Neo entered first, and the girl with the piercings came in right after him.
The room was simpler than he had expected. Pale walls. A desk. A narrow bed pushed against one side. Cabinets with glass fronts. A monitor resting dark for now. It felt less like an office and more like the kind of place where people got opened up in quieter ways, through questions, scans, and notes written down by strangers who wanted pieces of you without spilling blood.
He had never been inside a clinic before. That kind of thing had cost money, and money had always belonged to something more urgent.
The older man inside turned toward him at once.
