Chapter 7: The Child and the Forgotten
They had brought him back to Lila's place, a small apartment on the fifth floor of a building forgotten by the world. The door was reinforced with psychic charms she had drawn herself—circles of silence, symbolic phrases, mental anchors.
She called it her anchoring shelter.
Kelvin had fallen asleep on the couch, his nerves frayed. Lila had stayed up to watch over him.
Around four in the morning, the boy had woken up with a start.
He screamed at first. But she calmed him gently. Kelvin approached without sudden movements.
"You're safe. For now," he told him.
The boy had large hazel eyes, expressionless, as if something had been erased. He looked about fifteen. But his gaze was that of an old man, broken too soon.
"What's your name?" Lila asked softly.
He blinked. Slowly.
"I… I don't know."
Kelvin and Lila exchanged a worried glance.
"You don't remember anything? Where you're from? Your parents? Your school?"
"No. Nothing. Just…"
He closed his eyes. Tears rolled down his cheeks.
"A dark room. Voices repeating... 'You are nothing. You are useless. You are a mistake.' Again and again. And eyes. Red eyes."
Lila sat in silence, arms crossed.
"That's not a normal shadow. It ate his memories… as if it wanted to reset him."
Kelvin stepped closer.
"Do you remember a word? A name? A place? Even a dream?"
The boy hesitated… then whispered:
"K-13."
Lila frowned.
"What's that?"
"I don't know. But… it was written on a wall, in the dark room. In red."
Kelvin immediately noted the detail in his notebook. He felt that this "K-13" was more than just a code. It was a key. Maybe a place. Maybe an experiment. And maybe... an organization.
Lila looked at the boy, then at Kelvin.
"The Thinking Beasts… and now this. We're at the heart of something bigger. Something structured."
Kelvin murmured:
"They're not born by accident. Someone's pushing them into existence. Maybe even creating them."
A heavy silence fell over the room.
The boy looked at them, anxious.
"Are… you going to leave me?"
Kelvin placed a hand on his shoulder.
"No. You're one of us now."
"One of you?" he whispered.
"We don't have a name yet. No base. No plan. Just one certainty: we don't want to run anymore. And we won't let anyone fall alone."
Lila gave a faint smile.
"You can stay here for now. We'll help you rebuild yourself. And maybe… remember."
The boy nodded. And for the first time, his eyes lost a bit of their emptiness.
Kelvin, meanwhile, already felt his shadow stir. The word K-13 had awakened something in his subconscious. An image. The sound of metal. Muffled screams.
A blurry memory… that might not even be his own.