We walked for what felt like hours.
Adrian stayed silent, and so did I. There wasn't much to say. Every step through the fleshy subway tunnel echoed like footsteps on a wet tongue. Every light above us flickered like it was afraid to stay on too long.
The deeper we went, the louder the hum became.
Not mechanical. Not electrical.
It was a voice, deep in the walls, humming a lullaby in reverse.
> "Layer Two: False Echoes – Initiated."
The system's cold whisper sent a chill up my spine.
The tunnel ended abruptly.
And we found ourselves standing in front of something that didn't make any sense at all.
A vending machine.
In the middle of a train platform.
No tracks. No train. Just that one vending machine, glowing like it belonged in a school hallway, not a hell-drenched tunnel full of lost memories and stitched mouths.
Adrian scowled. "This some kind of joke?"
I walked toward it.
It looked normal.
Candy bars. Bottled water. Cans of soda. The prices were wrong—everything cost 1 Regret.
Then the system spoke again.
---
[NEW MISSION]
Sin Type: Greed
Task: "Resist the Offer."
Objective: Do Not Buy Anything.
Time Limit: 10 Minutes
Warning: Interaction Triggers a Choice That Cannot Be Undone.
---
"Simple enough," Adrian said. "Just don't touch it."
But that was before we heard her voice.
Faint.
From behind the machine.
"Help…"
A girl. Whispering. Crying.
I circled around the vending machine.
No one was there.
But the sound continued.
Then something moved on the screen.
My reflection.
But it wasn't me.
It was a smiling version of me. Eyes wide. Mouth twitching unnaturally. It raised its hand and pressed it against the inside of the glass.
Adrian stepped back.
"This is a trap."
"No shit."
Then the screen blinked.
---
[Special Offer – One Memory Restored]
Cost: One Regret.
Insert Hand Below.
---
I looked down.
A small slot had opened beneath the vending machine. Inside was a perfect replica of my hand, molded in black resin. I didn't want to know what it was made from.
Adrian grabbed my arm. "Don't."
"I'm not stupid," I said. But I couldn't stop staring at it. What memory would I get back? What part of myself?
And then she appeared.
A girl in a school uniform, standing across the platform. Blonde. Freckles. Her eyes were wide with panic.
"You shouldn't be here!" she hissed, running toward us. "Don't touch it—he's watching!"
Adrian nearly fell over. "Who the hell—?"
She slid to a stop beside us and slapped my hand away from the machine.
"I've seen people die here," she snapped. "You buy something, it buys something from you."
I blinked. "Who are you?"
She didn't answer right away.
Instead, she pulled a badge from her pocket. It was cracked, worn, covered in dried blood.
DEVIL HUNTER INITIATE: UNIT 9 — NAME: HARPER KELLEHER
"You're… a devil hunter?" I whispered.
She nodded.
"Thought that was a rumor."
She looked over her shoulder. "That's the point."
---
She led us off the platform and through a crumbling door into an old stairwell that led upward—away from the vending machine and its twitching screen.
Inside the stairwell, it felt like the air could breathe again.
Adrian still looked stunned. "What the hell is a Devil Hunter doing here?"
Harper looked at us, her eyes sharp. "We're not here by choice. We're here because we broke something. Same as you."
I swallowed. "You were pulled in?"
"No," she said coldly. "I volunteered."
Silence.
The stairwell groaned around us.
She leaned against the wall. "Look. You both passed the first layer. That means the system thinks you're worth something. It doesn't just test you. It rebuilds you. Or erases you."
She paused.
"But the deeper you go, the more it fights back. You start seeing things you never did. Feeling guilt that isn't yours. Living lives you never lived. That's the price of touching memory in here."
Adrian looked pale. "So we can't trust anything we remember?"
She nodded. "Not even each other."
---
> [MISSION RESULT: SUCCESS]
No interaction made.
False memory trap avoided.
New Ally Identified: Harper Kelleher
Status: Unstable / Untrustworthy / Trained
---
I leaned against the wall, staring at the vending machine light still flickering behind us.
"If that was a trap," I said, "who was the girl crying behind it?"
Harper looked me in the eye.
"She was someone else's sin."
"And what happens if I had listened to her?" I asked.
Her face darkened. "Then you'd become her memory instead of your own."
---
Before we could ask anything else, a loud metal clang echoed through the stairwell.
The walls trembled.
The floor split.
And we were falling again.
But this time, I didn't land in darkness.
I landed in a hospital room.
Bright lights.
Cold sheets.
Monitors beeping.
And beside the bed—my mother. Crying.
She looked at me and whispered:
"You promised you'd never leave me alone again…"
I tried to speak.
But I couldn't remember why this moment felt real.
Or if it ever was.