Exhausted and afraid from the previous days' Omega killings, Kai decided to work from home. He turned on his computer to let it boot up while he went to make himself something to eat.
In the meantime, Eden had sent a quick, untraceable code to his computer:
VOID::Shield> monitor.threat --target Kai
[STATUS] Threat level: 7.3
// Inhibitor flare detected.
[ACTION] Executing contingency: Whisper.audio.feed
[OUTPUT] "You are not alone."
[STATUS] Stress markers decreasing. Shield stable.
VOID::Shield> _
Sipping on a cup of coffee, Kai looked out the window at the beautiful view he hadn't quite taken advantage of yet. The activity of the city was constant—an advanced electric chaos that Kai had learned to ignore. But today, it felt different. The rhythm seemed... off. The world seemed to move a fraction slower, light leaving faint, lingering trails at the edges of his vision.
Kai brushed it off as exhaustion. The killings were really getting to him. Unnerving him.
He grabbed his food and sat cross-legged on the floor, his terminal dark from being idle so long. He hadn't touched it in a while so it had timed out. His scent was low, suppressed by inhibitors, but something inside him stirred—an ache, a pull, like a memory trying to surface.
Then the screen blinked.
Not on. Not off. Just... flickered. A pulse. Like a heartbeat. And a message was displayed:
"You are not alone."
Kai didn't move. He wanted to freak out but couldn't make his own body respond.
Lines of code began to scroll across the screen, not in the usual sterile font, but in something softer. Curved. Almost handwritten.
VOID::Shield> monitor.scent --target Kai
[ALERT] Scent spike detected. Theta-wave emission.
[ACTION] Executing sensory subroutine: Halo.phantom
[OUTPUT] "Try to remember."
[STATUS] Memory trigger engaged. Response nominal.
VOID::Shield> _
His neck tingled. Not pain. Not heat. Just sensation. A phantom touch. Like someone had just brushed against him, leaving a familiar, electric scent behind.
He looked down at his shoulder but nothing was there.
But he knew.
The stranger he'd seen during lunch was finally reaching out.
---
The sun was setting. Kai had lost most of his day, not even remembering falling asleep. Had minutes passed? Hours? His coffee was cold on the floor beside him. He only remembered the "scent".
It wasn't his. Not the dull, synthetic trace his inhibitor left behind. This was something richer. Wilder. It curled around him like smoke—warm, ozonic, and terrifyingly familiar.
He woke with a gasp, his heart pounding and his neck burning.
He remembered he'd left his computer on. The screen now dark.
Although he lived alone, the room wasn't empty.
Not physically. Not visibly. But something pressed against the edges of his awareness—a presence coded into the silence, watching without eyes.
He stood slowly, legs trembling. The patch on his neck was blinking a steady yellow.
He thought about replacing it but decided against it.
---
Across the city, Eden's systems surged.
An intruder had breached the outer perimeter. A rogue Alpha signature—unregistered, masked, and moving fast.
ESTÁS LEYENDO
Slaved by an Alpha, Saved by an Enigma
Fanfiction~Every 'defect' is a weapon. Every new bond, part of a revolution.~ The Architect built a world where only perfection is allowed. Those born blind, deaf, scarred, missing pieces, or too broken to bond are branded "defects"-discarded, erased, forgott...
