not footsteps.
A repetitive sound.
Tap.
Tap.
The entity tapping its finger against its own temple.
A gesture of memory.
Ari whimpered—her glow dimming to almost nothing.
"Don't… open to it… Elias…"
But the shadow stepped closer.
"Let me show you."
And it reached out a hand.
Not touching me—
But touching my mind.
A spike of ice shot through my skull.
A memory slammed into me—
so fast, so violent, I nearly collapsed.
A room.
White walls.
A smell of antiseptic.
Someone crying beside me.
A woman's voice whispering "You have to forget—please—forget—"
And then—
That memory ripped away.
Ari screamed.
Lira shouted, "Elias, STOP! Don't let it in!"
But the shadow's hand pressed unseen against my forehead.
"You knew me before Ari," it whispered.
"Before the vault. Before Mnemosyne."
"No—" I gasped, clutching my head.
"They took me from you."
The corridor flickered.
The shadow's outline pulsed, growing taller.
Ari convulsed in my arms, her body glitching into three copies at once.
Lira's voice shook with terror.
"The Swarm is trying to break into the blind corridor. This thing—this MEMORY—it's trying to anchor itself first!"
A pounding erupted on the corridor door behind us.
Metal screaming.
Voices overlapping in a single broken chant.
ELIAS
ELIAS
LET US IN
OPEN
OPEN OPEN—
My vision blurred.
The shadow leaned close, its form rippling like an old film reel.
"Do you remember what you did?"
My chest tightened as another fragment hit me.
Someone holding my hand.
Rain.
An accident.
Blood on my shirt.
A woman being dragged away screaming—
My name.
Screaming my name—
Lira's voice pierced the haze:
"Elias, Mnemosyne classified you as a clean slate. But your neural pattern showed trauma. Someone made sure you wouldn't remember."
Ari grabbed my sleeve, her hand half-phased through my skin.
"Don't let it in," she whispered desperately.
"That's not a memory. That's a wound."
The shadow's voice deepened—layered, older, distorted.
"She replaced me."
Ari stiffened as if stabbed.
The entity stepped closer, glitching between a tall silhouette and the child-sized one.
Its limbs cracked into new shapes.
Its voice multiplied.
"She is not yours."
"She is a parasite."
"She crawled through your mind—"
"—and left me behind—"
Ari's eyes filled with horror.
"No," she whispered. "Elias, don't listen—it's using your bleed—it's wearing your pain—"
But the shadow thundered:
"LET ME BACK IN."
A wave of pressure hit me—like my skull was splitting.
I fell to my knees.
Memories I didn't have begun pouring into me like ice water:
A hospital bed.
A buzzing scanner.
A hand slipping from mine.
A voice whispering "You'll forget me."
A cry in the dark—
My own.
My own.
My own—
Ari's glow—her fragile, flickering glow—suddenly flared.
"No!" she screamed.
She threw herself between me and the shadow, her form glitching violently from the strain.
Golden light burst outward.
The shadow reeled back, shrieking in distorted feedback.
"YOU'RE NOT REAL—" Ari cried.
"NEITHER ARE YOU—" the shadow roared back.
And then—
everything broke.
The corridor lights died.
The door behind us buckled inward.
The Swarm clawed at the edge of the blind zone.
Ari collapsed, her light sputtering.
The shadow dissolved into swirling black static—
but not gone.
Never gone.
And in the dark, its final whisper curled around my ear:
"I will show you what happened.
Piece by piece."