Chapter Six: The Mind Splinter
"There are pieces of her missing. But worse — there are pieces that don't belong to her at all."
Nyah woke up choking on silence.
The kind that felt too heavy.
Too deliberate.
She sat up in the med chamber, soaked in sweat. Her pulse slammed in her ears like a warning bell. No pain, no blood. But her head—her head ached. Deep. Behind her eyes.
She didn't remember falling asleep.
Didn't remember dreaming.
Didn't remember anything since the raid two days ago.
And yet—
Her hands were cut.
Her shirt was damp.
There were scratches on her arms.
She glanced around the room. Nothing was out of place. Except the mirror.
There was a smear across it—like a fingerprint made of ash.
And four words, etched faintly into the surface:
"I was never here."
Earlier – A Missing Hour
No one remembered it.
Not Sora. Not Kael. Not even Dez, who never slept deeper than a wolf during war.
But Nyah had left the rebel base. In the dead of night.
Footage showed her walking barefoot out the tunnel entrance. No weapon. No coat. No sound.
Forty-seven minutes later, she returned — soaking wet, bruised, eyes vacant — and went straight to sleep.
Sora reviewed the security logs twenty times.
And found nothing.
Except one frame.
One flicker.
A static shadow behind her. Taller than human.
The Hollow.
Present – In Her Head
Nyah sat in the darkness of the meditation chamber. Lira had taught her how to center herself.
Close your eyes.
Breathe.
Let the thoughts pass.
But this time…
They didn't pass.
They spoke.
"You're not alone in there anymore."
She froze.
The voice wasn't hers. It wasn't even in her ears. It was inside her head. Inside her memories.
The walls around her mind bent. She stood—suddenly and impossibly—inside a fractured memory corridor. The walls flickered like broken film.
She turned left:
—Her fifth birthday. A cake. Her mother smiling.
She turned right:
—A lab. A scream. A man's gloved hands injecting her spine.
That memory was never hers.
She walked through it anyway.
The Hollow Speaks
In the center of her broken mind stood a figure.
Black smoke. Glowing white eyes. But not monstrous this time.
Human-shaped.
Familiar.
It took a step forward and wore her face.
"You think you're the original."
Nyah backed away. "What are you?"
"A splinter. A piece of what they put in you. The part they hoped would wake up first."
"I don't believe you."
"You remember me every time you black out. You just forget when you wake."
The Hollow lifted a hand. Shadows swirled.
Suddenly she saw:
The lab.
The chair.
The electrodes in her skull.
And the word etched into the ceiling: SUBJECT NY–77
Waking Up – Panicked
Nyah gasped awake on the floor, bleeding from her nose.
Sora, Kael, and Dez rushed in. Sora scanned her brain immediately, visibly alarmed.
"Her neural pathways are lighting up like a storm," Sora said. "Something's been triggered."
Kael knelt beside her. "Nyah… did someone do this to you?"
She looked up at him, voice shaking.
"I think I did it to myself."
Later that night, alone in her bunk, Nyah sat holding a piece of paper.
She didn't remember writing it.
But it was in her handwriting.
If I start forgetting who I am… do not trust me.
— Me
And in the dark corner of the room, just for a second… a shadow moved without cause.
END OF CHAPTER SIX