> "Not every marked name is a warning. Some are invitations. Others… are countdowns."
— Memo recovered from Janitorial Locker 3C
---
🔥 Sharon Sees the Pattern
Sharon stood in the abandoned AV room, the list of names still clenched in her hand.
Red circles. Crossed out names. And one in particular that chilled her:
Hers.
It hadn't been there before.
But now?
There it was — Sharon Odili, circled in precise crimson ink.
"What does it mean?" she whispered.
Jayden had his theory. "The circled ones aren't just targets. They're subjects — people the program watched closely, maybe even… tested."
Zuri, pale, leaned against the control panel. "And the crossed-out ones?"
Bianca entered from the side door, quiet but certain. "Those are the ones who didn't survive it."
Sharon's mouth went dry.
"Wait," she said. "You knew?"
Bianca nodded once. "I was part of Cohort One. I remember what they did to us. But I didn't know they were still continuing the trials…"
She trailed off, eyes on the flashing hallway monitors. Students gathering again. Teachers growing quiet.
A storm was coming.
---
🧬 The Experiment Expands
Elsewhere on campus, an emergency meeting was held in the locked chambers beneath the administrative tower.
Dr. Cardenas, head of student development, reviewed the surveillance logs.
> "Eliora's broadcast has destabilized the behavioral metrics. Seven of the identified 'red circle' students are no longer compliant."
Mr. Ayodeji, the new deputy director, tapped his fingers on the table.
> "Then initiate Phase 3 of Re-Eliora."
Cardenas hesitated. "It will accelerate memory fracturing—some may not come back from it."
Ayodeji didn't blink.
> "Then they were never meant to."
Behind them, a new file began uploading:
TRIAL_027: SHARON.ODILI
---
⚡ Jayden's Discovery
That night, Jayden returned to the observatory tower — but this time, he wasn't alone.
He brought Reina and Kelechi with him, hoping to triangulate the source of the code he'd found embedded in Bianca's trial footage.
What they uncovered wasn't just memory manipulation.
It was patterned neural interference. Soundwaves used to shift perception.
"Like hypnosis," Kelechi muttered. "But more… surgical."
Jayden stared at the waveform.
"It's not just about making them forget," he said. "It's about making them become someone else."
Reina's jaw clenched. "Like what they did to Bianca."
Jayden nodded slowly.
"And maybe what they're trying to do to Sharon."
---
🏃 Sharon Runs
By morning, Sharon's head felt heavy.
She couldn't remember what she'd dreamt.
Couldn't remember if she'd slept.
She walked through the east hallway and forgot why she was there. She greeted a teacher — and the teacher stared at her like she was a stranger.
When she reached her locker, she found it empty. All her notes. Her uniform extra. Gone.
And someone else's name on the inside panel.
> Eliana M.
She staggered back, pulse racing.
That's when Bianca appeared at her side and whispered, "They've begun."
Sharon blinked.
"Begun what?"
Bianca took her hand.
"Unmaking you."
---
🔒 A Locked Room and a Choice
Bianca led her to Room 5B — where it had all started.
The room had been stripped clean. Except for one thing: a mirror bolted to the wall.
No reflection.
Only static.
"Eliora left a failsafe," Bianca said. "This mirror was used during the earliest stages of Re-Eliora."
Zuri had managed to decode the embedded AI patterns. Reina patched in a neural stabilizer coded from Eliora's old files.
"This might be the only way to keep your memory intact," Bianca said. "But it comes at a cost."
Sharon stared into the mirror.
"What kind of cost?"
Bianca met her eyes.
"You'll remember everything. Even the parts you don't want to."
---
🕯️ Sharon Remembers
When the mirror flickered on, it wasn't her own face Sharon saw.
It was Eliora's. Then Bianca's younger self. Then Mara Kalu, screaming into a silence that swallowed her voice.
Each flash unlocked something inside Sharon — memories not just of her own life, but of others.
A dorm hallway. Screams in the night. A girl with blood under her fingernails whispering, "They changed my name."
And then...
Eliora's voice:
> "They don't kill you. They erase you until you do it yourself."
Sharon reeled back from the mirror, gasping. Her hands trembled — but her eyes were clear.
"I remember now."
---
📢 The Final Transmission Begins
Outside, the school was in chaos.
Students had locked themselves in classrooms. Teachers were divided — some complicit, some horrified.
The headmistress was nowhere to be found.
But the speakers came to life again.
This time, the voice wasn't Eliora's.
It was Sharon's.
> "My name is Sharon Odili. And I remember."
> "I remember the ones they made us forget. The voices they buried. The truths they silenced."
> "And I am not afraid anymore."
The last thing she said before the speakers cut out was:
> "We were not chosen to be perfect. We were chosen to break the silence."
---
🔚 End of Chapter Twenty-Seven
> They gave her a new name. But she took back her story.