His vision blinked—
And the world dropped away.
Scene: The Blueprint Maze
Frei stood in a narrow hallway, lit by flickering fluorescent lights.
Doors lined the walls. Each marked with a date and a single word.
02/19 – LAUGHTER
06/01 – BETRAYAL
08/22 – NAOMI
He reached for the Naomi door.
It was locked.
A mechanical voice echoed from nowhere:
"ACCESS DENIED. DRAFT-LOCKED MEMORY. AUTHOR OVERRIDE REQUIRED."
"Author?" Frei whispered.
The hallway groaned.
Suddenly, the walls began to slide like puzzle pieces. The whole blueprint maze was shifting.
Rebuilding itself.
He ran.
Doors flashed by:
/REWRITE/
/XZNX-ROOT/
/MIRROR-INSTANCE/
Then he reached one door with no label. Only a mirror.
Behind the mirror, he could see himself again-the same reflection from before. The version that smiled too confidently.
The reflection was writing.
Typing.
Words bled onto the mirror glass:
"Frei turns the handle."
He couldn't help it. His hand moved.
Turned.
Opened.
Inside was a single room.
A hospital. White walls. No sound.
A child sat on a bed ... young Frei.
Across from him was a man in a lab coat, holding a sketchbook. The same sketchbook from his apartment.
They spoke, but no sound came.
Only the writing on the wall:
"Subject stability: unpredictable. He keeps trying to find her. Naomi must be deleted in future drafts."
Frei stared in horror.
He wasn't remembering. He was being shown.
The child turned and stared directly at him.
Mouthed something.
"Don't let them write you."
Then-
A loud tearing sound.
Like pages being ripped.
The blueprint world collapsed.
Scene: Back in Reality
Frei woke in the chair, drenched in sweat. Screaming.
Maeda calmly unplugged the cables.
"What did you see?" he asked.
Frei gasped, "You... you erased her."
"No," Maeda said coldly. "They did."
Frei stared at him, heart pounding.
"You're part of this."
Maeda met his eyes.
"I'm your handler, Frei. Always have been. I tried to help you break out. But the story always pulls you back."
Frei stood, dizzy, furious.
"Who's writing this?! Who's behind all of it?"
Maeda only said one word before vanishing into the shadows of the lab:
"Xznx.l."
That night, Frei stood in front of his mirror again.
His reflection looked calm.
But something had changed.
Behind his mirrored self, there were strings now.
Invisible hands pulling at his arms. His lips.
His smile.
And across the glass, words burned into the silver:
"This chapter was written.
But what happens next?
That's still undecided."
YOU ARE READING
Factured Strings
Mystery / ThrillerFrei, a tall, reclusive man living in modern Tokyo, battles with depression and dissociation. As his life spirals into surreal events and strange encounters, he begins to uncover disturbing truths about himself, memory, and reality. Slowly, he reali...
Blueprints of mind
Start from the beginning
