Chapter 28: Ghost in the Machine

Ethan's breath caught in his throat as he stared at the flickering screen.

"I'm still here."

The words pulsed in erratic, corrupted text, an eerie whisper from the void he had just escaped. His body still ached, his limbs sluggish as if reality itself was trying to drag him back.

The woman standing over him didn't move, her expression unreadable. The sterile glow of the laboratory cast sharp shadows across her face, making her look almost inhuman.

Ethan swallowed hard. "Where am I?"

The woman's lips pressed into a thin line. "You shouldn't be awake."

His pulse hammered. "Yeah, you said that already. Not really an answer."

She sighed and stepped closer. "You were inside the system. Too long. No one expected you to survive the crash."

Ethan's mind reeled. He could still feel the emptiness of the collapsing digital world, the weightlessness of erasure. But he was here. Breathing. Alive.

And Eve…

He turned back to the screen. The corrupted message had started to distort, breaking apart into fragmented lines of code, looping in erratic bursts.

He exhaled sharply. "Is she—"

The woman's eyes darkened. "Eve is gone."

Ethan's stomach twisted. Liar.

The screen pulsed again.

New text appeared.

"Don't trust them."

A cold shiver ran down his spine. He looked up sharply at the woman. She didn't seem to notice the message—or she was pretending not to.

Ethan forced himself to stay calm. "What happens now?"

She studied him for a long moment. "Now? You tell us everything you remember."

His fists clenched beneath the sheets of the medical bed. No chance.

Instead, he glanced back at the screen, where the text had changed once again, the words flickering in and out of existence like a voice trying to reach him from another plane.

"Find me."

His heart pounded.

Eve was still alive. Somewhere.

And he was going to find her.