2025-10-23 23:18:08Smoke hung in the air like breath that refused to fade. Bruce blinked, struggling to focus. The lab had melted into something else, walls rippled like reflections in water, the floor stretching, breathing.
Lena was gone. Only he remained.
Dr. Victor Aimes stood in the middle of the room, the darkness folding around him like a cloak. His skin shimmered faintly beneath the flickering lights, veins glowing ember-red.
His eyes, calm and cold, tracked Bruce like a scalpel poised above a wound. Bruce’s throat was dry. “You’re dead.”
Aimes smiled faintly. “Most people are. They just don’t realize it yet.”
Bruce’s fists clenched. “What did you do to me?”
“I finished what you started.”
“I didn’t start anything!”
“You did when you touched my relic.”
The word my twisted through Bruce’s mind like a knife. “You left that thing in my basement”
“Correction,” Aimes said softly. “I buried it. You dug it up.”
Bruce took a shaky breath. “Why? Why give me this?”
“I didn’t.” Aimes tilted his head. “It chose you. That’s the real experiment, finding the one who can host the Ember Core without burning alive.”
Bruce’s heartbeat thundered in his ears. “You turned me into your lab rat.”
Aimes chuckled quietly. “Rat, hero, messiah, labels. All irrelevant when the fire wakes.”
The walls pulsed again, light bending. Bruce took a step back, and the ground beneath his feet turned translucent. Beneath it, he saw flashes of memory.
A car crash. Flames. A voice calling his name through the smoke. He whispered, “That night… you were there.”
Aimes didn’t answer. He just smiled.
Bruce’s voice cracked. “I saw you in the wreck. You pulled something from the fire”
“The Ember,” Aimes said. “The Core had already chosen you, Bruce. The crash simply broke you open enough to let it in.”
Bruce pressed a hand against his chest. The relic burned hot. “You killed me.”
“I saved you,” Aimes said, stepping closer. “Death is just an unopened door. You should be thanking me.”
Bruce’s laughter was sharp, hollow. “You think I’m going to thank you for this?”
“I don’t think,” Aimes said. “I know. Because soon, you’ll understand why you exist.”
The air warped again. Suddenly, Bruce wasn’t in the lab anymore. He was in his apartment, only, everything was off. The light too soft. The walls wrong. The clock on the wall read 13:66.
He turned, searching. “Lena?” No answer.
Instead, his own voice echoed back at him, slightly delayed, distorted. “Lena?”
He froze. “Who’s there?”
“You are.”
A mirror shimmered into being on the wall. In it, Bruce saw himself, but his reflection didn’t move with him.
The other Bruce smiled. “You think you’re the host,” the reflection said. “But you’re the vessel.”
Bruce backed away. “You’re not real.”
“Neither are you. Not anymore.”
The reflection’s skin cracked, glowing fissures spreading across his face like molten veins. When he spoke again, his voice layered with Aimes’.
“Open your eyes, Bruce. You’re still in the fire.”
The walls ignited. He screamed and fell backward, the room melting into orange light. The mirror shattered, and from the shards poured whispers, too many voices, all saying his name.
Then, silence. He blinked again and was back in the lab. The lights flickered. Aimes stood exactly where he had before, untouched by the chaos. Bruce’s chest heaved. “What did you just do to me?”
“Showed you the truth.”
“That wasn’t truth, that was”
“Memory,” Aimes interrupted. “Distorted, yes, but yours. The relic feeds on trauma. It rewrites your mind until you see what it wants you to see.”
Bruce’s jaw tightened. “Why show me that?”
“Because you need to stop pretending you were innocent.”
Bruce’s eyes darkened. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“None of us do,” Aimes said. “The Core finds those closest to death for a reason. You died once, Bruce. The Ember brought you back. But each rebirth costs something.”
Bruce swallowed hard. “What did it take?”
“Your certainty,” Aimes said. “Your ability to tell what’s real.”
Bruce’s pulse hammered. The room blurred at the edges. He felt dizzy. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
He turned, and saw Lena standing behind him now, her gun aimed at his head. “Step away from him,” she said.
Bruce blinked. “Lena?”
Her eyes were wet. “You’ve been talking to yourself for ten minutes. There’s no one there.”
He looked back, Aimes was gone. The space where he’d stood was empty. Bruce’s voice broke. “No. He was, he was right here.”
Lena grabbed his shoulders. “Listen to me! You’re bleeding from your eyes. The relic’s trying to hijack your brain. You need to fight it!”
“I saw him!” Bruce shouted. “He said I died, that I”
“Bruce!”
He stopped. Her hands were shaking. “Don’t let it pull you in. That’s how it takes control.”
He stared at her, then down at his reflection in a pool of blood on the floor. His eyes glowed faint red. “She’s not real,” a voice whispered from the reflection.
He looked up sharply. “What?”
Lena froze. “What did you hear?”
“Nothing.”
She stepped back slowly. “It’s still talking to you, isn’t it?”
“I said nothing!” he snapped, but the fire in his chest flared again, and the voice grew louder. “She’s the one who betrayed you. She called them. She led you here.”
“Stop,” Bruce whispered. “Look at her pulse. Too calm for fear.”
He did. Lena’s expression was strained, but her breathing… steady. Controlled. Bruce’s hand trembled. “What are you hiding?”
Lena’s eyes widened. “Bruce, don’t”
“Tell me the truth!”
She lifted her gun halfway. “You’re not thinking straight. The relic’s bending your mind. You have to focus”
“Liar,” the voice hissed.
The lightbulbs shattered. The lab plunged into darkness, lit only by the red glow from Bruce’s chest.
He could hear her breathing, close. Her voice came soft. “Bruce, please. It wants you angry. That’s how it feeds.” “She’s stalling,” the relic whispered. “She knows what happens next.”
“What happens next?” Bruce said aloud. “You burn her.”
“Stop!”
“Do it. Free yourself.”
He fell to his knees, clutching his head. The relic’s whispers turned into screams. The world flickered between fire and shadow. He could see Lena, then Aimes, then the reflection, then nothing.
Reality folded. When the flickering stopped, Bruce was alone. The lab was gone, replaced by a charred landscape of twisted metal and blackened glass. The air smelled like ash and burnt memory.
He whispered, “Where am I?”
A voice answered, echoing from everywhere and nowhere. “Inside the truth.”
Aimes stepped out of the smoke again, smiling faintly. “This,” he said, gesturing to the ruins, “is what happens when the fire wins.”
Bruce stared at the endless wasteland. “This… this can’t be real.”
“Of course not,” Aimes said. “It’s just your mind burning itself alive.”
Then he reached out a hand. “But we can fix it. Together.”
Bruce hesitated. The relic inside him pulsed, once, hard and whispered: “Say yes.”
He didn’t. He looked Aimes in the eyes and said, “I’d rather burn than belong to you.” Then the world caught fire again.
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Chapter 9 — Ash City
The sky looked sick. Ash hung where clouds should have been, glowing faintly red like the last embers of a dying fire.Bruce stood in the middle of what used to be downtown, buildings warped into glassy skeletons, cars melted into the pavement. The wind moaned through empty towers. You’re home, the relic whispered.He frowned. “Doesn’t look like it.”Home changes when you do.A faint crunch sounded behind him. He spun, hands raised, ready to summon flame if he needed to.A figure moved through the haze, wrapped in a torn coat, gas mask covering their face. “Easy,” they said, voice muffled. “If you’re alive, you’re a miracle.”Bruce stayed silent. “Alive’s a flexible term.”The stranger lowered the mask just enough to speak, dark skin, eyes like dull copper. “Name’s Mira. You don’t look like one of the glassers.”“The what?”She gestured toward a collapsed overpass. In its shadow, half-melted people shimmered faintly, bodies turned to translucent stone mid-motion. “They burned when the
Chapter 8 — The Mirror War
Bruce couldn’t tell whether the first scream came from his throat or the glass. Every mirror around him was alive.Hundreds of versions of himself, rippling in and out of sync, shouting words he didn’t remember saying. “Wake up”“Don’t listen”“You’re killing us”Aimes’s calm voice slid through the chaos. “You see it now, Mr Willis. You’re the fracture holding all worlds apart. Every reflection is one you left unfinished.”Bruce clutched his head. “Make it stop!”“I can’t,” said Aimes. “Only you can. Merge them, and the noise ends.”Lena appeared behind Aimes, her reflection multiplying endlessly. “Don’t trust him, Bruce. Every merge kills another piece of you.”“I’m already pieces!” Bruce shouted. Burn them, whispered the relic. Forge one truth.He raised his hands. Fire curled from his palms, thin at first, then pure white. Each mirrored Bruce flinched.“Stay back,” said one reflection, the version with the fire-eyes from before. “You’re not ready. You’ll erase everything.”Bruce’s
Chapter 7 — The Man Who Never Woke
The first thing Bruce felt was breath. His own. Slow, ragged, real. He opened his eyes to a hospital ceiling, white tiles, humming fluorescent light.He tried to sit up; tubes tugged at his arms. Machines beeped in arrhythmic patterns. He was alive. Maybe.A nurse entered. Smiling, efficient, eyes just slightly off. “Good afternoon, Mr. Willis. You’ve been asleep for a long time.”“How long?” he croaked.“Eighty-four days.”Her voice was calm, but her smile didn’t fade. Not once. “Where’s Lena?”“Resting,” she said. “She visits often.”He frowned. “She’s dead.”“Not anymore.”He stared. “Say that again.”She tilted her head. “Not anymore.”And then the power flickered. The room dimmed for half a heartbeat. In that heartbeat, the nurse’s face split, half flesh, half reflection.When the lights returned, she was normal again, smile intact. Bruce whispered, “Still the maze.”Half right, murmured the relic. You’re between.He froze. “Between what?”Sleep and waking. Mind and body. You fel
Chapter 6 — The Fractured Real
The glass light overhead had barely finished shattering when the office froze mid-motion, Dr Hollis suspended, pen hovering an inch above her clipboard.Bruce stood very still. “Pause button again,” he muttered.No response. Only the faint hum of static, low and living. He took a cautious step forward. The world rippled around his shoe, like stepping into a puddle that wasn’t water. “Okay,” he whispered. “Still dreaming.”Not dreaming, the voice of the relic murmured. Mapping. “Mapping what?” Exits.He almost laughed. “Good. Find one.”The air flickered; Hollis’s head jerked sideways by itself, eyes turning to meet him. Her lips didn’t move when her voice came. “There are no exits, Mr Willis. Only layers.”Bruce swallowed. “Then I’ll peel them.”He pushed past her, his hand passed through her shoulder like smoke, and the wall behind her unfolded into a hallway made of light and concrete at once.Every door looked identical. Each had a number carved backwards. “Which way?” he asked.Fo
Chapter 5 — Echoes of the Firemind
When Bruce opened his eyes, he was lying on a leather couch under soft amber light. For a heartbeat he thought the nightmare was over, until he noticed that the light didn’t have a source.It just existed, glowing from nowhere. He sat up slowly. The air smelled of rain and antiseptic. A hospital? he thought.No machines beeped. No footsteps. Just the faint hum of silence stretched too tight. Then a voice came from behind him. “Welcome back, Mr Willis.”Bruce turned. A woman in a gray suit stood beside a polished desk. Her face was calm, symmetrical, too symmetrical. Her eyes, pale green, never blinked. “Who are you?” he asked.“Dr Sera Hollis,” she said. “Cognitive restoration specialist. You were brought in after an… incident.”He rubbed his temples. “Where’s Lena?”“Lena?” She frowned slightly. “You were alone when the rescue team found you.”“That’s not possible. She, she pulled me out”“You suffered severe delusions from neural overburn. Hallucinations are expected.”Bruce laughed
Chapter 4 — Ashes of the Maker
Smoke hung in the air like breath that refused to fade. Bruce blinked, struggling to focus. The lab had melted into something else, walls rippled like reflections in water, the floor stretching, breathing. Lena was gone. Only he remained.Dr. Victor Aimes stood in the middle of the room, the darkness folding around him like a cloak. His skin shimmered faintly beneath the flickering lights, veins glowing ember-red. His eyes, calm and cold, tracked Bruce like a scalpel poised above a wound. Bruce’s throat was dry. “You’re dead.”Aimes smiled faintly. “Most people are. They just don’t realize it yet.”Bruce’s fists clenched. “What did you do to me?”“I finished what you started.”“I didn’t start anything!”“You did when you touched my relic.”The word my twisted through Bruce’s mind like a knife. “You left that thing in my basement”“Correction,” Aimes said softly. “I buried it. You dug it up.”Bruce took a shaky breath. “Why? Why give me this?”“I didn’t.” Aimes tilted his head. “It c
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