Deep beneath a huge, anonymous-looking building, far from sunlight or fresh air, a basement stretched out like a hidden graveyard.
Dozens of humans were trapped inside it.
Some floated in eerie, liquid-filled pods—eyes closed, bodies pierced by tubes and cables, strange symbols etched onto the glass. Others were crammed into iron-barred cells that looked less like rooms and more like cages made for wild animals. The stench of blood, rot, and chemicals clung to the air, thick and suffocating.
In one of those cages sat a boy and a girl who both looked to be around sixteen.
They had the same green hair, now matted and dirty, and the same black eyes dulled by pain and exhaustion. Their faces were nearly identical. Twins.
