Mira spent the morning tracing clues through her apartment—the burn on her palm, the coin's weight, the subtle changes: an old photograph missing from her wall, a mug with a logo she didn't remember buying. The sun barely punctured the city's endless gray, but inside, anxiety was a spotlight.
In the neural café where she and Eliah met each Friday, Mira waited, head low, watching the mirrored wall for signs she was being followed. The memory coin pressed against her palm in her jacket pocket, hot with static. When Eliah arrived, her usual easy smile was shaded with concern.
"You didn't sleep," Eliah whispered, thumb brushing Mira's burn. "You look… distant. Like a piece of you went missing."
Mira forced a laugh, but told her about Harrow and the mystery super. "Everyone on my hall is different. It's like…" She stopped, afraid to say it: like only she remembered what the world was supposed to be. Eliah's gaze darkened, and she promised they'd look into it together.
To distract herself, Mira tried running an unauthorized scan on the coin in the café's privacy booth. This time, the glyphs flared with twisted data: a strand of images, and a name she hadn't heard in years attached—Ava Leone. Just as she tried to access the files, a security alert flashed, forcing her to shut down the scan. Across the café, a stranger with a familiar face watched her from the corner, eyes coldly intent.
On her way out, Mira brushed past the stranger. He slipped a data slip into her hand.
When she opened it later that night, the only words were:
"You don't belong here. Stop digging."
In her phone's gallery, Mira found a new, chilling picture: it was her, with the stranger—smiling together, arms around each other on a rooftop she'd never seen.
To be continue...