Silence.
That's the first thing. A year of it. A year without the hum of the labs or the scream of alarms or the wet crunch of bone. Just the whisper of wind over snow.
It's been a year since you died.
And I hate you for it.
I hate you for making me promise. I hate you for leaving me with your ghost whispering in my ear. I hate that I'm standing here, breathing, while you're just a stain on a forgotten gravestone.
I'm still alive.
You bastard.
You ever wonder how I ended up in that place? How a kid who was already a crook ended up cleaning the blood of a monster off the floor?
...Nah. You probably never even thought to ask.
You were the storm. I was just the guy holding the mop.
But I was there. I saw the cages. I just didn't realize I was already inside one.
FLASHBACK – Three Years Earlier
The orientation video was slick. All chrome, soft blue lights, and smiling faces.
"Here at Aegis Dynamics," the narrator's voice was warm, like honey, "we believe in a better future..."
I wanted to believe it. God, I wanted to be clean.
I was twenty-two. My passion was cyberspace, sure, but my hustle was different. Selling cracked firmware on shadow forums, scrubbing data trails for low-level corps, a little bit of digital grave-robbing for pennies on the dollar. I wasn't innocent. I was a crook, I guess, but the kind of crook who tells himself he's just a freelancer getting by. I never thought about who got hurt on the other end of the line. I just never knew any better.
My passion was for breaking into systems cleanly, but my life was messy. The bio-engineering program was just a front to keep the scholarships flowing.
Then Aegis Dynamics came calling. The salary they offered wasn't just a way out of debt; it was a chance to go legit. To finally be on the right side of the firewall. I thought, this is it. A real job. I can finally stop looking over my shoulder. It felt like a cage of flesh and blood, but I figured it was better than the digital cage I was already in.
My first day, Dr. Vahr himself gave me the tour. He still had that shark's smile, but back then I just thought it was confidence.
"You'll be working primarily with our stabilization wing," he said, leading me down a corridor that smelled too much like bleach. "We're making incredible strides. Just last week, we had a subject regain 40% of his motor functions."
He gestured to a reinforced door. "This is where the magic happens."
The door hissed open.
And I saw it.
It wasn't a veteran in a chair. It was a man—or what was left of him—strapped to a slab, just like you were. Thinner. Weaker. His eyes were wide with a terror so absolute it didn't even have a sound. He just stared at the ceiling, drool and tears tracing paths through the grime on his face.
My blood went cold.
"What... what is this?" I asked, my voice a stupid little tremor.
Vahr didn't even look at the man. He just checked a chart. "That's Subject G. An early volunteer. The neural load was a bit too much for his system. We're observing his degradation for... data."
He said "data" like it was a holy word.
My stomach twisted. This wasn't healing. This was vivisection. The job offer, the video, the 'second chances'—it was all a beautiful, calculated lie.
I should have walked. Right then. I should have run and never looked back.
But I saw the paycheck. The chance to be "legit." I thought of the "bills." I thought, I can just keep my head down. Log the numbers. I won't be the one holding the scalpel. I thought, Maybe... maybe I can do some good from the inside. Sabotage something small.
So when Vahr turned to me with that smile and asked, "Ready to help us change the world, Elen?"
I heard myself say, "Yes, sir."
That was my first sin. The first piece of myself I sold. I looked at that man on the slab, and I chose to look away.
PRESENT
The wind bites at my face. It feels real. Grounding.
I found one of them last month. Another lab, hidden under a geothermal plant. I burned it. I burned all of it. Your voice was in my head the whole time. ERASE. EVERY. FUCKER.
And I'm digging into Lucen. Just like you asked. But the name is a ghost. I remember hearing that name during my time at the academy, but any official trace of him? Wiped clean. Like he was never there. The conspiracy is deeper than you ever knew. He was untouchable even back then.
I keep thinking about asking you what the fuck I'm supposed to do next.
But then I remember you never had a plan either. Just fists and fury and a promise to survive that you never intended to keep.
There was a kid at that plant. Strapped to a chair. He had your eyes. That same look of a storm waiting to break. My hand closed around a scalpel I'd pocketed from a shattered med-kit. The you in my head, the raging part, was screaming. It's a mercy. Finish it. End the cycle before they turn him into another weapon.
I took a step forward. The scalpel felt heavy. Right. I raised it.
The kid didn't scream. Just flinched, his jaw tight. Just like you.
And then another voice cut through the noise. Not your usual roar of fury. Something else. The voice I heard in the graveyard. Fainter. Quieter.
"Stay alive. That's all I ask."
Your last command. Your only request that wasn't about vengeance.
My hand froze. I looked at the scalpel—a tool for cutting, for ending things. Then I looked at the kid. Killing him wasn't honoring your legacy; it was just repeating the lesson they taught you. It was becoming them.
The scalpel clattered to the floor. The sound was too loud in the sudden silence.
I didn't say a word. I just opened his restraints and walked away.
I don't know if I'm doing this right. If I'm honoring your rage or wish to survive. Maybe they're the same thing now.
But I'm still here. Still breathing in this graveyard that feels more like a home than any place I've ever known.
I'm still alive.
You fucking bastard.