Jian's knees scraped against the cold, mirror-like floor as he pushed himself up, every muscle tense. The silence around him was suffocating..too thick, too deliberate. He scanned the strange chamber again, eyes darting over the glowing veins of stone weaving beneath his feet.
No sign of Eva. No sign of an exit.
He moved cautiously, each step echoing softly, swallowed quickly by the heavy stillness.
"Eva?" His voice cracked, swallowed by the unnatural quiet.
The faint hum in the walls pulsed in rhythm with his racing heartbeat, but no answer came.
The room felt alive, watching him. Breathing with him. But cold, like the surface of a forgotten tomb.
Jian's fingers brushed the smooth wall, tracing the faint glow of symbols etched deep into the stone. Each curve seemed to shift subtly, as if the markings themselves were breathing beneath the surface.
"Is this real?" Jian whispered to himself. "Or some kind of illusion?"
His breath fogged in the chilling air. The reflection on the floor flickered a ripple like a heartbeat, or maybe a warning.
He glanced behind him..nothing but endless darkness where the door had vanished.
A soft whisper curled through the air, barely audible, like the rustle of dead leaves.
"Jian…"
His heart leapt.
But it wasn't Eva's voice. It was colder. Distant. Fractured.
He spun, eyes wide, trying to locate the source. The shadows at the edges of the room twisted, lengthened, then recoiled..refusing to be caught.
Doubt clawed at him.
Had he really come through the door? Or was this some echo, some trap?
He knelt, pressing his palm to the floor, feeling the faint vibration beneath the stone.
A sudden flicker in the corner of his eye—movement.
He turned sharply, but saw only darkness, folding into itself like a living thing.
"Eva," he breathed again, desperation bleeding through the word.
No answer.
Only silence.
A cold certainty settled over him, this place wasn't just a prison. It was a puzzle. And the pieces weren't meant to fit.
Jian stood slowly, steeling himself.
"Where are you?" he called, stepping deeper into the glowing maze.
The hum grew louder, the air thicker.
And just when he thought he might break, a voice, soft, urgent, almost pleading rose from the depths.
"Jian…"
His blood ran cold.
He took a step forward.
But the voice was gone.
Suddenly, Jian's gaze locked onto the darkest corner of the room, a space where even the faint glow dared not reach. He didn't move at first, just stared, his eyes narrowing as if trying to pierce the shadow itself.
Minutes stretched like hours as silence pressed in.
Then—a crackling, fragile whisper broke through the stillness.
"Jian…"
The voice was raw, uneven, like it was struggling to form in the thick air.
His heart slammed against his ribs. He instinctively raised a hand, pressing it hard to his chest as if to steady the rapid beat.
"Elara?" he breathed, the name barely escaping his lips.
The shadow stirred.
For a heartbeat, nothing else happened.
Then a faint, almost imperceptible ripple in the darkness..as if the shadows themselves were breathing.
Jian stepped closer, every muscle tense, senses screaming to run yet rooted in place.
"Who's there?" His voice was steady, but inside, fear and hope warred fiercely.
The darkness pulsed.
And the voice came again..this time clearer, closer, but still fragile:
"Jian… it's me."
He swallowed hard, putting a hand over his chest. "Elara?"
A soft reply came from the shadows. "So you remember me, Jian. It's me."
The darkness stirred, and slowly, the figure emerged..the same Elara he had known back then. Young, fragile, but unmistakably her. The same version he had deceived, the one he had shut down and buried in her grave.
His eyes widened in disbelief. "How...?"
Elara's gaze held his, sorrow deep within her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks, glistening like shards of glass before they fell to the floor.
"It's... painfully painful," she whispered, voice trembling. "I trusted you with all I had, Jian. And you... you just killed me. This easily. Like I meant nothing to you."
She paused, looking at him with raw heartbreak. "Do I really mean nothing to you?"
Jian's breath caught, his hand clutching his chest as if trying to hold himself together.
"Elara… I..." His voice trembled, heavy with sorrow and guilt. "You have to understand… I wasn't myself. Damien and Raven..they controlled me. I was trapped in my own mind, like a puppet… unconscious while they pulled the strings."
Elara's eyes filled with tears, but her gaze stayed sharp, cutting through his words. "Control or not, you let me die, Jian. You let me fade away while you were lost in shadows. You didn't fight hard enough. Or maybe you didn't want to."
Her voice cracked like brittle glass, sorrow bleeding into every word. "I trusted you with everything, my past, my fears, my heart. But you became someone else, someone who buried me in silence, who erased me like I was nothing more than a mistake."
Jian closed his eyes tightly, pain stabbing through him like a thousand knives.
"I didn't want to lose you. Every moment I was trapped, I was fighting from the inside. I swear, Elara, I fought, but Damien and Raven were stronger than I could stand against alone."
She stepped closer, trembling, her tears falling freely now.
"Do I mean nothing to you?" Her voice was barely a whisper, but it struck him like a blow.
Jian's eyes widened, but no words came. Seconds stretched between them, heavy and painful.
Then, his voice broke as he finally spoke, soft and full of regret:
"Elara… I'm so sorry. For everything. For letting you down. For what I did to you."
His silence spoke louder than any excuse.
Elara's eyes searched his, voice steady but aching:
"I asked you before, but you didn't give me an answer. And I'll ask you now again..
Do you love me, Jian?!
Jian's eyes searched Elara's face, desperate for any sign, any flicker of hope. But the weight of guilt pressed down, and he found himself unable to speak. His mouth felt sealed by an invisible force...like a cruel hand had tied it shut, choking back every word.
Inside his mind, a voice strained to break free: Elara, I… I love you. You're the only one I ever truly loved.
But no sound escaped his lips.
Elara's gaze held his sadness deepening, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. She whispered, her voice barely more than a breath,
"I got your answer. You never loved me, Jian."
Inside him, panic surged. No, I… love you, Elara. Please, I…" , But his voice was frozen, locked away where no one could hear.
Elara turned her back slowly, the light fading from her form. Within moments, she vanished, swallowed by the darkness.
Jian crumpled to his knees, clutching his chest as if trying to hold together the pieces of his breaking heart.
His head lifted, eyes wide with shock and disbelief, staring at the empty space where she had been.
"What just happened?" he whispered, voice raw and trembling.
He forced words from his sealed mouth, each one a struggle,
"Elara?"
Then again, a desperate plea,
"Elara… please, I really do…"
But she was gone. Gone before she could hear the words she so desperately needed.
Jian's scream tore through the silence, raw and agonized. It echoed off the strange walls around him, shaking the air like a wound ripped open.
---------------------
And somewhere far from him...Voox staggered.
Her hand flew to her chest, clutching it as if something had clawed straight through her ribcage. Her breath caught, eyes wide in alarm.
"What's… happening?" she whispered, trembling. Her other hand covered her mouth as her chest heaved again. "Why am I…?"
She couldn't finish. The pain was unfamiliar. Alien. But connected so deeply it was terrifying.
------------------
At that same moment, Eva jerked upright, her heart pounding. Jian's scream, his voice had pierced whatever haze she was in like lightning through fog.
"Jian?" she called out, confused but alert.
Then again, louder:
"Jian?!"
The sound still rang in her ears, and without thinking, she ran following a path she couldn't see. Her feet moved on instinct.
She reached a wall and, Slipped right through it.
Eva gasped as she stumbled into a dark, cavernous space. She froze, glancing around. The air here felt heavier. The walls seemed to pulse faintly.
Two passageways gaped before her, like the mouth of a choice that could never be undone.
"What the hell is this…?" she muttered. "Where am I?"
Without another thought, she picked one and moved fast, her steps echoing. Then—she heard it.
Crying.Soft. Fractured. Human.
She followed the sound, breath catching as she turned a corner and,
"Elara?" she whispered, eyes wide.
The girl sat on the ground, folded in on herself, her body trembling with each sob. Tear tracks stained her cheeks. Her pain was visible in every breath.
"Elara!" Eva rushed to her side.
The girl looked up..those familiar eyes locking with hers, and a cry broke from her lips.
"Eva?" she wept, collapsing into her arms.
Eva held her tight, her own throat thick with emotion. "Are you really Elara?" she asked, her voice shaking.
Elara nodded against her shoulder.
"But… how? Jian..he buried you. You… died."
Elara pulled back slowly, her face hollow. "I didn't die," she whispered. "Not really."
Eva's brows pulled together. "What do you mean?"
"Come," Elara said quietly, rising. "I need to show you."
Eva followed in silence, unease coiling in her gut. They walked deeper until the corridor opened into a cavern, vast and surreal.
And Eva stopped cold.
She stared, speechless.
Before her, countless stone platforms stretched across the chamber like graves, and on each one lay a body. A version of Elara. Dozens. Hundreds. Frozen in stillness. Each one different in age, dress, even expression. All of them her.
"What… the hell?" Eva breathed.
"This is where every grave takes us," Elara said. Her voice echoed softly in the massive room. "Every time one of us is 'shut down'... our version ends up here."
Eva turned to her, horrified. "You mean… this is where they go after being killed?"
"It's like… a home," Elara said, her voice cracking. "But a prison too."
Eva stared at her, at all of them. "Why?"
"There's a force," Elara said. "Something… built this place. Designed it to trap us. We can't escape, no matter how many times we try. Every version of me… all brought here to rest. To be silenced."
Eva's jaw tightened as she looked around. "But you...how are you awake?"
"I don't know. I just… woke up. I heard something. Felt something. Jian's scream. It brought me back."
Eva swallowed hard. "You were never meant to stay dead…"
Elara looked down. "None of us were."
Elara's gaze drifted across the chamber filled with silent echoes of herself. Then she turned to Eva, voice soft, almost a whisper:
"Jian… he's the only one who can take me out of here."
Eva looked at her sharply. "What do you mean? How?"
"I don't know, Eva." Elara's voice trembled, her eyes glassy with pain. "But something in me just… knows. He's the key. He always was."
Eva stared at her, breathing slowly. "Why him?"
Elara didn't answer immediately. Her hands trembled slightly at her sides. "Because he's the only one who knew what he was doing… when he shut me down."
That made Eva pause. The room felt colder now. Heavier.
Before she could ask anything else, a sudden flicker of sound behind her made her tense. A footstep? A whisper?
She turned instinctively, eyes scanning the passage she'd just come from. "Did you hear that?" she whispered.
But Elara didn't answer.
Eva's eyes narrowed. "Elara?"
When she turned back around, Elara was still standing there, but her expression had changed.
She wasn't crying anymore.
Instead, her lips curled into a subtle, quiet smile… but it didn't reach her eyes. It was soft, almost serene, yet something about it was deeply, unsettlingly wrong.
"Elara…?" Eva took a step back, heart suddenly thudding faster.
Elara tilted her head ever so slightly, the smile still etched on her face.
The silence thickened.
Eva's fingers twitched at her side. "Why are you smiling like that…?"
Still, Elara said nothing.
Just stared.
And behind that sad, calm smile… something darker shimmered beneath.
---------------------
Eva suddenly stumbled forward and collapsed to her knees in front of Jian.
He was still there..kneeling, shaking, broken, his hands limp at his sides as if the weight of guilt had hollowed him out. The space was silent except for the soft echo of his breath.
When he slowly lifted his head, his tired eyes locked on her..blinking through the haze, unsure if she was real.
"…Who are you?" he asked, voice low, uncertain.
Eva blinked, frowning. "Did someone hit your head while I was gone? What kind of question is that?"
Jian just stared at her, lost. His eyes scanned her face like it was a puzzle he couldn't solve.
Eva stood quickly, urgency overtaking confusion. "Wait… where is she? How did I even get here?"
She looked around, spinning slowly. "I was running through a wall, and then…"
Her words trailed off. Jian kept staring.
She looked down at herself, then back up.
"Oh," she said suddenly, realization blooming. "I forgot. I have my body back."
A flicker of clarity entered Jian's expression. "It's you…" he murmured.
"Yeah," Eva nodded, smirking. "Took you long enough."
"You look… different."
Eva tilted her head, placing a hand on her hip. "Beautifully different, right?"
Jian looked away, jaw tight. "Stop. This isn't the time."
Eva sobered. "I know. It's just… I saw her, Jian."
He looked at her sharply. "Who?"
"Elara."
His breath caught. "…2001?"
Eva nodded slowly. "Yeah. But how did you know I meant her ?"
"Because I saw her too."
The air between them shifted..tension thick and unspoken.
Eva exhaled shakily and knelt down beside him. "She was crying, Jian. I've never seen anything like that. She was broken. It tore me apart. She asked me if I thought she was still alive… and then she took me somewhere."
Jian stayed silent, watching her.
Eva's eyes flicked to him. "She showed me all the versions, buried, forgotten, defective. A graveyard of herself. And then she said something that chilled me."
"What?"
"She said… you're the only one who can get her out."
Jian's heart thudded. "Me?"
Eva nodded. "I asked how. She said, I don't know. But Jian does.'"
Jian looked down, the shame returning to his eyes.
"I tried to tell her," he whispered, "before. I tried to tell her how I felt. But something..." He stopped, eyes narrowing. "I couldn't speak. It was like my voice was chained inside me. I wanted to say it but… I couldn't."
Eva froze.
"What?" he asked, sensing the shift in her energy.
Her voice dropped. "Jian… that was me."
"What?"
"I didn't mean to. I didn't even know I could, but when she asked you that question...if you loved her..I don't know what happened. Something in me panicked. And I felt this… force inside. It lashed out. It silenced you."
Jian's breath caught. "You… shut me down ?"
"I didn't know what I was doing! It just happened. Like something inside me thought it was dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Jian asked, disbelief in his voice.
Eva looked down, eyes glistening. "I don't know why. But something didn't want you to say those words."
Jian sat still, digesting her words. "She asked me again, Eva. And I was going to say it. For real. But nothing came out."
Eva's lips trembled. "I'm sorry…"
Then suddenly she stiffened..pressing her hand against her chest like something was wrong. A cold chill raced through her spine.
"What is it?" Jian asked quickly.
Eva looked up slowly, her eyes wide with fear.
"She smiled at me, Jian."
"Elara?"
Eva nodded, whispering. "It wasn't the Elara I remembered. It was cold. Wrong. Like she was… hiding something behind her sadness."
She turned her gaze back to him.
"Jian…" she said, voice breaking. "I'm scared of her."
Jian didn't respond right away. But the weight of Eva's fear, the hollow smile of Elara, and the silence that had stolen his voice..suddenly all made sense in the worst possible way.
Something was very, very wrong.
To be continue .....