The first thing I felt was cold.
It wasn't the magical cold of the Moon Goddess or the freezing mist of the Void. It was a sharp, clinical cold. It smelled like bleach, ozone, and copper. My skin felt wet and sticky.
I opened my eyes, but my vision was a blur of harsh, white fluorescent lights. I tried to lift my hand, but my wrist hit something hard.
Clink.
A glass wall.
I wasn't in a garden. I wasn't in a tower. I was in a tube.
Panic flared in my chest. I looked down at my body. I was wearing a thin, grey bodysuit covered in glowing blue wires. The wires were sunk into my skin, pulsing with a rhythm that felt like a second heartbeat.
"Subject 01 is showing high brain activity," a voice boomed from a speaker above. "The adrenaline levels are off the charts. Increase the sedative."
