STATIC IN HER MEMORY.
500 Words
The map crumpled slightly in Aria's grip as she retraced her steps guided by the spiral drawings and the circled "Observation Lab." Each turn seemed more twisted than the last- hallways bled into others, some lined with rotted student desks, others with broken lights that buzzed like flies.
She couldn't stop thinking about Malik.
Who was he? How did he vanish so easily? And how did he know my name?
She paused beside a cracked mirror hanging crooked on a wall. For a moment, she didn't recognize the reflection staring at her back. Her hair, disheveled. Her eyes wide with a mix of fear and obsession. She looked like a stranger - someone becoming part of Echo Hall itself.
" Focus," she muttered and kept moving.
Soon she reached a rusty steel door bolted at four corners. Faded red paint spelled Observation Lab, barely visible beneath layers of grime.
The handle gave with resistance, groaning as it opened.
Inside was a different world.
Clean white tiles. Long glass chambers along both sides - some empty, others holding furniture or strange equipment. A soft humming filled the air. She stepped in the door slammed shut behind her.
She gasped - and then froze.
Lina was inside one of the chambers.
Except...... it wasn't her. Or not entirely.
She wore a white hospitals gown, her hair shaved close, tubes attached to her temples. She sat on the bed, staring blankly forward like a doll posed uptight.
Aria rushed to the glass and banged on it. " Lina! Can you hear me?"
No response.
A monitor beside the chamber suddenly came to life. Static flickered - then an image appeared. Aria's own face.
Then a voice robotic and cold:
"Subject - 42 has returned to restricted zone. Memory inconsistencies detected."
"What the hell -" Aria backed away. On the screen, her faced morped into younger version - bruised, wide - eyed, sitting in what looked like the same Observation Lab. A date flashed across the corner: Seven years ago.
"No," she whispered, her breath catching. "That's not possible."
She never remembered being here. Her past was normal.... wasn't it?
Suddenly, all the chambers began to hiss.
Doors unlocked.
From one, a figure stumbled out - a girl with sunken eyes and stitched wrists, moaning softly. Another chamber creaked open behind Aria, releasing a boy with electrodes stuck to his skin.
They weren't attacking. Just ..... moving. Mindlessly.
Like puppets pulled of strings.
She turned to run - and crashed right into Malik.
"Too far," he hissed. " I told you this place wasn't meant for you."
" Why's Lina in there? What's this place?!"
He didn't answer. Instead, he gripped her arm and pulled her back down the hallway. The lights flickered again - red now, and blinking fast. A siren began to wail above.
"Security breach. Containment protocols failing."
" They're not ghosts, are they?" Aria breathed.
Malik looked at her. "Echo Hall remembers everyone. But it doesn't always let them go."
- Writer
