Chapter 31 – The Voices That Weren’t Mine
I thought the silence would be a relief.
But the quiet after a haunting isn't peace.
It's the waiting.
The system didn't speak for two days.
No missions.
No whispers.
No dreams.
Just me. Alone. In a motel room that smelled like bleach and old cigarettes, trying to figure out what part of myself had been left behind in that bleeding house.
I stared at the bathroom mirror.
There was something different in my eyes now.
A weight.
Maybe it was the people I'd become.
Maybe it was the version of me I'd fought.
Or maybe it was because I knew the silence wouldn't last.
It never did.
And just like that, the system returned—without sound, without warning.
> [System Notice: Alignment Check – "Tethered to Sorrow"]
[Psychic Resistance: 4 → 6]
[New Trait Unlocked: Trauma Residue (Passive)]
You now carry fragments of emotional trauma from the places you survive. Some may linger.
> Next Mission Incoming…
Countdown: 00:59:00
One hour.
But there was something else. Something it had never done before.
> [Optional Prelude Event: "Unwanted Frequencies"]
Location: Motel Room 209
Duration: Active
Outcome: Unknown
Before I could blink, the radio on the nightstand turned on by itself.
Not just turned on—it screeched.
White noise, crackling static, then voices.
Not one voice.
Dozens.
Layered, whispering over each other, like a room full of people all speaking their dying words at once.
I covered my ears.
Didn't help.
The voices weren't coming from the speaker.
They were coming from inside the walls.
---
I backed up.
Fast.
But the air was thick, vibrating.
The lights flickered once—then blew out completely.
Darkness.
And then—
Knocking.
Soft at first.
Then harder.
From the bathroom door.
I hadn't closed it.
I know I hadn't.
> [System Warning: You are being observed.]
[Do not speak.]
Too late.
"Who's there?"
The second I said it, the knocking stopped.
Dead silence.
Then a whisper—so close, I felt it on the back of my neck.
"Why are you wearing my face?"
I turned slowly.
The bathroom mirror no longer reflected the room.
It showed a hospital hallway.
Long. Empty. Flickering lights above.
And me.
But not now-me.
A version of me strapped to a gurney, screaming at a doctor with a face blurred by static.
I reached toward the mirror.
My hand went through.
> [System Alert: Trauma Echo Initiated – Memory Dive in Progress]
[Warning: Sanity will degrade rapidly.]
[Objective: Remember the memory that never was.]
---
I fell through the glass.
Hard.
Landed on white tile soaked in... something red and warm.
A siren blared once. Then silence.
And in the distance—
Me.
I was twelve.
Strapped down. Eyes wild. Lips moving too fast to understand.
A doctor stood above me, scribbling notes while nurses whispered in fear.
"He's hearing them again," the doctor muttered. "Same phrases. Same names."
He lifted a recorder.
My younger voice screamed through the speaker:
> "THE DEAD DON'T FORGIVE. THE DEAD REMEMBER. THE DEAD—"
The tape cut.
The boy version of me stared directly at me.
Even though I wasn't really there.
And he mouthed one word:
"RUN."
Then the hospital lights shattered.
---
The hallway twisted.
Became longer.
Deeper.
Alive.
Every door I passed opened on its own.
Inside were pieces of me.
A bloodied baseball bat.
My father's old coat.
A letter I burned when I was fifteen but still remembered every word of.
> "They're still inside you, Kai. You're just a cage. A thin one."
Who wrote that?
Was that from the past?
Or the future?
I started running.
And the floor started cracking.
Voices screamed behind the walls, under the tiles, inside my bones.
"Kai—come back."
"We weren't done."
"You left us to rot!"
---
I fell through the floor.
And landed back in the motel room.
Panting. Shaking.
Blood trickled from my nose.
The clock blinked 3:33 AM.
> [Optional Prelude Complete]
[Residual Trauma Absorbed: "The Forgotten Ward"]
[Sanity: 46% → 39%]
[You have unlocked a Memory Node.]
I stared at the wall.
The mirror still flickered with static.
But the voices were gone.
For now.
---
Then the mission dropped.
And this one was different.
> Mission Unlocked: "Dead Signal"
Location: Miller's Crossing Radio Station
Objective: Terminate the Broadcast
Time Limit: 3 Hours
Failure: Permanent Mind Fragmentation
Reward: +3 Attribute Points | Skill Upgrade | Rare Key (Type: UNKNOWN)
A chill ran through me.
Because I knew that signal.
It was the same one I'd just heard.
It wasn't just a haunting.
It was a call.
And someone—or something—had answered.
---
I packed fast. No hesitation.
This wasn't just another ghost or corrupted house.
Something was trying to speak through me.
The system didn't correct that thought.
That meant I was right.
As I stepped outside into the fog-heavy night, I could hear the whisper again.
Just one line this time.
Low. Patient. Waiting.
> "You were never alone, Kai. You just forgot we were here."