Tangled in the Wires

A Glimpse Behind the Curtain

Sam’s heart pounded as she sat at her desk later that evening, her mind still replaying the images she had seen on the screen in the lab. The name Lila Moreno is stuck in her thoughts, along with the label Failed Subject. Something about it unsettled her. Why would Arden keep files on a student considered a failure? And why hadn’t she ever heard of Lila before?

Her room was dimly lit, casting long shadows over the walls. The sterile, modern decor of Arden’s dormitories was as cold as the rest of the school—perfect, efficient, emotionless. Sam opened her personal tablet, her fingers moving quickly as she pulled up the school’s main network. She was supposed to be working on an assignment, but there was no way she could focus on that now.

Instead, she accessed the student database. Arden’s security was tight, but her enhanced reflexes and hacking skills made navigating the system easier. She quickly typed in Lila Moreno and hit search.

Nothing.

Sam frowned, double-checking the spelling. Still nothing. It was as if Lila didn’t exist. But Sam had seen the name with her own eyes—somewhere deep within the school’s systems, Lila’s file existed.

Her eyes narrowed as she thought about her next move. She needed to find out more, and that meant getting past the school’s internal firewall. She could feel the slight tingling in her mind as her neural chip synced with the tablet, amplifying her mental processing speed. Within seconds, she was running a series of algorithms to bypass the security protocols.

It was risky. If she got caught, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d been reprimanded for digging where she wasn’t supposed to. But this time, something felt different. Urgent.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she broke through. A new window popped up, revealing a hidden directory. Files marked “Classified.” Sam’s pulse quickened as she scrolled through the list. There were dozens of names—students she had never heard of, all labeled with strange titles: Subject 003, Subject 014, Subject 024.

Then she found it: Subject 001 – Lila Moreno.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she clicked on the file. The screen flickered for a moment before a series of images and documents appeared. Sam’s breath caught in her throat. There, staring back at her from the screen, was a photo of a girl—Lila.

She couldn’t have been older than sixteen or seventeen. Her long, silvery-blonde hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall, and her eyes… Sam had never seen eyes like that. They were an icy blue, glowing faintly, as if they were somehow connected to something beyond the physical world. Lila’s expression was blank, almost lifeless, but there was something about her gaze that made Sam feel uneasy. It was as if Lila was watching her, even through the screen.

Sam scrolled through the rest of the file, her stomach twisting as she read the details. Lila had been one of the first students in the Ultimate Program—but something had gone wrong. The enhancements hadn’t worked the way they were supposed to. Instead of creating a superhuman, they had broken her. Lila had been deemed a failure, and the school had locked her away.

The file contained notes from Dr. Vanderhall, clinical and emotionless:

Subject 001 displayed signs of mental instability after phase three of the neural integration process. Attempts to stabilize the subject have failed. Memory retention compromised. The subject is no longer suitable for the Ultimate Program.

Recommendation: Containment.

Sam’s hands clenched into fists as she continued reading. Containment? They had just locked her away? No wonder Lila’s name didn’t show up in the public records—Arden had buried her, literally and figuratively. She was a ghost, hidden away in some forgotten corner of the school, trapped by the very technology meant to enhance her.

Suddenly, Sam felt sick. She had always known there was something sinister about Arden, but this… this was beyond anything she had imagined. They were experimenting on students, pushing them beyond their limits, and when it didn’t work, they simply discarded them like broken machines.

A soft ping from her tablet interrupted her thoughts, pulling her back to the present. She glanced at the screen and froze.

A message had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. It wasn’t from the school’s network, and it wasn’t part of the file. The text was brief, but it sent a chill down her spine.

Who are you?

Sam’s fingers hovered over the tablet, unsure of what to do. Was this a trick? Had the system detected her intrusion?

Then, before she could respond, another message appeared.

Help me.

Sam’s heart skipped a beat. The words were simple, but they were desperate, pleading. Was this Lila? How was she sending messages? Was she still alive, trapped somewhere in the facility?

Sam typed quickly, her thoughts racing.

Who is this? she replied.

A moment passed, and then the response came.

Lila.

Sam felt the world tilt around her. It was Lila. She was alive. But how? The file had made it sound like she was little more than a husk, kept in containment by the school’s machines. How could she communicate?

Before Sam could ask any more questions, the screen flickered, and the connection was severed. The file disappeared, the classified directory vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. Sam cursed under her breath, her mind racing. What had just happened? Was Lila trapped somewhere in the school, sending messages through the system?

Sam leaned back in her chair, her heart still pounding. She needed answers, and she needed them fast. Lila was more than just a failed experiment—she was reaching out, asking for help. And Sam couldn’t just ignore her.

She glanced at the clock. It was late, and the curfew warning would sound soon, but Sam didn’t care. She needed to get back to the labs and needed to find out more about Lila and what the school had done to her.

As she gathered her things, one thought kept repeating in her mind: What kind of place was Arden, really? And how deep did its secrets go?

Sam wasn’t sure, but she was about to find out.

She just hoped it wouldn’t be too late.