CHAPTER 3
1264 Words
Ethan Voss had learned one thing in his years as a detective—dead men don’t show up on security footage.
But Cole Bennett had.
Ethan sat motionless, staring at the screen. The video looped again—grainy security footage from the night of Tyler Grayson’s murder. Sera Nix, looking disoriented, walking down a dimly lit corridor. And right beside her, a man in a dark coat.
Cole Bennett.
It wasn’t possible.
Bennett was dead.
He had died six years ago in a supposed accident—an explosion at a research lab tied to MindCorp, the memory-tech giant. Back then, Bennett had been a lead engineer, working on classified neural programming projects. But the fire had erased everything—his files, his research, and him.
Ethan had seen the reports. Hell, he had attended the man’s funeral.
And yet, here he was. Clear as day. Alive.
Ethan exhaled, his grip tightening around the edge of his desk. Someone had lied.
Behind him, Sera Nix shifted on the couch. “You know this guy?”
Ethan turned to her. “Yeah.”
Something in his voice made her sit up straighter. “Who is he?”
“A ghost.”
She frowned. “I—what?”
Ethan stood, dragging a hand down his face. “Cole Bennett. He used to work for MindCorp. He was their lead engineer on memory reconstruction tech.” He tapped the screen. “But he’s supposed to be dead.”
Sera paled. “So if he’s alive…?”
“Then someone wanted the world to think he wasn’t.”
Silence stretched between them.
Then Sera swallowed hard. “What does this mean for me?”
Ethan stared at her. “It means you’re in deeper than you realize.”
She exhaled shakily. “I told you—I don’t know any of these people. I don’t know Grayson, I don’t know Bennett, I don’t—”
She cut off suddenly, her brows furrowing.
Ethan noticed. “What?”
Sera hesitated, pressing her fingers to her temple. “I… I don’t know. It’s weird.”
“What is?”
She closed her eyes. “I don’t know how to explain it. Ever since you showed me that memory, I—” She opened her eyes again. “It feels like I’m forgetting something. Like I should remember, but I can’t.”
Ethan watched her carefully.
Memory loss.
It could be trauma. But after everything he had seen tonight, he had another theory.
Someone had messed with Grayson’s memories before his death.
What if they had done the same to Sera?
Ethan grabbed his jacket. “We’re leaving.”
Sera looked up. “Where?”
“To find someone who can tell us what’s been done to you.”
⸻
40 Minutes Later – Lower Sector
The city had two faces.
Uptown, the skyline was a glowing jungle of holograms and glass towers, the heart of the corporate elite. Down here, in the Lower Sector, things were different. The streets were narrower, dirtier, bathed in flickering neon lights. This was where the city’s black-market tech dealers operated—off-grid hackers, rogue programmers, and people who had learned to live outside the system.
Ethan parked in a dimly lit alley and killed the engine.
Sera shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat. “Where are we?”
“A place I don’t like coming to.”
He stepped out. Sera followed, glancing around nervously.
Ahead was a rundown storefront with no signage, just a metal door and a glowing keypad. Ethan approached, punched in a code, and the lock clicked open.
Inside, the air smelled of burnt circuits and old tech. The walls were lined with outdated computer parts, tangled wires, and old neural-link devices. At the center of the room, hunched over a desk, was a man in a hooded sweatshirt, his fingers flying over a keyboard.
Ethan stepped forward. “Bennett.”
The figure stiffened.
Slowly, the man turned. His hood fell back, revealing a sharp, angular face with dark stubble and tired eyes.
Cole Bennett.
Alive.
He stared at Ethan, his expression unreadable. “Well,” he muttered. “Took you long enough.”
Sera inhaled sharply. Ethan felt the tension coil in his gut.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Ethan said.
Bennett smirked, but there was no humor in it. “Yeah, well. Not everything is what it seems, is it?”
Ethan clenched his jaw. “I saw you on the footage. The night Grayson was killed.”
Bennett’s smirk faded. He sighed, rubbing his temple. “Damn it.”
Sera finally found her voice. “I don’t understand. Who are you?”
Bennett studied her for a long moment. Then he exhaled. “I think you already know.”
Sera flinched, like something inside her head clicked.
Ethan stepped between them. “She doesn’t remember.”
Bennett’s eyes darkened. “Then we have a bigger problem.”
Ethan narrowed his eyes. “Why? What the hell did you do to her?”
Bennett didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he moved to a shelf, rummaging through old tech, until he pulled out a small, sleek device—a portable memory scanner.
He turned to Sera. “Sit down.”
She hesitated, looking at Ethan.
Ethan didn’t trust Bennett—not yet—but they had no other options. He nodded once.
Sera slowly lowered herself into the chair.
Bennett attached the device to the back of her neck. The small screen flickered to life, running an analysis of her neural patterns.
A few seconds later, Bennett’s expression changed.
His face went pale.
Ethan’s pulse quickened. “What?”
Bennett swallowed hard. “She’s been wiped.”
Sera stiffened. “What—what does that mean?”
Bennett turned the screen so they could see. A normal memory pattern had clear, organized segments. Sera’s? Fragmented. Entire sections of her past had been erased—sliced apart like someone had deliberately removed pieces of her identity.
Ethan’s stomach clenched.
MindCorp had developed the technology to erase specific memories, but it was classified, dangerous, and supposedly illegal.
Bennett ran a shaking hand through his hair. “They didn’t just erase things. They replaced them.”
Sera inhaled sharply. “With what?”
Bennett hesitated. Then he met her eyes.
“With a lie.”
The room went deathly silent.
Ethan felt a cold dread settle in his chest. “So she did know Grayson?”
Bennett nodded. “Not just Grayson. She knew me.”
Sera flinched. “No, that’s not—I don’t—” She pressed her hands to her head.
The panic in her voice made Ethan’s gut tighten. She was losing control.
Bennett leaned closer. “Sera, listen to me. Your memories were rewritten. Someone erased what really happened and fed you a different past. A false past.”
Sera shook her head violently. “That’s impossible! I know my life! I remember my job, my apartment, my—”
Her voice broke.
Ethan had seen this before. People whose memories were altered always resisted at first. The mind fought back against contradictions.
But something deep inside her knew the truth didn’t fit.
Ethan knelt beside her. “Sera. You need to breathe.”
She gasped for air, gripping the chair.
Bennett watched her with something close to regret. “If we don’t fix this, her mind will collapse on itself.”
Ethan looked up. “How do we fix it?”
Bennett met his gaze.
“We find out what they made her forget.”
- Writer
