Episode 4: The Echoes of the Mind, Phase 1

Kai’s breath came in ragged gasps as he pushed against the metal walls that had sealed him into the isolated room. His hands shook, but his mind was sharp. He had no time to waste. The air felt thick with the weight of unseen eyes, the oppressive hum of machinery buzzing in the background. The last thing he wanted was to lose himself in the chaos.

The room was dimly lit, the flickering light from the malfunctioning overhead lamp casting eerie shadows across the walls. There was a strange, metallic scent in the air, a hint of something burning. His pulse raced as he scanned his surroundings. There was no way out—at least, not yet.

Through the haze of his racing thoughts, Kai could hear faint whispers in his earpiece, muffled by static. His team was still out there, probably facing their own struggles. He couldn’t afford to think about them too much—not until he had a way out.

A harsh crackle broke through the static. “Kai,” Lena’s voice echoed in his earpiece, but there was something different about it. It was distant, distorted, as though she were speaking from a place far away. “Kai, do you hear me?”

“I hear you,” Kai replied, gritting his teeth as he paced the room. His mind raced to make sense of everything happening around him. The voice sounded so close, but everything felt so wrong. “Lena, what the hell is going on? Where are you?”

“Don’t trust what you see, Kai,” Lena’s voice was laced with an unusual urgency, but then the connection cut out again. A soft, hollow tone replaced the silence for a moment.

Kai froze. The words hit him like a cold wave. Don’t trust what you see…

He spun around, eyes darting to the walls, the ceiling, searching for something—anything—that would make sense of what was happening. Was it the facility’s self-defense system messing with his head? Or something more… sinister?

Suddenly, the room seemed to warp, like the walls were shifting and breathing. A dark shadow stretched across the floor, flickering in and out of sight. It was as if the very fabric of reality was bending around him.

“No,” he muttered to himself. “Focus, Kai. Stay in control.”

But it was impossible to ignore the gnawing feeling that something was terribly wrong. The lights flickered again, and this time, the shadow in the corner of his eye seemed to move closer.

Was he hallucinating?

The walls, once solid and metallic, began to crumble, revealing an entirely different reality. He stumbled backward, his heart pounding in his chest. The cold steel of the room faded, replaced by what appeared to be an old, crumbling mansion. Dim candlelight flickered in the distance, casting eerie shadows that danced across the floor.

A door creaked open in the far corner of the room, and Kai’s instincts screamed at him to move—either toward or away from it, he wasn’t sure. But his body moved on its own, pulling him toward the opening.

As he stepped into the threshold, a wave of disorientation hit him, the room around him flickering again between the mansion and the sterile, cold walls of the facility. Was this a trap? Or was this part of whatever game Dr. Harper—or whoever controlled this place—was playing with him?

Then, from the darkness, a figure emerged.

It was a woman, her silhouette barely visible in the dim light. Kai’s heart skipped a beat, but it wasn’t just the strange appearance of the woman that froze him—it was the way she stood there, unmoving, as though waiting for him.

“Who are you?” he demanded, his voice sharp as he tried to steady his breathing. “What do you want?”

The woman didn’t answer. Instead, she stepped forward, slowly and deliberately, as if the very act of moving was part of some intricate dance he didn’t understand.

As she came closer, her features became clearer—only for Kai to realize with a jolt that the woman was a twisted, distorted version of Dr. Harper. Her eyes were hollow, her skin unnaturally pale, and her movements… mechanical.

“You shouldn’t have come,” the figure of Dr. Harper spoke, her voice chilling and emotionless, as if the words were coming from somewhere deep within the depths of her mind.

Kai’s grip tightened on his weapon as he took a step back. “You’re not Harper.”

“No,” the figure answered, her voice a low whisper, “I am something far older. Something far more dangerous.”

Before Kai could respond, the mansion seemed to lurch, and the figure vanished, replaced by a blinding flash of light that left him disoriented and nauseous. When his vision cleared, the mansion was gone, replaced once more by the cold, metallic walls of the facility.

He was back where he started.

But he couldn’t shake the feeling that the encounter had been more than just an illusion. Something in him had changed—something dark and unsettling had been unlocked.

And as the light flickered and the hum of the facility's machines echoed in his ears, one thing was certain: the truth he was searching for wasn’t just hidden within Dr. Harper’s mind—it was tangled in something much older, more dangerous than he had ever anticipated.

End of Episode 4, Phase 1

Episode 4: The Echoes of the Mind, Phase 2

The sudden shift back to the cold, metallic walls of the facility left Kai reeling. The hum of machinery echoed in his skull, as if it were vibrating directly through his bones. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear the disorienting fog clouding his mind, but the images of the mansion—the figure of Dr. Harper—remained burned in his memory. His body was still on high alert, but the strange sense of foreboding that had settled in his gut wasn’t something he could shake off easily.

He staggered forward, his hand brushing against the walls as he fought to steady his breath. What the hell had just happened? One minute he was in the sterile facility, and the next, he was inside some decrepit mansion, face-to-face with a version of Dr. Harper who wasn’t quite... right.

The lights flickered again. This time, they didn’t return to normal.

Kai’s earpiece crackled, and he jumped, heart racing.

“Kai?” Lena’s voice—now sharp with panic—cut through the static. “Kai, what happened? We lost your signal for a second there.”

“I’m fine,” Kai said, though his voice was rough, betraying the unease that lingered within him. “But something’s off. The place I’m in, it’s... changing. It’s like my mind’s being pulled in different directions. And Dr. Harper—she’s not who she seems.”

A brief silence stretched across the line, before Lena’s voice returned, more cautious. “I’m sending you the latest data we’ve gathered on Harper’s neural patterns. It’s possible that her psychic defenses are warping the environment in here. We can’t rule out that her mind is creating these illusions on purpose. Whatever she’s hiding, it’s not just buried in her memories—it’s manipulating reality itself.”

“Great.” Kai’s voice was tight. “That’s just what I needed. Reality isn’t real anymore.”

“Stay focused, Kai,” Lena replied, her tone a little softer. “We need you to find the core of whatever’s manipulating this mindscape. Whatever Dr. Harper is hiding, it’s not just about her research anymore. This... thing... it’s bigger.”

Kai took a deep breath. “I know. I’ll figure it out.”

As the line fell silent, the walls around him seemed to pulse, almost in response to the tension growing inside him. It was as if the very fabric of the room—of the world itself—was aware of his presence, anticipating his every move.

Kai’s instincts screamed at him to move, to find an exit, to escape before whatever was lurking in the shadows could pull him deeper. But he couldn’t leave. Not when he was so close to the truth.

“Focus,” he muttered under his breath, stepping forward with determination. He could feel the pulse of energy in the air, thick and suffocating. His senses were heightened, every fiber of his being aware of the shifting nature of this place.

Suddenly, the walls began to stretch, elongating, folding in on themselves like the insides of a collapsing hourglass. The shadows in the corners of the room grew darker, more oppressive, and something whispered in the distance, too faint for him to understand.

Kai’s mind was spinning, but he pushed it aside. He couldn’t afford to lose himself now.

He reached for his weapon—an instinctive reaction that gave him a semblance of control. His fingers brushed the hilt of the blade, but when he pulled it free, the blade was different. It was no longer a simple weapon; it gleamed with an ethereal light, a reflection of the fractured reality he was now trapped in.

With a steadying breath, he pushed forward, toward the flickering shadows at the far end of the room. As he neared, a voice—strangely familiar—echoed through the darkness, stopping him in his tracks.

"You're too late, Kai."

It was Dr. Harper’s voice again. But this time, there was something else behind it—a distortion, a presence that he could not identify. The ground beneath his feet shifted, as if responding to her words.

“Too late for what?” he demanded, his voice cutting through the silence. “What’s happening here? What are you hiding?”

The darkness seemed to pulse in time with his words, and slowly, the shadows took form. It wasn’t Dr. Harper standing in front of him, but something far more sinister. The figure was a mirror of her—distorted, a blend of human and something far less recognizable. Her eyes glowed with an unnatural light, and her movements were jerky, almost mechanical.

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with,” the figure rasped, its voice growing more distorted with every syllable. “The truth has already been planted... and you’re nothing more than a puppet, Kai Ren.”

He raised his weapon, the glow of the blade illuminating the twisted figure before him. "What do you mean? Who planted the truth?"

The figure’s lips curled into a chilling smile, its eyes flickering with recognition. “You already know the answer. You’ve been living in it all along.”

Before Kai could react, the figure lunged, its hands reaching for him, its distorted face twisted in an expression of hunger. The room around them shattered like glass, and Kai was once again plunged into darkness.

What the hell was that?

He barely had time to process the new wave of terror washing over him before the darkness receded, leaving only silence in its wake.

Kai took a step back, sweat beading on his forehead. The walls were still there, but something had changed. The air felt colder, and the shadows deeper. Something was watching him. Waiting.

And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the silence was broken. A voice—familiar, yet distant—spoke from the depths of his mind.

“You’re too late. They’re already coming for you.”

Kai clenched his fists, the words echoing in his head. He wasn’t alone in this place, and whatever had been planted in his mind, he wasn’t sure he wanted to uncover it.

But he had no choice.

End of Episode 4

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***