The motel room was silent now — too silent — as if the very air were afraid to breathe.
Maya stood barefoot on the cracked tile, staring into the mirror's broken face. Her skin was still faintly glowing, the blue veins of light ebbing like slow lightning beneath the surface.
She could feel it.
The ripple.
Like a memory clawing through her mind with no permission, no context.
Then the world fractured.
Not outside — inside her.
A sharp, invisible pull wrenched her backward, and suddenly she wasn't in the room anymore.
She was somewhere else.
Flashback Realm – The Memory Core
A hallway of infinite black glass. No ceiling, no floor — just reflections upon reflections. It pulsed with an ethereal hum, vibrating through her bones. A weightless space carved from forgotten truths.
She walked forward. Or floated — she wasn't sure.
Then she saw him.
Kai.
Shirtless. Eyes silver like mercury in motion. Scars across his chest that glowed like the ones on her own body. But in this place, he looked whole — more real than she'd ever seen him.
He turned to her slowly, as if he had been waiting.
"You came back," he said.
"I didn't mean to."
"You never do. But I always wait."
Her heart stumbled.
"What are you to me?"
Kai stepped forward, close enough for her to feel the heat of his skin without touching.
"I'm the part they erased. The voice you silenced. The hunger you buried to become what they needed."
She shook her head, but something inside her cracked.
"You're not real."
His hand brushed her cheek. It burned and comforted all at once.
"I'm real because you are. You and I… we were one. They took you and made you obedient. They took me and made me dangerous. Together, we were truth. Apart, we're just half-truths pretending to survive."
The black glass around them shimmered.
Scenes unfolded in the reflection:
— A lab, cold and sterile. Two bodies suspended in fluid — Maya and Kai, side by side.— Scientists arguing, "Split them. Make her docile."— Kai screaming in silence as he was torn from her mind.
Maya's knees buckled.
"I remember," she whispered.
Kai caught her.
"I wanted to protect you. But they made you forget me. Made me the infection."
"But you're not, are you?"
"I'm the part of you that fights back."
The air pulsed.
He leaned in, his breath warm on her lips.
And then—
Liam's voice. Distant. Muffled.
"Maya—wake up. Maya!"
Back in the Motel Room
She jolted, gasping, eyes wide and shimmering with tears.
Liam held her shoulders, his own face pale and rattled.
"You were gone," he said, voice shaking. "You just stopped moving. What happened?"
Maya blinked. The room snapped into focus. The bed. The mirror. The shattered lamp.
"I saw him. I saw everything."
"Kai?"
She nodded. "He's not haunting me. He's… part of me. They split us in the lab. He was the other half. The strong one. The defiant one."
Liam exhaled, stunned. "Then you were made to be—"
"Controlled," she finished. "But I'm not going to be anymore."
Their eyes locked.
Maya moved closer. Not just physically — emotionally, spiritually. Her fingers tangled with his shirt, her breath warm against his throat.
"I need you to help me stay grounded," she whispered. "If I lose myself to him…"
"You won't," Liam promised.
His lips brushed hers again, but this time it was slower. Not rushed. Not desperate.
It was anchored.
But even as heat built between them again, Maya could feel Kai just beneath her skin.
Waiting.
Watching.
Whispering—
"You're stronger with me. Don't forget that."