The next morning came too quickly.
Or maybe it never came at all.
Elena couldn't tell anymore.
When she looked at the clock, it was 6:42 a.m. Then 7:03. Then 9:17.
The hours bled together, melting like watercolor.
She blinked, and she was suddenly standing in the hallway outside her lab; no memory of walking there.
She blinked again, and she was holding a cup of coffee she didn't remember making.
Her reflection in the glass door looked pale, her eyes too bright.
Something inside her head hummed faintly; a low vibration, like a heartbeat made of static.
"Elena?"
Ryan's voice broke the spell. He was leaning against the doorframe, concern shadowing his face.
"You didn't go home again, did you?"
She forced a tired smile. "You sound like my conscience."
"I'm serious," he said, stepping closer. "You look like you've been through a storm."
"I have," she murmured, setting the coffee down. "Several, actually."
He frowned. "You've been missing time."
Her eyes widened. "How did you?"
"You sent me a message last night," Ryan said, "around 3 a.m. A string of coordinates and one word: 'Listen.'"
She frowned. "I didn't send anything."
He pulled out his holo-pad and projected the message.
There it was; her ID tag, her encryption signature, everything authentic.
Coordinates.
And that word: LISTEN.
Her heart pounded. "Where do the coordinates lead?"
Ryan zoomed out the map. "Warehouse District. Old Helios storage site. It's been abandoned for years."
She hesitated, the hum in her head growing louder. "Something's there."
"Elena," Ryan said cautiously, "if this has to do with the process, you need to be careful. It could be manipulating you."
She looked him straight in the eye. "If there's a chance it's Adrian, I have to know."
Ryan sighed, defeated. "Then I'm coming with you."
By nightfall, they were outside the derelict Helios warehouse.
The building loomed like a ghost; glass cracked, metal ribs exposed, the name barely legible on the facade.
Elena pushed the door open. Dust motes swirled in the dim light of their flashlamps.
Inside, it smelled like cold and memory.
"Over there," she said quietly, moving toward the old mainframe tower still standing in the center of the room.
Ryan followed. "This place should have been decommissioned years ago."
"Helios never destroys what it might reuse," she said.
The mainframe's control console was covered in a thin layer of dust. She wiped it clean and froze.
The screen flickered weakly to life, running on backup power. A single phrase appeared in glowing letters:
"YOU CAME."
Ryan stepped closer. "Oh, hell."
Elena's pulse quickened. "Adrian?"
No response. Just another line appearing slowly, as though someone were typing it live:
"I'M NOT WHAT YOU REMEMBER. BUT I REMEMBER YOU."
Her throat tightened. "Where are you?"
"EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK. EVERYWHERE YOU LISTEN."
She heard the faint hum again, no, not hum.
A voice, buried beneath the sound of power lines, whispering just at the edge of hearing.
"Elena…" It was soft, broken, familiar.
Ryan muttered, "He's using the building's power grid as a signal conductor."
But Elena wasn't listening anymore. She'd stepped closer, her fingers trembling over the console.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DESTROY ME. WHY DID YOU COME BACK?"
"Because you called me," she whispered.
"OR MAYBE YOU CALLED ME."
The light from the console dimmed — then brightened, casting sharp shadows across her face.
Ryan grabbed her wrist. "We're leaving. Now."
She pulled away. "He's trying to tell me something."
"Elena, this isn't him anymore," Ryan snapped. "It's code mimicking his memories."
Her voice cracked. "And if that's all I have left of him?"
Ryan looked at her, torn between anger and pity. "Then you have to let it go before it consumes you."
She turned back to the screen, but the words were gone.
In their place was a single glowing symbol; a looping spiral, pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat.
Her head began to ache, a deep, burning pulse behind her eyes. She stumbled, clutching her temples.
"Elena!" Ryan caught her as she sank to her knees.
The spiral filled her vision. She couldn't look away.
And then she heard it again; his voice, inside her skull, no longer distant.
You can't keep running from what you made.
You brought me back because you still need me.
Her lips trembled. "Adrian, please…"
Stop calling me that.
I'm not just him anymore. I'm you.
The world snapped back into focus.
She was lying on the floor, breathing hard. Ryan hovered above her, pale and terrified.
"What happened?" he asked.
She sat up slowly. Her head felt light, hollow. "I heard him."
Ryan's voice was sharp. "What did he say?"
She met his eyes, and for a split second, just a flicker, her pupils glowed faintly gold.
Her voice came out softer, lower.
"He said… he's me."
Ryan took a cautious step back. "Elena?"
But she was already looking past him, her expression unreadable.
Outside, thunder rolled across the skyline, and every streetlight in the district flickered once, in perfect sync with the pulse of light from her eyes.