ECHOES OF A SIGNATURE

The Passenger

Chapter 8: The Passenger

He couldn’t move.

Couldn’t speak.

Couldn’t scream.

Jason lay strapped to the hospital bed, his vision flickering, heart monitor thudding like a countdown to something he couldn’t stop.

Reyes and Emily were inches away, speaking in hushed tones.

“He’s still in shock,” Reyes said. “He walked into headquarters with a knife, blood on his shirt. Said nothing. Then collapsed.”

Emily’s voice cracked. “He looked at me like… like I wasn’t real. Like he didn’t recognize me.”

Jason blinked rapidly.

He did recognize her.

But it was like watching through a foggy window. Like someone else was at the wheel.

His own body felt distant. Remote.

He tried to shout.

Nothing came.

Inside Jason’s Mind (Black Room)

He stood in a pitch-black space. A mirror hovered in front of him.

But the reflection didn’t move.

It stared back. Smiling. Confident.

The Architect.

“You’ve kept the seat warm, Jason,” it said. “But it’s time to hand over the keys.”

Jason clenched his fists. “Get out of my head.”

The Architect tilted its head. “You think you still own it?”

The mirror expanded—became a screen—flickering with memories.

Jason saw himself at age 9, crying in the corner of his room, whispering:

“I wish I were stronger. I wish someone else could make it stop.”

He’d been talking to no one.

Or so he thought.

The Architect whispered now:

“You created me with that wish. I’ve just been... driving ever since.”

Jason pounded on the glass. “I’m done letting you win.”

“No, Jason,” the reflection said. “You’ve already lost. I’m not a hallucination. I’m the version of you that knows what it takes.”

“You fear me… but I’m the only one who’s ever truly protected you.”

Hospital Room – Real World

Jason’s eyelids fluttered.

Emily stepped closer, hopeful. “Jason?”

He stared at her, eyes cold… unfamiliar.

“Jason,” she repeated. “Are you—?”

Then he spoke, softly. But not like himself.

Not at all.

“She smells like lilac. Did you know that, Jason?”

Emily froze. “What…?”

Reyes’ hand went to his weapon. “Say that again.”

Jason smiled.

“Lilac. Same as Lily used to. Isn’t that funny?”

Emily’s face turned pale.

Jason—or whatever was behind his eyes—leaned closer, voice low and venomous.

“You should’ve stayed out of it.”

Suddenly, the monitors flatlined—but Jason didn’t die.

He sat up—free of the restraints.

The straps had never been fastened.

Reyes raised his gun. “Stop! Jason, don’t move!”

But it wasn’t Jason anymore.

The Architect turned to him.

And smiled.

Security Alarm – Code Red Activated

Chaos erupted in the hospital.

Alarms blared.

Nurses screamed.

Jason—possessed by something far darker—moved with inhuman calm.

He disarmed Reyes in one brutal twist of the wrist.

Gun dropped. Arm broken.

Emily backed away, breath caught in her throat.

“Jason, if you’re in there—fight him!”

He turned his head slowly toward her.

“Jason’s resting now. I’m the one you called for, remember?”

“You wanted protection. I gave you power.”

Then—he collapsed.

Eyes rolled back.

And Jason—the real one—snapped back into his body.

He gasped like a drowning man.

Reyes groaned in pain. Emily rushed to him.

“Jason?” she asked, unsure. “Is it really you?”

He looked up, terrified. “He’s not gone. He’s… hiding. Watching.”

Emily gripped his face. “Fight him. Stay with me.”

Jason tried to nod.

But a voice—his own voice—whispered from the hospital intercom:

“Tick-tock, Jason. I found another door.”

Outside the hospital, a nurse walked to her car.

She smiled, humming softly.

Until her reflection in the rearview mirror smiled back first.