The cell was a coffin of steel and shadows. Chains rattled whenever Frank shifted the sound echoing like mock applause. His wrists burned, shoulders aching from the weight of iron restraints.Above, a dim light flickered the smell of oil and rust coated the air. He had no sense of time minutes bled into hours only one thing kept him conscious: Ella’s scream echoing in his skull.The door groaned, boots clanged, and then Derek’s silhouette filled the frame, tall and precise carrying a leather case in one hand.Derek (smiling): “My favorite janitor you look uncomfortable, shackles don’t suit you, but necessity rarely cares about fashion.”Frank lifted his head, blood crusting one eye.Frank (hoarse, venomous): “You’ll choke on your own arrogance.”Derek crouched, tilting his head.Derek (mocking): “Oh, good still fire in the eyes, i was worried the sea washed it away.”He set the case down snapping it open. Inside lay a slim black tablet, wires snaking from it like veins, symbols pulse

Darkness, Cold seeped into Frank’s bones like poison. His lungs burned, every breath thick with saltwater memory, he jerked awake choking, clawing at the air but he wasn’t drowning not anymore.He lay on a cot, rough sheets scraping his skin the scent of antiseptic biting his nose. The room was dim lit by a single hanging bulb that swayed with every faint vibration in the walls Chains were gone, Shackles gone. He sat up too fast pain ripped through his ribs.Frank (hoarse whisper): “Ella…”Silence, only the faint hum of machines, the drip of water in pipes. His pulse pounded in his temples,footsteps slow deliberate. Frank tensed, fists clenching, sparks tingled along his fingertips uncontrolled, hungry.A shadow appeared in the doorway, the figure stepped inside, face obscured by the dim light, long coat, Steady gait.Frank (snapping): “Where is she?!”The figure didn’t answer, they set a tray down water, bread, something that smelled like broth.Frank (snarling): “Answer me!”He surg

The alarms blared like a chorus of demons. Crimson light stuttered across the abandoned data center, painting Frank’s face in jagged strokes of blood-red. The countdown clock burned on the terminal: 00:59:46Frank’s pulse thundered in his ears. His throat felt raw, his breath harsh as he gripped the edge of the desk. Every instinct screamed that if he didn’t move, didn’t act he would lose everything.But the voice’s last words burrowed deeper than the sirens: The truth isn’t that Ella is alive. The truth is what she’s become.Frank (hoarse, muttering): “What the hell did you mean by that?”No answer, the comms were dead, only static.Frank (snapping at the silence): “You don’t get to disappear on me! Not now!”The static cracked, fizzled then faded altogether, he was alone. Alone with the timer eating seconds of Ella’s life.He slammed his fists against the desk, then yanked the cables free. Sparks spat, the screen blinked out, but the countdown burned on another monitor across the ro

The lab smelled of ozone and iron. Every surface hummed, a low, clinical pulse that seemed to sync with Ella’s breathing. Frank’s boots made no sound on the metal grating; his hands trembled in a way that had nothing to do with the stitches still knotted under his skin.Ella stood in the center of the room like a crucible. The glow under her skin threaded up her arms and into her face, little filaments of light that rose and vanished like fireflies. When she moved, the screens around them flareddata rippling outward, cascading like a waterfall that took the light with it.Frank didn’t know how to approach her. Every step felt like a promise and a threat.“Ella,” he said, voice raw. “Ella, I’m here.”She turned for a single impossible second, he saw the woman he loved not the code, not the experiment. A quiet tilt of the head, the half-smile he remembered. Then the light crept back into her eyes and she looked strangely beautiful, disturbingly other.“Frank,” she said the syllable was