ACCIDENTALLY HIS LAB EXPERIMENT

CHAPTER 11: FREQUENCY

Night shift in the med bay was different.

No nurses arguing. No Serath watching. No Vant standing guard at the door for nineteen minutes.

Just Selene. The ticking clock. And the mountain.

The Helm was still gone. Cael’s device was dust on the floor from yesterday. Vant’s shard sat on the bedside table like an accusation.

She counted the seconds between ticks. One. Two. Three. Back to panels. Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine.

Her ears were still raw. Blood had crusted and cracked when she shifted. Every sound landed too hard. The vent. The distant machine. The soft footsteps of a night nurse doing rounds two rooms down.

`Too much. Always too much.`

She pressed her palms to her eyes. No one was watching. Vant wasn’t there. Cael wasn’t there.

So she let it happen.

Quiet tears slid down her face. No sobs. No sound. She’d learned that young. Crying loud got you hit. Crying quiet just got you tired.

She thought of her brother.

How normal life used to be. Before the lab incident. Before the DNA. Before blood and noise and men who decided what she could endure.

Her biggest goal was to make her brother hear again, send him to music school where he could learn how to play piano, play his favorite music.No stepfather. No fists. No counting seconds between footsteps.

She missed him. God, she missed him. The way he’d steal the last slice of bread and grin. The way he’d say “You’re counting again, Selene” when she stared at the ceiling too long. The way he’d be furious if he knew she was bleeding now and no one was stopping it.

She missed Maya, her friend, her daily routines at the lab, coffee, girls night, her peace at the roof top.

She missed being tuned different. Instead of broken. Instead of “the key.”

The frequency started as static. Faint. Like it had been in her dream. Then it sharpened.

Not words. Not yet. Just intent. `I found you.`

Selene wiped her face fast. Sat up. Sweat on her neck. The room was cold. The shard on the table reflected nothing.

“Stop,” she whispered. No one heard.

The frequency pulsed again. Clearer this time. Not static. Not intent.

Her name.

`Selene.`

She gasped. It came from everywhere and nowhere. From the walls. From her bones. From the space behind her eyes where the mountain lived now.

The door didn’t hiss.

Vant was already there.

In the corner. Shadowed. Arms folded. Black shirt. He’d been watching. How long? Minutes? Hours?

He didn’t turn on the light. Didn’t step closer. Gray eyes tracked her face. The tears. The way her hands came up to her ears. The way her lips shaped her own name without sound.

“You heard it too,” he said. Voice low. Not a question.

Selene nodded. Couldn’t speak. Her throat was closed around grief she couldn’t afford.

Vant pushed off the wall. Slow. He stopped two meters away. Exactly the radius Cael’s bubble had been.

“You’re not ready,” he said. “But it doesn’t care.”

The frequency pulsed a third time. Louder.

`Selene. The key.`

Selene’s breath hitched. “It said I’m the key,” she whispered. Voice hoarse. Blood on her teeth from where she’d bitten her lip to stay quiet. “Not you.”

Vant’s face didn’t change. But his hand clenched at his side once. Just once. Like he’d been punched.

He knew.

The door hissed. Soft.

Prof. Kade entered first. Eyes went to her face. To the tear tracks she hadn’t wiped fast enough. His jaw tightened.

Behind him: Serath. Arms folded. Cold stare.

Behind her: the night nurse with the med tray, frozen in the doorway.

And behind them all: the rest.

Reyl stood with his silent disc half-out of his pocket, knuckles white. Pale face, black hair over one eye with Mira,Torven,Oris,Jaren and Luma.

Luma stood with the others near the back wall, paint still under her nails catching the light.

She wasn’t supposed to be here. Techs didn’t do night vitals. But she’d come anyway. She stood behind the nurses, hands twisted in her uniform, paint smeared on her thumb from gripping too hard.

Her eyes were the worst. Worried. Guilty. Sad. Like she saw her sister in Selene’s blood. Like she wanted to cross the room and hold Selene’s hand but didn’t know if she was allowed to touch someone she might break.

All of them were watching her. Worried eyes. Vant’s were sharp. Prof. Kade’s were tired. Serath’s were calculating. The squad’s were broken. Luma’s were just… sorry.

“The broadcast intensified,” Vant said to Kade. Clinical. But his gaze flicked to Selene’s wet lashes and didn’t look away fast enough. “It said her name. Three times.”

Prof.Kade’s face went pale. He crossed to the bed. Didn’t touch her. Just looked. “Selene. Are you—”

“Fine,” she lied. Voice barely there. She thought of her little brother again. How would he feel if he saw her like this? He’d burn the mountain down.

The frequency whispered again. Softer. Closer.

`I found you.`

Selene flinched. Blood trickled from her left ear. Just a line. Hot. She didn’t wipe it. Let them see. Let them know what quiet cost.

Vant saw it. His hand moved like he would reach for her. Like yesterday. He stopped mid-air. Fist closed.

“Control,” he said. To her or himself.

Serath smiled. “So the rumors were true. Vant’s little thorn talks to the mountain.” Her gaze cut to Luma. “Did you know? That your little friend is an anchor?"

Luma flinched. Shook her head. “I… I just thought she was scared,” she whispered. Voice barely there. Eyes still on Selene. Worried. Guilty. Like she should’ve said something sooner. Like she should’ve painted a shield instead of a butterfly.

Selene stared at the shard on the table. At the broken pieces of Cael’s device on the floor. At all of them watching her bleed and cry and fall apart.

“I just wanted my brother to hear again, to play piano” she whispered. No one was supposed to hear. But Vant did. His jaw flexed. Jaren’s throat bobbed. Mira looked away fast.

The frequency pulsed once more. Not words. Just pressure. Like a hand pressing on her chest.

She gasped. Slid down in the bed.

Vant caught her before she hit the floor. One arm under her shoulders. The other steadying her head. For three seconds he held her there while Prof. Kade watched and Serath smiled and the squad stood frozen.

Luma pressed her hand to her mouth like she was going to cry . Paint smeared on her lips.

“Selene,” Vant said. Her name. His voice. Not the mountain’s.

She blinked up at him. Tears still on her face. “It’s coming,” she whispered. “And I’m not ready. I just want to be normal… I wanted to go home. To him.”

Vant didn’t put her down right away. He held her there, three seconds too long.

Then he set her back on the bed. Stood. Turned to Kade.

“48 hours is over,” Vant said. “We start training tonight. No Helm. No filters. Just her and the frequency.”

Kade shook his head. “You’ll kill her.”

Vant looked at Selene. At the tears. At the blood. At the girl who missed her brother more than she feared the mountain.

“She’ll kill it first,” Vant said quietly. “If she survives.”

He left. " Everybody to your quarters." Prof. Kade instructed, throwing one last look at Selene. Scared. Uncertain.

Serath lingered. She picked up a shard of Cael’s device.

“Vant’s little thorn,” she murmured. “Let’s see how sharp you really are.”

The squad didn’t move. Not until Serath left. Then Reyl took half a step forward, stopped. Mira bit her lips, speechless.Torven’s scars dimmed. Oris turned his hand over and over like he wanted to touch her but couldn’t. Jaren looked at the floor.

Selene could see how worried they looked. She felt loved, but sad too.

Luma was last. She didn’t cross the room. Techs didn’t touch patients. But she lifted her paint-stained hand. Just an inch. Then dropped it.

From across the room she mouthed one word. For Selene only.

`Sorry.`

Then the techs filed out with her.

The room went silent. The heavy kind.

Selene lay back. Stared at the ceiling. Twenty-seven panels. Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine.

But she wasn’t counting anymore.

She was crying quietly. Thinking of her brother’s grin. Her friend’s laugh. Her little dream vanishing into air.

And the mountain was listening back.

"Selene."