Siren Project

The Girl they Engineered

The weight of the night pressed heavily against my chest as I paced the room. I hadn’t slept in days. Every time I closed my eyes, the same damn image haunted me. A body. Blood. The sensation of cold metal in my hand.

The worst part? I couldn’t remember how it happened. The blank spaces in my mind were eating me alive.

I heard the soft click of the door behind me, but I didn’t turn. Not yet.

“Eve, you need to pull yourself together.”

Cassian’s voice was familiar—comforting, but not enough to settle the nerves gnawing at me. His footsteps were measured, purposeful as he stepped into my space. I wanted to lean into him, let him hold me and tell me everything would be okay, but I couldn’t afford to look weak. Not now. Not when I was already losing control.

“I can’t do this,” I whispered, my eyes fixed on the glass of whiskey on the nightstand. The liquid swirled as I reached for it, hoping it would take the edge off, but even that felt wrong. I wanted something to numb the panic inside me. But nothing ever worked.

Cassian let out a sigh, stepping closer, his gaze full of concern. “Your father’s been called in on this.”

My stomach twisted. The last thing I needed was my father involved. He was already too much a part of everything, too close to the truth.

"He's going to the crime scene, Eve. His top officers are working the case, and they’ve found… something.” His eyes flickered nervously, and he didn’t have to say it—I knew exactly what he meant.

The truth was closing in. They were getting closer.

“I can’t breathe,” I said, finally meeting his eyes. “I can’t keep pretending like I don’t know what’s happening. But I don’t remember any of it. How could I have done this? How could I have—”

“Eve…” Cassian’s voice was firmer now, cutting through the storm of my thoughts. “Don’t lose it. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

But his words were empty. He didn’t know. I didn’t know. I couldn’t remember. And that was the most terrifying part of it all.

The next day, everything felt colder.

I was summoned to my father’s office. The air inside felt like it had frozen over, every inch of it heavy with unspoken words. My father wasn’t the same man I’d grown up with. The warm, loving father who used to pull me into his arms after a long day. Now, all I saw was the hardened military commander, ruthless and calculating.

“You’re late.” His voice was sharp, eyes narrowing as I stepped inside.

“I’m sorry, Father,” I said quietly, bowing my head in respect, but I felt the strain of the words. I was sorry, but not for what he thought.

He didn’t respond right away, turning toward the large desk that overlooked the city. “The case has escalated, Evelyn.”

My chest tightened. I couldn’t bring myself to speak, afraid that anything I said would make the silence even worse. My father was staring at something on the desk. Something that looked too important to ignore.

“The investigation has hit a dead-end, but there’s something they haven’t told you. They’ve found something from the scene—something critical. It could break the case wide open.” His eyes met mine, piercing, cold. “And you’re the only one who can help me understand what’s going on.”

I froze. My heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean? What do you want me to do?”

He hesitated for a moment, as if weighing his words carefully. “You need to be careful. This case is bigger than you think. I don’t want anyone questioning your involvement. Stay out of the way. Let me handle it.”

Something in his tone made my stomach drop. The cryptic warning was out of place. Was he talking to me like I was guilty? Was he trying to protect me, or was there more to the investigation than he was letting on?

“I’ve been hearing things,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady, but the words caught in my throat. “Things about the fingerprints. Are they… are they mine?”

My father didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he turned back to the window, staring out at the sprawling city below. The silence stretched long enough that I felt it in my bones.

“No,” he finally said, but his voice lacked conviction. “But we’ll see. They need to run more tests. We’ll know soon.”

The words didn’t comfort me. In fact, they did the opposite. The room felt smaller, suffocating, as if the walls were closing in.

That night, the tension only worsened.

I couldn’t sleep. My mind was a swirl of fragmented thoughts—pieces of a puzzle that didn’t fit. But there was something inside me that kept calling for release, something dangerous that I couldn’t control.

I found myself standing by the window in the dead of night, staring into the darkness. The moonlight slanted across the balcony, casting eerie shadows in the room.

They’re closing in, I thought.

The weight of it all was unbearable. My father was getting closer to the truth, but he didn’t know it yet. He didn’t know what I was capable of, what I could do—or what I might’ve already done.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed. A message from Cassian. I unlocked the screen with trembling fingers, desperate for some sort of relief.

“Be careful. They’re watching you. Don’t trust anyone.”

The message sent a chill down my spine.

I walked to the window again, the message burned into my memory. And then… I saw it.

A black car parked just beyond the palace’s north gate. No lights. No movement.

Someone was watching.

I stepped back slowly, heart hammering.

And just then—my ears began to ring.

A high-pitched hum. Soft. Barely there. But unmistakable.

“Siren active.”

The words weren’t spoken aloud.

They were inside me.

A whisper… in my blood.

My legs gave out. I collapsed to the floor, gasping for air as the whisper repeated louder now.

“Siren active.”

“Subject 7 online.”

My hands trembled violently. My eyes blurred.

And then—blackness.

Not sleep.

Shutdown.

When I woke, it was morning.

And my hands… were bleeding.