POV: Dominic
The report in my hands made no sense.
"Twelve players hospitalized. Twenty more seeking psychological counseling. Fear energy readings three hundred percent above allowed limits. And they're paying for this?"
My assistant, Kade, nodded uncomfortably. "Yes, Commander. The Underground Arcade has a waiting list. People are fighting to play this game. They call it Silent Apartment 404."
I read the medical reports again. B-rank Warriors coming from a two-hour game session with Spirit crystals so engorged with fear energy they needed emergency draining. Players reporting experiences that felt "too real." Nightmares lasting for days.
One player's statement stood out: "It knew things about me nobody knows. It reached inside my head and pulled out my worst memories, then made them worse. I'll never be the same."
This wasn't normal feeling harvesting. This was something new. Something dangerous.
Something that made the Spirit Contract binding my chest pulse with warning.
"The Council wants it shut down immediately," Kade continued. "Should I send a team?"
"No." The word came out harsher than meant. "I'll handle this personally."
Kade blinked. "Sir? You usually don't examine minor illegal operations yourself—"
"This isn't minor." I stood, ignoring the sharp pain in my ribs. The Spirit Contract was getting worse. Five years of absorbing attacks meant for Aria had left me with poison eating through my heart. I had months left. Maybe weeks.
But I'd made a promise to a dying woman. Protect my daughter, no matter what happens to you.
I planned to keep it.
Even if Aria hated me for what I'd done. Even if she'd never know the truth. Even if watching her with Celeste at the engagement party—seeing the hurt in her eyes—had nearly broken me.
Everything I'd done was to save her life. The split. The brutality. The public humiliation at the Council meeting.
All of it to cause the awakening her mother warned me about. To break the seal holding Aria weak before Celeste could— No. Not Celeste.
The thing wearing Celeste's face.
I'd known for five years. Since the day I made the Spirit Contract and saw through the Mimic's mask. But the contract prevented me from revealing the truth immediately. All I could do was push Aria away, keep her safe, and hope she'd awaken before it was too late.
Now someone was making games powerful enough to catch the Council's attention. Games that generated fear energy unlike anything known.
The time couldn't be coincidence.
"Get the Guards," I ordered. "We leave in ten minutes."
"Sir, if I may ask—why the personal attention?"
I looked at him. Kade had served under me for three years. Good worker. Loyal. But he didn't need to know about the woman I'd destroyed myself protecting.
"Because whoever made this game," I said quietly, "is either the most dangerous person in New Cascadia, or the most valuable. Either way, I need to see them myself."
The Underground Arcade stank of hopelessness and illegal Spirit energy. We descended through the plant, Guards flanking me. The monitoring spell I'd cast earlier showed dozens of heat signatures inside. Crowded. Chaotic.
Perfect place for someone to hide.
My chest hurt worse with every step. The Contract buzzed, sensing something.
She's here.
My heart rate jumped. Aria. She was close.
Was she involved? Had she somehow made these games? Impossible. She was D-rank. Barely had enough power to run basic equipment.
Unless the waking had worked. Unless she'd finally remembered.
We entered the big arcade space. Chaos everywhere. Spirit Warriors crowded around a single terminal, screaming. Bidding. Fighting for turns.
I scanned the crowd carefully. Looking for— There.
A hooded figure in the dark. Head down, trying to blend into the wall. But I'd remembered every line of her body during our three months together. The way she held her shoulders when nervous. The exact tilt of her head when she was watching something carefully.
Aria.
My chest stopped hurting for the first time in weeks. The Contract recognized her. Protected. Safe.
She was living. After three days of radio quiet following the hearing, I'd feared the worst. Feared Celeste had made her move. Feared I'd failed.
But here she was. Alive. And unless I was wrong, she was standing right next to the gate everyone was fighting over.
She'd made this. Somehow, impossibly, Aria had built something powerful enough to create fear energy that broke all known limits.
The waking had worked.
Pride rushed through me. Fierce and surprising. She'd done it. Against impossible odds, she'd— Her eyes met mine across the busy room.
I saw the exact moment she recognized me. Saw fear flash across her face. Then something harder. Colder. The look of someone who thought I was here to hurt her.
My chest ached for different reasons now.
I'm sorry, I wanted to say. I'm sorry for every hard word, every cruel moment, every time I had to push you away. I'm sorry you had to hurt. But you're living. You're strong. You survived.
Instead, I mouthed: "Found you."
Her eyes went wide. Then she ran.
Straight for the back exit. Moving fast. Spirit Warrior reactions even at D-rank giving her speed.
My Guards moved to follow.
"Stop," I ordered.
They froze, confused.
"Sir, she's escaping—"
"I know." I watched Aria disappear through the exit. Let her go.
Because I needed to understand what she'd made first. Needed to know if she was dangerous or just desperate. Needed to figure out how to protect her from what was coming without making things worse.
And most importantly, needed to understand why the Spirit Contract in my chest was yelling warnings louder than it had in five years.
Something was wrong. Something beyond just Aria making powerful games.
I approached the station. The crowd parted uncomfortably. Everyone recognized the War Commander's badge.
SILENT APARTMENT 404 glowed on the cracked screen.
"I want to play," I said.
The woman running the arcade—Lyric Winters, daughter of Council Member Winters who'd been removed for corruption—stepped forward. "Commander Ashford. I wasn't expecting—" "The game. Now."
She paused. Smart woman. Knew this was a trap.
But also knew refusing the War Commander would end badly.
"It's intense," she warned. "B-rank Warriors are crying. You're S-rank, so maybe you'll handle it better. Or maybe—" "I said now. "
I placed my Spirit crystal. The interface synced. Lyric backed away, looking nervous.
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
The screen went black.
Then the game started.
—
I'd faced reality-warping Spirits. Fought in the Haunted Wastes. Survived fights that killed dozens of Warriors. I thought I understood fear.
I was wrong.
The apartment appeared around me. Dark. Silent. Ordinary.
Then I heard it. A voice from the bedroom.
"Dominic? Is that you?"
My blood turned to ice.
That voice. I knew that voice.
"I've been waiting so long. Where have you been?"
The bedroom door opened. And standing there, wearing the face of someone dead five years— Aria's mother.
The woman whose Spirit Contract was killing me. Who'd made me promise to protect her daughter. Who'd died in my arms knowing terrible facts about what Aria really was.
She smiled. "We need to talk about what you've done to my daughter. About all the lies you've told. About what's going to happen when she learns the truth about that night."
This wasn't chance. This wasn't just scary gaming.
Aria had made something that reached into the player's mind and pulled out their deepest secrets. Their worst memories.
She'd made a game that knew things it shouldn't know.
And if she learned what this game could show her about me—about the deal I'd really made, about what her mother had asked me to do if the waking failed— Everything would fall apart.
The flat walls started bleeding. Her mother's face started to rot. And her voice turned accusing.
"You were supposed to kill her, Dominic. If she woke wrong, if she became the monster, you promised you'd end it. But you're too weak, aren't you? Too in love. And now everyone's going to die because you couldn't pull the gun."
I tried to stop. Yanked at my Spirit crystal.
It wouldn't move.
The game held me trapped. And Aria's mother's body stepped closer, smiling with broken teeth.
"She's going to find out what you are. What you were sent to do. And when she does, she'll never forgive you."
The walls closed in. The room became a coffin.
And I realized with cold certainty: Aria hadn't just made a weapon.
She'd made something that could expose every truth I'd killed myself hiding.