There was no floor.
No walls.
No sky.
Only endless white stretching in every direction, shifting like breath itself. Sound felt distant here, muted, as though reality had been wrapped in silence.
Lena stood alone — yet not alone.
Across from her, Noah clung to himself, small shoulders trembling, eyes wide with fear. He looked younger here, more fragile, like the version of him untouched by experiments and machines.
And beside him stood Adrian.
Not human.
Not entirely.
His form flickered constantly — sometimes solid, sometimes made of fractured light and moving data. His eyes glowed faintly, observing her with unsettling calm curiosity.
“You entered voluntarily,” Adrian repeated.
His voice echoed inside her mind rather than through the air.
Lena forced herself to stay steady.
“
