The city was quiet at this hour. A thin fog curled along the deserted streets, swallowing the neon glow of the flickering streetlights. Tricia kept her hood low, her body moving like a shadow through the alleys. She had left no digital trace, no signal for anyone to follow. Not even the ghost, Voss.
Tonight, she wasn't running.
Tonight, she was disappearing.
She stopped in front of an old mailbox on a nearly abandoned street. A single, unsealed envelope rested in her gloved hands. The paper felt heavier than it should have, weighed down by words she had never dared to say before.
Maya,
I don't know if this letter is for you, or if it's for me. Maybe both. Maybe neither.
I found the truth. I know now what they did to us, what they did to you. I was the first. The original. And you? You're just a shadow of the girl they stole from the world. A replacement, built from the pieces of my life, my DNA, my match.
I wish I could say I knew who I was before all this. But there is no 'before' for me. I was made in a lab, trained in a system built on control, and set loose in a world that was never meant to be mine.
But despite everything… I feel real.
And I think that has to count for something.
I wanted to write this before I go, before I become another ghost in the dark, just like you did. Because I know now that I'll never find peace, not the way I wanted to.
Not while he's still out there.
Not while Project S.O.L.A.C.E. still breathes.
I'm not running anymore, Maya. I'm ending this.
I don't know if I'll make it. I don't know if I'll come back. But if I don't, if this is the last thing I ever write, then at least I want you to know…
I'm sorry.
For not acting sooner.
For not saving you.
For everything.
Goodbye.
~Tricia
She folded the letter, sliding it into the mailbox. There was no address, no name on the front. It wasn't meant to be sent. It was just a whisper in the night,a confession to a girl who no longer existed.
Tricia inhaled deeply, then exhaled, watching her breath disappear into the cold air.
She had spent too long fighting to be free.
Now, it was time to fight for something more.
She turned and walked into the darkness, vanishing without a sound.