Alex had fallen asleep slumped in the armchair, head tilted at an uncomfortable angle, one hand still loosely hanging toward the floor where Kayden had last been sitting. The lamp was off now, and the faint gray of dawn filtered through the blinds, washing the room in a tired kind of light. Nothing supernatural moved. No silver threads shimmered. No ancient voice pressed against the walls.
But Kayden didn't feel safe.
His eyes were open long before the sun rose, but he didn't move. He lay perfectly still, staring at the ceiling the way someone stares at the sky before a storm—quiet, listening, waiting for something they can't describe to reveal itself again.
The signal had retreated.But retreat wasn't the same as gone.
Kayden could still feel it, not as a voice now but as a memory lodged somewhere deeper than thought, like the after-image left on the inside of the eye after staring too long at a bright light. It pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat that did not belong to him.
He pressed a hand to his forehead. It didn't stop the echo.It didn't stop the weight.
APEX hovered in the corner of his sight before he called it. Awake. Watching. Silent in a way that didn't feel comforting.
Kayden whispered, "Is it listening?"
APEX's reply came slow, as if calibrating its words.
"Not actively. But the connection threshold is… weakened. It has your signature now."
Kayden's stomach knotted.
"So it can track me?"
APEX pulsed once. "It can recognize you."
That felt worse.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, careful not to wake Alex. For a moment he watched him sleep—face relaxed, far more peaceful than the chaos he had walked into last night. The silver glow in Kayden's eyes had faded, but something else lingered.
Something Alex couldn't see even if he looked straight at him.
He stood quietly and moved to the kitchen, letting the water run in the sink just to hear a normal sound. Something human. Something predictable.
He didn't notice the tremor at first.
Just the faint ripple in his awareness—a pressure shift, the same kind that preceded a breach but subtler, like the world breathing wrong.
APEX flickered violently."Commander—pause. There is movement."
Kayden froze.
Movement. Inside the anomaly layer. Close.
His heart lurched as he scanned the apartment. Nothing was visually wrong. Nothing shifted. But his vision… his instincts felt pulled sideways, as if something inside reality leaned toward him and whispered across a paper-thin wall.
Kayden steadied his breath.
"Where?"
APEX hesitated.
"…Everywhere."
The sink groaned.The water pressure dropped.The lights dimmed for a fraction of a second—not enough for a normal person to notice, but too cleanly synchronized for Kayden to ignore.
The world exhaled, but the breath felt borrowed.
Kayden gripped the counter."It's testing me again."
"Yes," APEX answered."And this time it appears to be testing the environment as well."
A cold shiver ran up Kayden's spine.
He turned toward the living room—and stopped dead.
Alex was no longer asleep.He was sitting upright, staring at the floor, hands pressed hard against his temples.
Kayden's voice caught. "Alex?"
Alex didn't answer.
Kayden moved closer, slow, cautious—as if approaching a wounded animal.
"Alex… can you hear me?"
Alex flinched, eyes squeezing shut. His breathing was fast, uneven.
"Kayden—" His voice trembled, thin with fear. "Something's… wrong."
Kayden's heart kicked into panic.
"APEX—what's happening to him?"
APEX's response came sharp.
"The signal is not contacting him directly. But he is feeling the echo through your proximity."
Kayden's chest tightened.
The echo.From him.
He knelt in front of Alex, gripping his shoulders.
"Alex. Look at me."
Alex forced his eyes open—and Kayden felt the ground tilt.
Alex's pupils were dilated, not with fear, but with recognition.
"Kayden…" Alex whispered, voice cracking. "I… saw something."
Kayden's grip tightened painfully.
"What did you see?"
Alex swallowed hard. "Not… clear. Just… red sky. Smoke. A shape. Someone standing there. Like… like you, but not you."
Kayden sucked in a breath that felt like ice.
APEX surged.
"Commander—your signatures bled during the earlier connection. Alex has absorbed fragments of anomaly sensory residue."
Kayden stared at his friend, horror washing down his spine.
"You mean… I did this to him?"
"No," APEX corrected."The signal did this through you."
Alex pressed a hand against his forehead, trying to steady himself.
"It felt like… someone was calling you. Not me. But I heard it because—"His voice wavered."—because I was touching you."
Kayden felt the floor vanish beneath him.
He had tried to anchor Alex.Instead, he had exposed him.
He reached forward again, but Alex recoiled—not intentionally, but instinctively, from the echo still vibrating in him.
"Don't," Alex whispered. "Just—don't touch me right now. Not until it stops."
Kayden's hand froze in midair.
It felt like someone had snapped a bone inside him, the pain so unexpected he couldn't breathe for a second.
Alex wasn't rejecting him.Alex was protecting him.But the distance still hurt.
APEX dimmed.
"Commander… you must stabilize him before the echo embeds."
"How?" Kayden rasped.
"By grounding him through your stability."
Kayden laughed under his breath. It wasn't humor."What stability?"
Alex lifted his eyes. "I trust you. Isn't that enough?"
Kayden wished it were. He truly did.
He sat beside Alex, leaving only a handspan between them—a distance that felt like a chasm.
"Okay," Alex said, breathing shakily. "Tell me what to do."
Kayden swallowed.
"Close your eyes."
Alex obeyed.
"Now… focus on your own memories. Not mine. Not anything from last night. Your life. Your anchors."
Alex nodded, jaw clenched.
Kayden continued.
"Think of your mom yelling at you for losing your shoes. Think of your stupid collection of mugs. Think of that chemistry lab you nearly blew up."
Alex let out a weak laugh. "That was one time."
"Think of the world that belongs to you."
Alex inhaled.
Slowly.
Deeply.
The air shuddered—and something unseen snapped like a thread cut loose from the ceiling.
Alex gasped, grabbing the armrest.
The echo broke.
Kayden felt the shift immediately—the lightness returning to the room,the weight leaving Alex's mind,the world's breath returning to something closer to normal.
Alex sagged forward, chest heaving.
"Kayden…" he whispered. "I don't want to hear that voice again."
Kayden moved closer, just enough to place a steady hand on his back.
"You won't," he said.But he didn't believe it.
APEX hovered softly beside them, dim but steady.
"Commander… the signal's behavior is evolving. It is learning emotional angles. It is studying your connections."
Kayden closed his eyes.
That was the part he had feared most.
Not that the signal would take him.But that it would take everyone near him.
He opened his eyes slowly.
"We need to find answers," he said. "Not tomorrow. Not eventually. Now."
Alex nodded, still trembling. "Where do we start?"
Kayden stood, breath steadying into resolve.
"With the only person who's seen the anomaly without collapsing."
Alex blinked. "Phineas?"
Kayden nodded once.
"And this time, we don't let the world breathe wrong without a fight."