"That's weird. Why is…"
Hana trailed off, staring at her right hand as if it belonged to someone else.
A strange light pulsed beneath her skin. Soft, pale, and nothing like the radioactive glow she was used to. It shimmered almost like moonlight, cool and foreign.
"Is this a good thing or a bad thing…?" she muttered, turning her hand over.
The glow didn't fade.
It didn't even flicker.
It simply was, humming faintly like a second presence inside her.
She glanced toward where Haazi had been, slumped in the chair she'd created when she was testing her power, but her breath caught.
He was gone.
No blood.
No footprints.
No sound.
Just… gone.
As if he had vanished the moment she looked away.
Hana's stomach twisted. She scanned the wrecked room, the melted tube, the shattered glass, the warped metal, and exhaled sharply. There were no answers here. Only questions.
And she was done being confused.
She stepped through the hole she'd blasted in the wall, Miyu clinging to her shoulder. The little mechanical creature chirped anxiously, its metal tail curling around her neck for balance.
Hana softened her radioactive aura so it wouldn't accidentally vaporize her new companion.
"Okay, Miyu," she said, steadying her breath. "Let's look for the Director and find out if he's connected to why I can't remember my childhood."
Miyu clicked in agreement, nuzzling into her hair.
Hana stepped into the corridor… And froze.
This place…
It didn't look like a lab.
Or a bunker.
Or anything remotely modern.
It looked like the interior of a massive ancient castle, with towering fancy walls lined with faded red tapestry, arched ceilings, flickering torches, and long hallways that stretched into darkness. The air smelled of dust and old secrets.
"What… is this place…?" she whispered.
She approached a locked doorway, curiosity gnawing at her. With a flick of her fingers, she altered the atomic structure of the wall beside it, turning the stone transparent like glass.
Her breath hitched.
Inside was a vast chamber, nothing like the sterile facility she remembered. It was filled with towering bookshelves, strange glowing symbols, and floating platforms that defied gravity. It looked like a library built by someone who didn't understand the difference between magic and science.
"Where in the world am I…?" she breathed.
Her pulse quickened.
What happened while I was unconscious?
Before I was strapped to that wall?
How did I end up here?
This place was nothing like the room she'd been locked in before. Nothing like the hallways she'd walked through with Haazi. Nothing like the facility with the cats.
The cats.
Her heart clenched.
Was that room even real?
She thought back to the device they'd strapped over her eyes, and the heavy, unnatural weight she'd felt before waking in the cell. It had reminded her of something she'd seen in old advertisements before the apocalypse.
VR goggles.
Her breath caught.
"Was I… in a simulation?" she whispered.
Miyu chirped softly, as if sensing her rising panic.
Hana pressed a hand to her forehead, the strange new light in her palm glowing brighter.
"If I fainted after meeting Haazi the first time…" she murmured, "then maybe everything after that, everything I saw wasn't real."
Her voice trembled.
"Maybe it was only an illusion this whole time."