Zeka and Liora stepped out into the hallway. Six days had passed; today had to be the results of their heart activation trial. Ahead of them, the scientist stood with his back turned, his voice flat.
"Experiment Number 1009."
Zeka watched the man unlatch a hidden door—the same one Akari had entered yesterday. Without a word, the scientist stepped into the dark beyond. Zeka exchanged a quick, uneasy look with Liora, then followed into the gloom.
The door clicked shut, swallowing the light. In the center of the dark room, the scientist held a small metallic cage. Beside him sat an ancient, weathered chair—a bizarre contrast to the pristine facility outside.
"Sit," the scientist commanded.
Zeka lowered himself onto the worn seat. The scientist gripped the cage and sat beside him, shrouded in heavy silence.
Out in the hallway, Liora stared at the sealed door.
A tap on her shoulder made her jump. She spun—and froze. The scientist stood right behind her.
Didn't he just walk inside with Zeka?
His presence felt wrong. Weaker. Hollow. Before her mind could catch up, he seized her arm and led her toward the main experiment room. He pointed to the operating table, then reached down to pick up a glowing cage from the floor.
That wasn't there before. Her pulse quickened as she lay back.
The scientist sat beside her and let out a deep, heavy breath. Liora went rigid. He never exhaled like that. He had never shown a single shred of human fatigue.
He unlatched the cage.
Blinding white light erupted. A high-pitched, unnatural shriek tore through the room, and Liora squeezed her eyes shut against the searing glare and deafening noise.
Silence stretched, heavy and unnatural. Zeka shifted in the chair, the sheer length of the stillness gnawing at his nerves.
Finally, the scientist unlatched his cage.
Pitch blackness spilled out. An impossible, unnatural shape slid from the metal frame and lunged onto Zeka's arm. Horror rooted him to the spot. It didn't just crawl—it melted into him, fusing with his skin like molten armor before dissolving straight through his flesh. It sank into his cells, bonding with his bones. A strange, sickening pressure pulsed deep inside his chest, reshaping him from the inside out.
Zeka surged out of the chair—and gasped. The scientist was gone.
For a split second, the world flickered wild, blood-red, then snapped back to normal. Heart hammering, Zeka stepped forward and scooped up the empty cage, staring at its strange circular frame and pitted holes.
BOOM.
The shockwave blasted him off his feet. Smoke choked out the oxygen, knotting Zeka's throat as he scrambled up and sprinted for the exit.
The laboratory was gone. Fire roared through the crumbling ruins. He burst into what remained of the main hall, and his stomach plummeted.
The younger kids were already burned to ashes. Genseki and Akari lay collapsed in the inferno, their skin stripped away, blood pooling on the scorched floor. Horrified, Zeka stumbled backward and hit the dirt hard. A few feet away, Hayato and Hayaru thrashed in the snow, beating their flaming heads against the ground in a desperate, useless attempt to douse the fire.
Liora.
He scrambled up and sprinted toward the experiment room. Shattered glass glittered in the firelight, reflecting the blaze closing in on her. She was trapped on the other side of a massive fallen tree.
He didn't think; he just jumped.
Mid-air, something snagged him. A cold iron scythe hooked into the back of his coat, jerking him backward.
Zeka twisted around. It was the shadowy figure from the woods. Towering and motionless, the creature hadn't even stepped forward—it had simply extended its scythe and trapped him. Zeka kicked and thrashed, but the figure caught him by the torso with a second arm, lifted him high, and swung the scythe through the air.
Reality shattered. A jagged rift tore through space, echoing with the shrieks of a thousand begging souls.
Panic seized Zeka as he spun, searching for any way out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Liora reaching toward him, her face streaked with tears.
He thought she was crying because of where he was being dragged.
He didn't feel the blade pass through his back. He only noticed the bloody tip of the scythe sprouting from his own chest, inches from his face.
His vision went dark, and the world faded to black.