The tunnels breathed.
They shouldn't have—concrete and steel don't inhale—
but tonight they did.
The air pulsed in and out of the narrow corridors,
as if some giant lung controlled the world beneath the city.
My head throbbed with every pulse.
Lira moved ahead of me, disruptor raised, footsteps light and quiet.
Her braid swung like a dark metronome guiding my direction.
She kept glancing back.
"Elias, stay with me," she whispered.
"You're drifting again."
I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't "drifting."
I was lagging, seeing frames of reality half a second late.
When Lira turned a corner, I still saw her standing in the corridor we'd left.
When she spoke, her words echoed twice.
My mind wasn't syncing with the world.
The piece ripped out of me had taken more than memories—it had taken stability.
From the corner of my eye, I caught movement—Marin.
She flickered beside me, then ahead of me, then behind,
never fully solid.
"Eli," she whispered, "you're falling apart."
Lira froze and lifted a hand.
"Stop. Something's ahead."
We crouched behind a rusted ventilation pipe.
The tunnel ahead glowed faintly red—
emergency lights powered by forgotten backup systems.
Footsteps echoed in the distance.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Dragging.
The shadow.
Lira mouthed silently:
Keep quiet.
But then I felt something.
A sharp, biting pressure in my head—
like claws scratching at the inside of my skull.
The shadow's voice crawled through my mind.
"You cannot run.
You are incomplete.
You need me."
My breath hitched.
Lira grabbed my arm harshly.
"Elias. Look at me."
But my gaze drifted past her.
Down the tunnel,
in the red-lit dark,
a figure stepped forward.
Tall.
Wrong.
Limbs bending too many ways.
The shadow.
Except—
this time…
He had a face.
My face.
A distorted, stretched version—
mouth too wide,
eyes too bright,
cheeks too hollow.
He smiled with my smile,
but broken, like a bad mirror.
I stumbled backward.
Lira saw it too and swore softly.
"Oh no. No no no. He took your template."
The shadow—my shadow—tilted his head.
"Does this disturb you?"
he asked, with my own voice layered under his.
"It should."
Lira stepped in front of me.
"Don't listen to him."
The shadow's eyes glowed.
"Why not? He's listening to me."
My vision clouded again.
The walls warped—
curving in directions they shouldn't.
Memory fragments bled into the tunnel:
Ari's hand in mine.
Marin laughing.
A birthday we never had.
A hospital bed.
A cold room with Theta etched on the door.
Too fast. Too many.
I staggered, clutching my head.
"Elias—hey—HEY—stay with me!" Lira yelled.
Her voice broke through the blur.
The shadow's false face twisted.
"You're weak without me.
You're unraveling.
Let me anchor you."
Behind him—
something flickered.
Small.
Silver.
Faint.
Marin.
She appeared for less than a second—
just long enough to scream silently before glitching back out.
The shadow chuckled.
"Your sister is fading.
She was always the fragile one."
Rage struck me like a jolt of electricity.
"Don't talk about her."
He laughed.
"You don't even remember what she meant to you."
My breath froze.
"What… did she mean to me?"
Silence.
For the first time, he hesitated.
Just a fraction of a second.
But enough.
Lira noticed.
"Elias—he's hiding something."
The shadow snarled, glitching violently.
"Be silent."
Lira stepped forward, voice low, fearless.
"You took a memory that connects Elias and Marin. Something important. If he remembered it, she wouldn't be fading."
The shadow flickered.
His stolen face rippled.
"Irrelevant."
Lira pointed her disruptor at his chest.
"Then show us."
Static filled the tunnel.
The shadow screamed—
a metallic screech that made the walls tremble.
"YOU ARE NOT READY FOR THAT MEMORY."
The air vibrated.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Lira grabbed my hand.
"Run. Move. NOW."
We sprinted down the tunnel, boots slamming against concrete.
Behind us, the shadow's body twisted, elongating, chasing—
But the tunnel itself began to warp around us,
corridors bending in impossible angles.
I tripped.
Lira dragged me upright.
"Don't stop!"
Marin flickered beside us, clutching her head.
"I can't hold on, Eli—something's missing—something YOU knew—"
"WHAT?" I shouted. "What did he take?!"
She looked at me with despairing eyes.
"The memory that made me real to you."
The shadow roared behind us.
Walls trembled.
Lights flickered.
The ground split.
Lira pulled me toward a ladder.
"Up! Do it now!"
I climbed, every rung feeling like it weighed a hundred pounds.
As we reached the top—
the shadow slammed into the wall below, shaking the ladder violently.
Lira grabbed my wrist and hauled me through a maintenance hatch.
We crashed onto cold floorboards.
The hatch slammed shut behind us.
Silence.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe.
Lira leaned against the wall, eyes wide, chest heaving.
"That was too close. Too damn close."
I sat on the floor, shaking.
Marin flickered into existence beside me—only half a silhouette now.
"Eli…"
Her voice sounded like a fading recording.
"If you don't get the memory back… I won't survive."
I swallowed hard.
"What… memory?"
Marin whispered—
"Don't you remember the first promise you made to me?"
My heart dropped.
"I… I don't."
A tear slipped down her glitching cheek.
"That's the one he took."
The lights flickered.
The shadow's voice echoed through the walls.
"And you will never get it back."