Sweet Dreams, Raven

Now he looked like hell.

Back when I knew him, Theo was the best thread-runner in the underground. M-Thread, they called him. If your firewall twitched in the night, odds were he'd already slipped through it—and left your secrets wrapped in silk behind him.

Unshaven. Gaunt. That signature leather coat of his was fraying at the edges, like it had survived one too many close calls. But his eyes—they still had the same merciless clarity. The kind that stripped you bare before you opened your mouth.

"I thought you were dead," Raven said, barely above a whisper.

Theo didn't smile. "I thought you were smarter."

He stalked forward, the dim light catching the scar that hadn't been there the last time she saw him.

"Coming here like this. Blind. Unarmed. Pretending to be her."

She flinched. "I didn't choose this."

He stopped two steps away. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that you're walking around with a dead woman's face, and someone up there," he jabbed a finger toward the penthouse skyline, "is pulling strings we don't even see."

Raven crossed her arms, instinct prickling. "What do you know?"

Theo gave a humorless laugh. "More than I want to. Less than I need to."

He turned and walked toward a rusted table covered in old cables, parts, and a flickering monitor that shouldn't have been working but was. With Theo, nothing stayed dead.

"You were off the grid, Rae. Like gone. I tried every channel, every tracker. Then, bam—Sophia Blake's digital signature starts behaving weird. I looked closer, and guess what?"

He tossed a tablet onto the table. Raven picked it up.

Her heartbeat stuttered.

It was a surveillance still—her, stepping out of the convertible in downtown traffic. The angle was too high for a camera. A drone.

"No timestamp. No trace. Just this."

He stared at her.

"You're being watched."

---

LATER, IN THEO'S HIDEOUT…

Raven paced while Theo patched together his warboard of cracked code and blinking data streams. She watched the screens flash—lines of encrypted scripts she half-understood, whispers in a digital language no one sane spoke aloud.

"What do you want from me?" she asked finally.

Theo didn't turn. "You want to know who did this to you?"

"Yes."

"Then I need a shard."

She blinked. "A what?"

He faced her now. "Storage shard. Sophia had one. Off-grid. Encrypted. She used it to hide personal data outside CrossTech's net. I tracked the signature—it's offline. Hidden."

"Where?"

Theo hesitated. "In the basement of the old Synapse Labs tower."

Raven's stomach dropped. "The Synapse Tower? I rigged the damn building with trip-scripts."

He grinned grimly. "Yeah. That's why you're the only one who can get in and out."

---

BACK IN THE PENTHOUSE – LATER THAT NIGHT

The elevator doors whispered open. Raven stepped in like a woman returning from yoga or brunch or some other gilded lie. Her heart still pounded from the heist she barely pulled off—faking biometric access, disabling temp sensors, dodging a motion-activated turret she forgot she installed.

The shard was tucked inside her purse. Cold. Silent. Heavy with answers.

She slipped off her blazer, walking straight into the kitchen—

And stopped.

The lights were dimmed.

Aiden stood at the marble island. Alone. No wine. No espresso. Just… watching her.

"You're late," he said softly.

"Traffic," she replied, breezing past him, aiming for nonchalance. "The office was—"

"I called your assistant. She said you never showed."

Her spine stiffened. She turned slowly.

"I didn't want to risk fainting in the middle of a meeting."

Aiden's head tilted. He didn't blink.

Then, too slowly, he smiled.

"Well," he said, stepping forward, "I'm just glad you're feeling better."

He leaned down, brushing his lips to her cheek. "We have that gala next week. Don't push yourself."

She nodded, barely breathing. "I won't."

---

LATER THAT NIGHT – ALONE IN THE BEDROOM

The shard was active.

Raven sat cross-legged on the bed, laptop wired in. Theo had sent her a decryptor, bare-bones but fast. Data flooded the screen—videos, voice memos, notes with names and dates.

And one entry, highlighted in red.

"Contingency Alpha: In case I don't make it out."

She clicked it.

Sophia's voice played. Hollow. Shaken.

> "If you're hearing this… they've already replaced me."

> "The project Aiden's building isn't what it seems. CrossTech isn't just developing neural OS. They're… rewriting people. Digitally. Memories. Personalities. Like software."

> "I watched a man walk out of that lab wearing his brother's memories. I watched him smile like it was his own wedding."

> "They've done it before. They'll do it again."

> "You have to stop them."

Raven stared at the screen.

Her throat felt like it was closing.

Outside the window, the city blinked like an indifferent machine. Inside the penthouse, silence pressed down like a shroud.

Someone knocked on the bedroom door.

Aiden.

"Everything okay in there?"

She scrambled, yanking the cable out, tossing the shard under a pillow.

"Just getting ready for bed," she called back.

"Sweet dreams," he said.

His voice was warm. Soft. Normal.

Too normal.

---

[SCENE CUT – DEEPER INTO THE PENTHOUSE]

///THEO'S HIDEOUT ///

Later.

The lights in the hallway dim.

Aiden walks alone down the silent corridor, barefoot on marble, glass of red wine in hand. His expression unreadable. Thoughtful.

He stops at a section of the wall most would miss.

Taps a code into an invisible panel behind a framed abstract painting.

Beep.

The wall splits open with a hydraulic hiss.

A hidden door.

He steps through.

Inside: a private surveillance room. Cool. Clinical. Lined with silent monitors.

Every screen is filled with her.

Raven sleeping.

Raven opening files.

Raven standing at the window, pretending to be Sophia.

He takes a slow sip of wine, eyes locked on the main monitor—

On the center screen, live footage of her bedroom, soft-lit and silent.

Aiden tilts his head, watching her breathe.

He watches her turn in her sleep.

Then… he smiles.

Not kind.

Not proud.

Something else.

A cold, private smirk, as if watching a glitch he programmed finally start to show.

Then he speaks—softly, to no one.

"You're not her. But you'll learn to be."

He sets the glass down beside a terminal then leans in, typing into the terminal with one hand.

> Initiate Cognitive Sync Test: Subject RAVEN (alias: Sophia Blake)

Begin passive observation mode. MirrorWatch engaged.

The cameras whir softly as they adjust.

His reflection appears on the screen—distorted. Warped.

A man watching a woman who doesn't know she's being rewritten.

He finishes the last of his wine, sets the glass down.

Then, quietly:

"Let's see how long you last."

The lights dim.

The screen goes black.

[Author's Thoughts]

Trust isn't just broken—it's being recorded.

That smirk at the end? That's not confidence. That's certainty. Aiden isn't guessing. He's testing. Watching. Logging every move. 💻

And Raven? She thought she was infiltrating him.

Turns out, she's already in the lab. 🧪

If you think Aiden's just a billionaire with issues… think again. He's rewriting the future—one memory at a time.

Chapter 4's coming in like a digital blade, Hope you're ready for it. 😼