The hallway felt too small,
too bright,
too cold.
The boy—
small, barefoot, fragile as glass—
stood only a few steps away.
His eyes were hollow but… bright.
Like embers inside a dying fire.
Rowan clung to my arm, whispering:
"Elle…
he thinks you're—
he thinks you're someone else…"
Chandler planted his body half in front of me,
half in front of Rowan,
eyes never leaving the child.
Horace stepped forward slightly,
shielding me without blocking my view.
Lucian stood frozen,
tablet shaking in his hand.
And Sev—
Sev pressed his forehead to the floor,
hands over his ears,
murmuring:
"…no… no… no Elle…"
Len knelt beside him,
breathing fast,
shoulders hunched as if expecting punishment.
The child took another shaky step.
And whispered:
"…you came back for us…"
My throat tightened.
He looked at me like—
like he knew me.
Not recognizing,
but believing.
Chandler muttered under his breath:
"Lucian.
Say something before I break."
Lucian swallowed.
"This child is… impossible."
Rowan snapped, voice trembling.
"Lucian—!
Explain!"
Lucian moved closer, crouching a little to study the collar.
"That's a Phase Zero restraint."
Chandler frowned.
"And that means… what?"
Lucian exhaled.
"Phase Zero was the first version of the program.
Primitive.
Crude.
Built before any data was collected."
He looked up at us.
"At a time when the project didn't have a Primary Subject yet."
Rowan blinked.
"So who were they conditioned to?
If Elliot wasn't here yet—"
Lucian hesitated.
"Someone else."
Horace's eyes narrowed.
"Elleanore."
I sucked in a sharp breath.
Chandler stiffened.
Rowan's eyes widened in horror.
"No—no, that makes no sense—Elle wasn't even enrolled yet—she was living outside—she was—"
Lucian interrupted softly.
"Rowan.
Elliot enrolled early."
Rowan stopped mid-breath.
Lucian continued.
"He enrolled early
because one of the twins had to."
A gasp escaped me.
"No—
my parents would never—
they couldn't—"
Lucian shook his head.
"They didn't send you."
Chandler clenched his fists.
"They sent Elliot."
Lucian nodded.
"To protect you.
Because the Academy wanted the twin with the higher stability."
Rowan whispered:
"…Elle had it."
I stared.
At the child.
At Sev.
At Len.
At the old chairs lining the walls.
At the nightmare corridor.
Lucian's voice was barely audible:
"Elleanore…
B7 wasn't built for him.
It was built for the twin they wanted."
The child took another step.
Raising his trembling hands.
Reaching—
like he expected me to take them.
"Elle…
you said you'd come back…"
Rowan shook his head, trembling violently.
"She—she wasn't here—
that wasn't her—
that wasn't even Elliot—
so who—
who did they—?"
Horace answered quietly:
"They didn't have her.
So they trained them
to respond to her scent profile.
Her biological signature.
Her resonance."
Chandler nodded slowly.
"A ghost version of her."
Lucian whispered:
"They conditioned them based on what she could have been…
if she had been taken instead of Elliot."
My stomach twisted.
"So they built a profile of me
from Elliot's body
and forced these children
to imprint on it."
Lucian nodded.
"Yes."
The child's eyes lit with faint recognition—
as if hearing the word "imprint."
He reached out again.
"…Elle…
don't leave again…"
Rowan broke.
He fell to his knees, shaking his head violently.
"No—no no no—
Elle wasn't here—
she didn't leave them—
she didn't abandon them—
she didn't—she didn't—"
Chandler dropped beside him,
one arm wrapping around Rowan's shaking shoulders.
Horace touched the back of my hand with gentle force.
"Elleanore…
you didn't choose this."
Sev slowly lifted his head—
just enough to look at the child.
His voice cracked in pain.
"…no Elle…
no hurt Elle…"
Lucian frowned.
"They're afraid he'll trigger something."
Chandler stood.
"Horace—
move her back."
But before he could—
The child collapsed.
His knees buckled,
and he dropped to the floor,
the collar sparking.
Sev screamed.
Len lunged forward without thinking—
even with bound hands—
and tried to reach him.
The child whimpered.
"…hurt…
hurts again…
Elle… help…"
I rushed forward despite Horace's warning arm.
"Elleanore!" he barked.
But the child reached for me—
and something undeniable happened.
The collar stopped sparking
the moment my shadow fell over him.
Rowan gasped.
Lucian's eyes widened.
Chandler froze mid-step.
Horace's breath caught.
Len stared.
Sev whispered:
"…Elle… safe…"
Because the collar—
the thing designed to punish the child—
stopped hurting him
when I approached.
Lucian whispered:
"Elleanore.
You deactivate their suppression stimuli."
I knelt.
The child touched my hand with trembling fingers.
Warm.
Small.
Human.
"…Elle…
we waited…
we waited so long…"
My voice trembled.
"What's your name?"
He blinked.
Name?
He didn't have one.
He searched his memory.
His expression scrunched in confusion.
Then—
"…Zero…"
Lucian sucked in a breath.
Horace's jaw clenched.
Chandler closed his eyes.
Rowan covered his mouth and cried.
I whispered:
"No.
Not Zero."
He blinked.
"You're not Zero."
I held his hand.
"You deserve a name."
He breathed softly.
Hope stirring.
Sev crawled closer, whispering:
"…Elle name…"
Len nodded eagerly.
"…Elle… name…"
Horace looked at me with a rare, gentle expression.
Chandler placed a hand on the small boy's back carefully.
Rowan whispered:
"Give him one, Elle…"
I looked at the boy's pale, frightened face.
At the life they tried to erase.
At the anchor he thought I was.
Then I whispered:
"…Elo."
His breath hitched.
"E…
lo…"
His lips tugged into a small, heartbreaking smile.
"…Elo."
Lucian whispered:
"That's a good name."
Chandler nodded.
"Fits him."
Horace touched his shoulder.
"Welcome, Elo."
Elo leaned into my side, trembling.
Not out of fear—
but relief.
Rowan wiped his face and whispered:
"Elle…
we have to help him…
we can't leave him here."
Lucian nodded.
"And we won't.
But Elo isn't the only Phase Zero subject."
He looked deeper down the hallway.
"There are more."
I tightened my grip on Elo's small hand.
"What's down there?"
Lucian's expression darkened.
"The place they took Elliot
after this floor."
Rowan stiffened.
Chandler's stance shifted.
Horace placed his hand on my back.
Elo looked up at me.
"…Elle…
others wait too…"
I swallowed.
"We're going to them."
Lucian nodded.
"We follow the resonance path."
Sev stood and took my left hand.
Len stood and took my right sleeve.
And Elo—
small and trembling—
held onto my fingers like he'd been waiting years.
I whispered:
"Let's go."
And together,
surrounded by children the Academy tried to erase,
we stepped deeper into B7's heart.
Where the Lights Don't Reach
Elo clung to my hand like it was the only thing keeping him from slipping back into darkness.
Sev held my other hand tightly, fingers cold and trembling.
Len hovered close behind us, breathing in quick, shallow bursts.
We walked deeper into B7,
each step echoing like the building itself was listening.
Rowan, still raw from everything, stayed directly behind me.
His eyes kept darting to Elo—
with pity,
with fear,
with heartbreak.
Chandler stayed ahead, moving with calculated caution.
His posture was tense—
not fear, but instinct.
Horace mirrored him on the left side,
close enough to shield me at a moment's notice.
Lucian walked to the right, scanning the walls with his tablet.
"It's reacting again," he murmured.
"The system is focused on her."
Chandler shot him a look.
"You mean watching her."
Lucian didn't deny it.
"B7 is tracking her steps, her heat signature, her scent markers.
Every panel lights up when she passes."
Rowan whispered:
"Like the floor is… greeting her."
Horace frowned.
"Or preparing for something."
Elo tugged my sleeve lightly.
When I looked down, he pointed ahead.
"…Elle…
light… stops."
I squinted.
The corridor ahead dimmed sharply,
as if someone had turned off the lights one panel at a time.
Lucian paled.
"That's not a power failure."
Chandler gripped the nearest railing.
"I swear, if this building tries to eat us—"
"No," Lucian cut in, "it's not an attack.
It's recalibrating."
Rowan blinked.
"For what?"
Lucian swallowed.
"For her."
Horace steadied me with a soft hand at my back.
"Elleanore—
stay close."
I nodded.
But the darkness didn't swallow us whole—
it waited.
Like a curtain waiting to be pulled aside.
And when we stepped into it—
the lights behind us shut off.
Rowan inhaled sharply.
"D-Don't—don't leave us in the dark—please—"
Chandler placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You're okay.
We're right here."
Elo caught my sleeve with both hands now.
Sev pressed into my side.
Len grabbed Chandler's coat before he drifted too far.
Lucian's voice echoed softly through the dark:
"Stay calm.
It's guiding us."
THE CHAMBER OF GLASS
The darkness faded.
Not with light—
but with reflection.
We walked into a circular room lined with tall, transparent panels.
But they weren't mirrors.
They were screens.
Chandler swore under his breath.
Horace stiffened.
Rowan flinched violently.
Because each panel lit up with glowing symbols—
not letters,
not numbers.
Patterns.
The same fractal shapes Sev had drawn earlier.
The same looping shapes Len traced in the dust of B6.
The same spiraling designs Elo doodled on the wall with his fingertip moments ago.
Lucian breathed:
"Oh my god."
Rowan clutched my sleeve.
"L-Lucian…?
What is this…?"
Lucian turned slowly, staring at every panel.
"This chamber…
this isn't conditioning."
Chandler snorted.
"Then what is it?"
Lucian swallowed.
"…It's imprint mapping."
Horace spoke quietly:
"Meaning…?"
Lucian looked at me.
"It maps how a subject bonds to a primary anchor."
Rowan's throat tightened.
"You mean Elle."
Lucian nodded.
"And the patterns around us—
these aren't from Elliot."
He pointed at the spirals Sev recognized.
"These were created by the Phase Zero cohort."
Rowan whispered:
"By the children…"
Len reached out and touched one of the glowing lines.
It pulsed under his fingertip.
He gasped softly,
as if remembering something painful.
Sev mirrored him,
trembling fingers brushing the edges of a different panel.
Elo hesitated,
then touched the lowest spiral—
the one at his height.
All three patterns lit brighter.
Rowan clapped a hand over his mouth.
"They—
they were conditioned based on her…"
Lucian nodded.
"They weren't just trained to respond to her profile."
He stepped close to one panel.
"They were taught to depend on her."
Chandler stiffened.
Horace's hand on my back froze.
Rowan whispered:
"That's…
that's sick…
they took children and made them attach to someone who wasn't even here yet—"
Lucian sighed.
"That's not all."
He turned the tablet so we could see.
The Phase Zero imprint pattern—
glowing on one screen—
didn't match me.
It matched…
Elliot.
Rowan blinked.
"Why does it look like Elliot's resonance?"
Lucian exhaled shakily.
"Because in the early days,
they didn't have Elleanore's biological data."
He looked at me.
"So they used her twin."
My chest tightened.
Rowan trembled violently.
"They—
they built their bond to Elle
by using Elliot as a template—
and then told them that imprint was the real thing…"
Lucian nodded.
"Yes.
They used Elliot's resonance because of its stability.
And because—"
He hesitated.
"…because Elliot responded to one name
more strongly than any other."
My voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Mine."
Lucian nodded.
"They used the imprint Elliot had for you
to build a prototype bond for the Phase Zero children."
Rowan choked on a breath.
"So when they see Elle now—
they think she's the anchor they were trained for—
because she smells like Elliot—
because Elliot smelled like her—
because they used her name—"
Chandler's jaw clenched.
"That's messed up."
Horace's voice dropped low.
"It also means something else."
Lucian nodded grimly.
"They didn't stop with Phase Zero."
He pointed to the far left panel.
The shapes were sharper.
More complex.
More tightly wound.
"These are Phase One."
He pointed again.
"These are Phase Two."
(Sev.)
"These are Phase Three."
(Len.)
"And Phase Four…"
Lucian's voice dropped to a whisper.
"…doesn't exist here."
Rowan swallowed.
"Phase Four…
that was Elliot."
Lucian nodded.
"Elliot wasn't their first subject.
He was their final one."
Chandler's voice cracked.
"They perfected the program on kids
before they ever touched him?"
Lucian nodded slowly.
"Yes."
Elo tugged my sleeve.
"…Elle…
more room…
this way…"
Sev whimpered.
Len trembled.
Rowan clutched my arm.
Horace and Chandler braced.
Lucian exhaled.
"Follow him.
He remembers more than we do."
THE DOOR WITH NO HANDLE
Elo led us to a small passage
that split off from the chamber.
A dead-end.
Or so it seemed.
Lucian frowned.
"My map stops here."
Chandler pressed his palm to the wall.
"No handle."
Rowan pointed.
"What about that panel?"
Lucian touched it.
Nothing happened.
Horace stepped beside me.
"Elleanore."
I touched the panel.
It lit instantly.
Rowan sucked in a breath.
Chandler whispered:
"This place really is obsessed with her."
The wall shuddered.
Then slid open.
Revealing a small, narrow room—
barely larger than a closet.
Inside was a single slab—
a metal platform—
and a screen on the wall.
Lucian inhaled sharply.
"This is a resonance chamber."
Rowan blinked.
"What does that mean?"
Lucian stared at the platform.
"This is where they extracted the imprint pattern."
Chandler frowned.
"Of Elliot?"
Lucian shook his head slowly.
"No.
Of the original anchor."
Rowan's eyes widened.
"Elleanore."
But Lucian's expression was wrong.
Strained.
Conflicted.
I stepped closer.
"Lucian.
Say it."
He swallowed.
"Elleanore…
this chamber does not match your biological markers."
I blinked.
"Then who does it belong to?"
Lucian hesitated.
Then whispered:
"It belongs to someone with your scent profile.
Someone the children called 'Elle.'
Someone who came before Elliot."
Rowan whispered, horrified:
"You mean…
someone who looked like her?"
Lucian nodded.
"Possibly.
A relative.
A predecessor.
Someone the Academy tried to copy."
Chandler stared.
"A prototype Elle."
Horace's fingers brushed my arm gently.
"Someone they wanted her to replace."
Lucian stepped back from the chamber.
"And if that's true…
then whoever she was—
she's tied to Elliot's case."
The lights flickered.
Elo squeezed my hand.
"…Elle…
she cried…
here…"
Sev pressed against my side, whimpering.
Len covered his ears.
Lucian's voice shook:
"Elleanore…
this room…
is where the original anchor broke."
My breath stopped.
Rowan gasped.
Chandler whispered:
"That's why Elliot was chosen."
Horace stared at the chamber, grief and rage rising in his eyes.
Lucian nodded.
"Yes."
He pointed at the panel
where ancient code flickered.
"Because the original anchor
was gone."
The room seemed to tilt around me.
I whispered:
"Gone…
as in dead?"
Lucian swallowed hard.
"Or missing."
Rowan looked at me, voice breaking:
"Elle…
you weren't the first."
I felt the truth settle like ice in my lungs.
And then Elo whispered something that turned my blood cold:
"…Elle…
she looked
just like you…"