SUBJECT 11
388 Words
The lights died.
Total blackness swallowed Aria, thick and immediate. Her breath hitched. She turned, heart hammering, trying to track the sound that had crept up behind her. But all she had now was silence - thick, pressing silence.
Until something exhaled.
A low mechanical hiss, like steam escaping a pipe. Or breath. Wet, labored breath.
She backed against the wall, hand fumbling for her phone, but the screen had gone dead. Nothing but the faint, mirrored outline of her wide eyes stared back at her. She could hear something move - slow and deliberate - like fingers dragging across the floor.
Then, lights flickered.
But just once.
In that brief link of illumination, a shape stood a few feets away. Not tall. Not large. But wrong. Bent backward, limbs too long, head tilted unnaturally. And when the light flickered again, - gone.
No. no, no no!
She bolted down the corridor, feeling the floor shift again beneath her. The architecture groaned, like the place itself was breathing. The walls elongated, twisted and corridors branches where they hadn't before.
Another notification pinged.
Her screen flashed dimly to life on it's own. Much to her surprise.
Level one Clearance verified. Surveillance recording Active.
Subject 11 : Emotional threshold exceeded. Activating memory bleed.
Aria didn't understand - what memory? What threshold?
Another corridor opened to her left. A dim blue glow spilled out. Without thinking, she slipped through it heart in her throat.
The room was circular, sterile. Screens lined the walls, each playing fragments of footage. School hallways. Her bedroom. Her mother. Aria staggered forward. On one screen, she saw herself - age ten - sleeping, tossing violently. Then... something standing at her bedside.
She turned away.
And saw the words scrawled on the back of the wall.
"Memory= Reality. Memory= control."
"Stop!" She cried out. "What do you want from me?!"
No answer. Just the blinking cursor on a nearby console. Then, a robotic voice again- this time slower, almost conflicted.
Initiating phase Two. Subject 11 remains unstable.
Initiate contact: Designate Lina.
Aria's knees buckled.
Lina?
She clutched the console. staring at the screen as the words shifted again.
She remembers you. Do you remember her?
Suddenly the far wall began to shift.
Behind it - something starred.
And this time, it said her name out loud.
"Aria."
- Writer
