She gasped as consciousness slammed back into her body.
Her back hit the mattress as if gravity had only just remembered her, her fingers clawing into the sheets. The fabric felt real too real and rough against her palms, grounding her in reality.
But her stomach still felt… wrong. Not pain, not injury, just a hollow sensation, like something had passed through her and left a space that shouldn't exist.
Her chest rose and fell unevenly, each breath scraped through her throat, shaky and shallow. The sterile scent of disinfectant filled the air, sharp and clinical, nothing like the damp, suffocating void from her dream.
A faint mechanical hum surrounded her. The air conditioning vents whispered above, and the soft beeping of monitoring equipment pulsed like a second heartbeat in the room.
She stared at the ceiling still white, perfect and untouched. The complete opposite of the endless black water.
"…Just a dream," she whispered, but her voice lacked conviction.
Her fingers trembled as she brought a hand to her chest. Her heartbeat was racing, pounding so hard she felt it in her ears. It didn't feel like fear anymore.
It felt like something inside her exist. The fragments of the dream resurfaced, Kael's calm, emotionless eyes and Dr. Kiara's cheerful smile twisting into something unnatural. Her own reflection smiling back at her like a stranger wearing her face.
She swallowed and turned her head toward the window.
Beyond the reinforced glass, the WGR core tower dominated the skyline. Its lights burned endlessly, layered walls and structures surrounding it like a fortress around a throne. From this distance, it didn't look like a facility.
It looked like a citadel, a place where people decided who was dangerous… and who wasn't allowed to leave.
"They said nothing's wrong with me," she murmured.
She slowly lowered herself back onto the bed, pulling the blanket up to her chest. The sheets felt colder than before, as if the room temperature had dropped when she wasn't looking.
Her eyes grew heavy, but she didn't want to sleep, not after experiencing that dream. Feeling his presence so close, his voice almost affectionate, almost amused.
She clenched her jaw and stared at the ceiling, refusing to close her eyes. For a brief second, the lights flickered, the room dimmed.
And in the corner of her vision, she thought she saw a silhouette standing beside her bed tall, still, watching her like a reflection that didn't belong to her.
She turned her head, but there was nothing just empty space and white walls. Her heart pounded even harder, she pulled the blanket tighter around herself and forced her eyes shut, pretending it was nothing. Pretending she wasn't afraid of falling asleep again, but deep inside her mind, she was scared.
Then morning arrived in WGR quietly.
The lights in Denver's room shifted from dim night mode to a soft artificial sunrise, casting pale gold across the sterile walls. Beyond the window, the city was already awake, distant vehicles gliding through the streets, faint movement in the lower districts, lights shutting off one by one as people began their day.
Denver hadn't slept.
She sat upright on her bed, knees drawn to her chest, staring at the wall. Her eyes were dull and unfocused, faint shadows forming beneath them. She barely blinked, and when she did, it felt delayed like her mind was lagging behind her body.
She couldn't stop hearing the entity's voice.
"You came back."
The door slid open with a quiet hiss, agent Kael stepped inside.
He wore the same black suit, his hair neatly tied back, but his eyes looked sharper this morning and more observant. A tablet rested in his hand, displaying live vitals and mental stability metrics.
He stopped just inside the room scanning her, she didn't react, no complaint, no sarcasm and no attempt to escape either. She wasn't acting like herself, instead, she looked half awake and distant.
"Good morning," he said.
She did not respond.
He walked closer, footsteps silent against the polished floor. "You were scheduled for rest cycle from 23:00 to 06:00. It's almost time for morning procedures, so get yourself ready."
Still nothing, he decided to walk toward her and stood beside her bed, studying her. Denver's pupils were slightly dilated, her breathing was shallow, and her fingers were gripping the blanket tightly, turning her knuckles pale.
"Denver."
She flinched, her head turned slowly, as if the motion required effort. When their eyes met, she didn't glare or pout like usual. She just looked… tired.
"You didn't sleep, did you?" Kael stated.
"…Didn't feel like it." Her voice was flat.
Kael frowned slightly and tapped his tablet. "Your cortisol levels are elevated. Heart rate irregular throughout the night, you were awake the entire time."
She shrugged. "So?"
He let out a quiet sigh. "Lack of sleep can affect the results of your evaluation test."
Her gaze lingered on the tablet for a moment before she looked back at him. Then a faint smirk tugged at her lips.
"Oh no," she muttered. "My super important evaluation test. Tragic."
Kael didn't react.
She clicked her tongue and leaned back against the headboard, though her shoulders slumped the moment she stopped pretending to be relaxed.
"So what?" she continued, voice light. "You're gonna deduct points because I had a bad night? Subject Denver failed to sleep like a good little lab rat, recommend disposal. Is that how it works?"
"You're just exaggerate it." he replied.
"But exaggerating is my coping mechanism." She forced a small laugh, but it came out thin. "You WGR people love mechanisms, right? Diagnose, categorize, isolate. Then slap a number on someone and pretend you understand them."
Her fingers tightened again on the blanket, Kael watched her quietly. "You're deflecting."
"Wow, amazing observation." She rolled her eyes. "Did they teach you that at agent school? Lesson one if the subject jokes, it means they're emotionally unstable. Wow, here a gold star."
He ignored the jab. "You're more volatile when sleep deprived."
She stared at him for a second, then looked away, her voice dropping just a bit.
"Yeah, and I'm more volatile when I sleep just so you know."
Kael paused.
She quickly covered it up with another lazy grin. "So pick your option, escort boy. Crazy awake Denver, or nightmare fuel sleeping Denver."
He didn't smile, but his grip on the tablet tightened. Kael's fingers tapped the screen once, then he turned the tablet so she could see. Lines, graphs, and numbers filled the display most of them steady, controlled.
Except one.
A jagged spike that shot upward like a heartbeat that didn't belong there.
"You entered REM sleep for exactly forty seven seconds," he said. "Then this happened."
Denver squinted. "Mhh... looks normal to me."
"There is a neural activity," Kael corrected. "Your brain produced a signal pattern that doesn't match any known sleep cycle, seizure, panic response, or gift activation record."
She blinked once. "So? Its just weird dream, no big deal."
He lowered the tablet slightly, eyes narrowing.
"Then after that, all your vitals became flat."
Her sarcastic expression faltered.
"…What do you mean?" she asked, her voice quieter.
Kael's tone didn't change. "It means you died. Then, inexplicably, you returned alive seconds later."
She laughed, but the sound was strained. "W-wait… I actually died? Like real dead?"
He didn't answer, he simply turned the tablet fully toward her. A flat line stretched across the screen, then, suddenly, it spiked violently heart rate, brain activity, everything surging back in chaotic waves before slowly stabilizing.
Her breath caught.
"…What the hell."
She stared at the screen, words failing her, while Kael watched her carefully.
"Tell me mis-," he corrected himself mid sentence, his voice precise. "Sir Denver did something happened while you are asleep?"
Denver stared at the tablet for a few seconds longer, then looked away, forcing a scoff.
"Well." she said lightly. "Guess I'm just built different."
Kael didn't react.
She rolled her eyes and leaned back against the bed, pretending the numbers didn't bother her. "It was probably just a nightmare. You people hooked me up to like... six seven machines, of course something's gonna glitch."
He studied her in silence, Denver's fingers were tapping the blanket again. Not rhythmically, not impatiently but nervously.
"You were clinically dead for six point three seconds," Kael said. "And our systems don't glitch like that."
She met his gaze, forcing a crooked grin. "Then congratulations ahaha... I'm a miracle, I guess?."
He didn't return the joke.
Instead, he turned off the tablet and slipped it under his arm. "Describe the dream."
She hesitated for half a beat.
"Nothing special," she lied. "Just… falling. You know, normal nightmare stuff."
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly. "You're a poor liar."
She clicked her tongue. "And you're a worse therapist."
He ignored the jab. "During the spike, your neural patterns synchronized with an external rhythm. Not your heartbeat, not your breathing, but something else."
Her jaw tightened, but she kept her expression casual.
"Maybe I was dreaming of dancing or something," she said. "You're reading too much into it, Agent Kael."
Silence stretched between them as Kael stepped closer, his shadow falling over her bed. "If you experience hallucinations, voices, or recurring imagery, you are required to report it."
She looked away. "Yeah, yeah. If I start hearing ghosts, I'll call you... maybe."
His gaze lingered on her longer than comfortable.
"You will not withhold information from WGR," he said quietly. "That is not a suggestion."
She met his eyes again, her smirk returning. "Then stop asking questions I don't wanna answer."
For a moment, something unreadable passed through his expression, then he straightened.
"Get dressed," he said, tone returning to neutral. "Dr. Kiara is expecting you for the follow up analysis."
Then he turned to leave, just a before he reached for the door he paused.
"…Secrets are not safe here." he coldly said.
Then the door slid shut.