KAII'd been sitting there for two hours. Holding her hand. Talking to her about nothing. About Mira's test scores. About the weather. About anything except the fact that I'd killed three people and was waiting for the system to tell me to kill a fourth.Then it appeared.[KIILING LEVEL 15 ACHIEVED][NEW MISSION AVAILABLE][TARGET: DETECTIVE MALIA YUN]I stared at the text. Read it three times to make sure I wasn't seeing it wrong.Detective.They wanted me to kill a cop.I pulled up the full file with shaking hands.[TARGET PROFILE]Name: Malia YunAge: 34Occupation: Homicide Detective, Metro Police DepartmentLocation: 847 Riverside Drive, Apt 4BCrime: [REDACTED - ABOVE YOUR CLEARANCE]Deadline: 62 HoursThat stopped me cold.Redacted. Above my clearance.Every other target had their crimes listed. Victor Ramsey - negligent homicide, tenant abuse. David Waters - aiding and abetting, corruption. Marcus Greene - embezzlement, money laundering.But Detective Malia Yun? Nothing. Just

KAIThe other detective said something I couldn't quite hear. Detective Yun nodded. Made notes."—if there's a serial killer operating, we need to find them before they kill again—"Serial killer.That's what I was. What I'd become.And Detective Malia Yun was hunting me.I sat in Ricky's car across from the diner. Watching her work. Watching her try to find me.Trying to stop me from killing again.She was the good guy. The hero of this story.And I was the monster she was hunting.The Seven wanted her dead because she was close. Because she might figure it out. Might expose their operation, my operation and now I have to kill her to stop her from exposing me? No, no no, this was not how this shit was supposed to go. I can't kill her based on that alone, how can I save her from myself and from them? I know exactly wha the consquence of my disobedience was and with this detective a part of me still insisted on taking the risk. If I do that now, who or what would the seven be taking fr

KAII went out around ten because staying in that apartment alone with my thoughts was going to drive me insane.I didn't have a destination. Just walked. Let my feet take me wherever. The neighbourhood was doing its usual morning thing. People heading to work. Kids being walked to school. The halal cart on the corner doing steady business, the smell of something good drifting down the block. Normal city sounds. Buses and horns and someone's music playing too loud from a window above.I walked for almost an hour before I realized where my feet had taken me.Detective Yun's mother's street.I stopped at the corner. Looked down the block at the row of houses. Neat. Quiet. The kind of street where people knew their neighbours. Potted plants on front steps. One house had a little American flag by the door. Another had wind chimes.I didn't know why I'd come here. Habit, maybe. I'd spent so much time the last week following Detective Yun's routine that parts of it had embedded themselves i

KAII stared at those three words for so long they stopped making sense.She's not breathing.Unknown number. No name. No explanation. Just those three words sitting on my screen in the dark of my apartment like a grenade with the pin already pulled.My brain did this thing where it just refused to process it. Like it looked at the message and went: no. Not that. Pick something else to understand.She's not breathing.My mother.I was on my feet before I made the decision to stand. Grabbing my keys off the counter. Phone in my hand. Jacket left behind because there was no time, no thought, nothing in my head except those three words and the door and the stairs and get there get there get there.I don't remember the drive to the hospital.I remember traffic lights. I remember running one of them. I remember the parking lot, leaving the car crooked across two spaces and not caring. I remember the automatic doors of the hospital entrance sliding open and the smell hitting me—that specifi

KAIThe white void again.No transition. No warning. One second I was in my mother's room and the next second I was here. The white nothingness in every direction. The flat, infinite nothing.The seven figures were already there. Waiting. Like they'd been waiting the whole time. Like they knew exactly how long it would take before I broke.I stood in front of them and I was still crying. That was the humiliating part. I hadn't had time to stop. My face was wet and my hands were still shaking and I was standing in front of seven faceless beings who controlled my life and I couldn't even pull myself together.I didn't try to.The Empress spoke first. Center position. That weight in her voice that wasn't volume, just presence."That," she said, "is your reality if you choose to disobey us."I didn't answer."Do you understand now, Kai?" She tilted her head. Unhurried. Completely calm. Like she was explaining something simple to someone slow. "We have been very patient with you. We have w