The silence after the broadcast wasn't peace. It was containment. The air was thick, like it had learned to hold its breath.
Elias sat slumped against a rusted locker, blood still trickling from his nose. His skin had a grey tint, like something inside him had drained the light out.
Kiran paced, fingers twitching. Maya hadn't spoken in ten full minutes, her eyes fixed to where the screen once was. Dev, for once, looked shaken — not just worn, but haunted.
> "What the hell was that?" Kiran's voice cracked. "That was no video. That… thing—that code—it looked at us! It called the reader too! What kind of sick project does that?"
Dev didn't answer at first. Then he knelt beside Elias, checked his pulse.
> "It was File Omega," he said. "The last classified file created before everything went dark in 2042. Soul indexing failed. What you saw was a breach. You were exposed to the residual echo of a corrupted consciousness. Something not dead. Not alive. Stored."
> "Stored?" Maya whispered. "Like… in the code?"
Dev nodded.
> "You just ran a conscious fragment—a parasitic echo made from a mind that shouldn't have existed. And now it knows all of us. Including… the one reading."
Everyone froze again.
Elias stirred. His voice was low. Flat.
> "It wasn't just showing us something. It was looking. It was hunting."
He blinked. Hard.
> "I saw myself. But not me. Not the me now—one of the versions. Fragmented. Wearing a coat. Lab ID… blank. No eyes. Just wires where memory should be."
Kiran scoffed, a sharp sound more fear than defiance.
> "And we're supposed to just accept that this is our life now? I was working on a dumb thesis paper. I didn't sign up to be dissected by ghost code and stitched into meat dolls!"
He turned to Elias, furious.
> "You did this. If you hadn't opened that file—"
> "I didn't ask to be made like this!" Elias snapped, suddenly. "Do you think I wanted to find out I'm some shattered experiment from a project no one was supposed to survive?"
His eyes locked onto Kiran's.
> "Don't you see? I wasn't brought here—I was returned."
The lights flickered.
Then buzzed.
Then... something in the walls screamed.
It was a high-pitched mechanical tone—modulated like an old fax machine, but behind it was the unmistakable sound of a child crying. The building shuddered once. Concrete flaked from the ceiling.
> "Guys," Maya whispered. "It's not over. Look."
A slot had opened in the floor — like a card reader but ancient, as if built for bone. Next to
it, a flickering panel glowed with words scrawled like graffiti:
Ω-BINDING: CONFIRMED
1/4 Keys Engaged
USER: ELIAS.EXE
CODE REQUIRES: VERIFICATION – FRACTAL DECIPHERING
INFECTION SPREAD: 8%
READERS BOUND: 1
They all stared at the last line.
Kiran's voice broke.
> "Read… readers bound? What the hell does that mean?"
Dev turned toward the panel slowly. His voice was quiet.
> "It means whoever read the file is now… part of the equation. The reader is no longer just an observer. They're a witness. Witnesses are tagged."
> "You mean… the file tagged everyone who read this?"
Dev nodded grimly.
> "And witnesses must be processed."
Maya turned to Elias.
> "You said you saw a code. A string. When it played—what was it?"
Elias wiped the blood from his mouth.
> "I didn't hear a code. I remembered it. In a voice that sounded like my mother but wasn't her. It whispered numbers as I slept."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
> "I wrote it down last night. In my dream. I thought I was just losing it."
He held it out.
> C1-R0 / E-13 / N8-X / ΔΔΔΔ
Kiran stepped forward, reading the last part aloud.
> "Double-delta… delta-delta… four deltas?"
Maya went pale.
> "No. Not deltas. Symbol for divergence. Four divergences. Four versions."
Elias backed away from the machine.
> "I think we've only seen one."
And then the air ripped open behind them — not a door, not a portal — just absence, like a god had erased a chunk of reality. A black void leaking flesh-colored static and the sound of chewing.
> "RUN!" Dev shouted.
From within the void stepped something that wore a face made of mirrors.
And behind its mouth… you saw yourself reading this chapter.
Bleeding.
Smiling.
Reaching.
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