Chapter 18 – What You're Hiding
The dreams came without warning.
Yuji had barely closed his eyes before he was standing somewhere else.
Not the subway. Not the golden light of the last dream.
This place was cold. White. Sterile.
And he wasn't alone.
---
Ren was there — but younger. His hair was shorter, his face sharper, thinner.
And he wasn't dressed like the Ren Yuji knew.
He wore a hospital gown. Bare feet on tile.
His wrists were shackled.
---
Yuji's stomach churned.
Before he could speak, voices echoed down the corridor.
Men in white coats.
And behind them, two guards in black tactical gear — the same kind who had come for them days ago.
"Subject 07 has shown increased resonance. Prepare for another synchronization test."
Yuji froze.
Ren didn't move.
Didn't even flinch.
But Yuji felt it — his fear. Not the sharp, immediate kind. The kind that had settled deep in his bones long ago.
---
The scene blurred. Shifted.
Now Ren was strapped to a chair. Electrodes on his skin. A cage of wires around his head.
The hum of machines filled the room.
Yuji's chest tightened until it hurt.
What the hell did they do to you?
He tried to move, to reach him, but his body wouldn't respond. He was just an observer in someone else's nightmare.
The pain that hit him next wasn't his own — it was Ren's.
Raw, blinding agony tearing through every nerve.
And through it, one thought pulsed so loud it drowned out everything else:
I have to survive.
---
"Stop!" Yuji screamed —
And woke up.
---
The subway was still dark.
Ren sat where he had before, awake, watching him with unreadable eyes.
"You saw it."
Yuji's throat was dry. "What was that?"
Ren didn't answer.
"Ren."
Finally, he said: "The reason they want me back."
And nothing else.