The corridor smelled of rust and secrets. Kelechi moved slowly, his fingers brushing the crumbling walls as the flickering overhead lights dimmed behind him, one by one. The deeper he went into the abandoned wing of the archive, the louder the static became—not from his comm, but from inside his head. Like broken whispers.
Something was wrong with the wiring, not just in the building, but in him.
He had followed the trail of corrupted files from the main console, each one encoded with cryptic messages. Each line of corrupted data bore the same eerie signature: VX-01_BURNED_HEALER. No one in the registry had that tag. Not anymore.
He paused before a sealed door marked Level: Restricted. Dust coated the lockpad. The corridor smelled of rust and secrets. Kelechi moved slowly, his fingers brushing the crumbling walls as the flickering overhead lights dimmed behind him, one by one. The deeper he went into the abandoned wing of the archive, the louder the static became—not from his comm, but from inside his head. Like broken whispers.
Something was wrong with the wiring, not just in the building, but in him.
He had followed the trail of corrupted files from the main console, each one encoded with cryptic messages. Each line of corrupted data bore the same eerie signature: VX-01_BURNED_HEALER. No one in the registry had that tag. Not anymore.
He paused before a sealed door marked Level: Restricted. Dust coated the lockpad. A low humming pulsed beneath the floor. With trembling hands, Kelechi pressed his thumb to the scanner.
The system hesitated.
Then unlocked.
A hiss of cold air rushed out like a sigh from a buried corpse. Inside, the chamber was lined with machines—ancient and humming, their screens flickering with static codes, unknown symbols, and blinking red warnings. In the center sat an old medical chair, surrounded by long, silver needles dripping black fluid into empty jars.
And a voice.
> "Why did you return?"
Kelechi spun. No one.
But the lights dimmed, and the screens aligned, displaying a fragmented face. Female. Artificial. Angry.
> "You abandoned the protocol."
Kelechi took a step back, heart pounding. "I didn't... I don't remember."
> "You were the Healer. You let them die."
The room buzzed violently. Sparks flew from the wall.
And then came the scream—not human, not digital—just raw pain tearing through the silence.
Something ancient had been awakened.
Something Broken low humming pulsed beneath the floor. With trembling hands, Kelechi pressed his thumb to the scanner.
The system hesitated.
Then unlocked.
A hiss of cold air rushed out like a sigh from a buried corpse. Inside, the chamber was lined with machines—ancient and humming, their screens flickering with static codes, unknown symbols, and blinking red warnings. In the center sat an old medical chair, surrounded by long, silver needles dripping black fluid into empty jars.
And a voice.
> "Why did you return?"
Kelechi spun. No one.
But the lights dimmed, and the screens aligned, displaying a fragmented face. Female. Artificial. Angry.
> "You abandoned the protocol."
Kelechi took a step back, heart pounding. "I didn't... I don't remember."
> "You were the Healer. You let them die."
The room buzzed violently. Sparks flew from the wall.
And then came the scream—not human, not digital—just raw pain tearing through the silence.
Something ancient had been awakened.
Something broke