Zara's POV

There seemed to be a chiller atmosphere around the academy once it passed curfew time. Something along the lines of cold and dangerous. A kind of cold that crawled under your skin and seemed to make your thoughts real and loud.

I should have been asleep, especially after the whole first kill, but my body refused to rest. My mind was going through all corners, and I didn't know how to move from all that.

Kai's voice kept ringing loud and clear in my head.

"Meet me tonight. East wing. After curfew."

I might as well just go since I couldn't find sleep. Every rational part of me kept screaming that I stayed back, but something deeper, something more like whispered;

"What's the harm in going? You definitely want to see him."

This other voice seemed to know what I really wanted.

The solar lamps kept flickering as I passed through the corridors. My reflection followed me in the glass walls, like a shadow hesitating whether to follow me or not. The silence was like a weight of burden on me.

When I reached the last stair case that presented me with the Easter wing, the air shifted. It smelt of metal, burnt wires, smoke and....him. Kai's scent was dark, velvety, sharp, and controlled.

He stepped out of the shadow like always as if he had been waiting for me.

"I was beginning to think that you won't show up." He said, voice low yet careful.

"You wanted me to show up." I replied.

"Why here?" I questioned.

His eyes scanned the hallway before settling on me. For the first time, I noticed how tired he looked. There was a weight behind his gaze, something haunted.

"Because this place has no cameras," he murmured.

What's really going on?

"I'm tired of these games." I retorted.

He didn't respond, just staring deep into my eyes and making me squirm in my stance.

So I took a bold step closer to him, studying him.

"You said that last night, too. About trust. About not even trusting you. Why do you keep repeating it?" I threw the question his way.

But he didn't flinch. And he didn't answer right away. His jaw clenched, like he was holding back more than words.

Finally, he said,

"Because I'm trying to protect you from the people who want to use you."

I took a step backwards.

"Protect me?" I scoffed softly.

You're the one who told me I'd been wiped clean.

What does that even mean, Kai?

"What did they take from me?"

He looked at me for a long moment. His hand twitched; like he wanted to reach out to me, but he hesitated.

"You don't want to know." He whispered.

But that's what he didn't know. I really needed to know. I had to know.

"Then tell me what happened that night." I pushed, my voice trembling.

I was sounding so weak and pathetic.

"Why don't you tell me why I woke up in my basement room and everything seemed patched from the previous night." I said.

Silence.

"You should forget about asking these questions." He said, brushing the question away.

The air thickened between us. His words sank in, heavy and suffocating.

"Wow!" I echoed.

"Then what am I, Kai? Some kind of experiment?"

He turned away, running a hand through his hair.

You're... not what they made you believe.

"You're something older, something Dr. Voss calls the prototype."

The words made my pulse jump. Prototype. Like a thing. Not a person.

"Amen I the only person that's like this?" I put out my thoughts in the open.

He faced me again, stepping close enough that I could feel the heat of his breath against my cheek.

Zara, listen to me. What you did today, it wasn't your fault.

"They triggered something inside you."

I killed him, Kai." My voice cracked.

"How is that not my fault?"

"And that wasn't the answer to my question."

He hesitated, eyes dark and unreadable.

"Because they designed you to react that way."

"I'm still trying to figure that out." He said referring to my question earlier on.

My heart pounded. Designed. Triggered. Prototype. Figuring things out.

Every word cut deeper than the last.

I took a step back, shaking my head. "No. No, that's not possible. I'm not"

Before I could finish, he grabbed my wrist, so gentle yet firm. His hand was warm, steadying.

"You're not a monster," he said, his voice raw.

"Don't ever believe that."

The hallway light flickered, bathing us in shadow and smoke.

For a heartbeat, it felt like the world paused. It was just us breathing in sync.

Then I noticed something on his sleeve.

Blood. Dried, dark, crusted at the edge.

My voice came out barely a whisper.

"You said no one will find him..."

He froze. His eyes darted to his arm, then back to me.

"That's not what you think," he muttered.

"Then what should I think?" I shot back.

"That you're hiding me from Dr. Voss or helping her hide me from myself?"

He stepped forward; and I took a step back.

"Don't come any closer, Kai." I warned rudely.

He flinched at my tone.

The air crackled between us, hot and cold at once.

"Zara, please," he said softly.

"If she suspects anything, she'll destroy you."

"And if I don't find out the truth, I'll destroy myself," I replied.

"You're here to study meafter alll. So keep it up!" I said as angry tears threatened to fall from my eyes.

His expression softened, and for a second, I saw it, the boy behind the soldier.

The one who wanted to believe he could save something in a world built to break people like us.

Then, a faint beep echoed from his wrist.

My eyes dropped to the device under his sleeve. It was the same one that always itched at him when Dr. Voss called.

He cursed under his breath, trying to cover it.

But I'd seen enough.

"She's listening, isn't she?" I asked quietly.

He didn't answer.

He didn't have to.

The silence said it all.

"Fuck!" I muttered under my breath as I ran a hand through my hair.

I didn't notice how he fast he moved, next thing I knew was that I felt his wet lips on mine. I wanted it in that moment as I tangled my hands around his neck.

"Run." He whispered sending chills down my spine.

Before I could steady my breath, he was out of my sight.

"Run!" I heard his voice repeat in my head.

And I did just that.

ZARA'S POV

The move came too suddenly to make sense. One day I was sleeping in the basement, next thing I'm told that I've been moved to a new room because of my new classes. Sitting in my usual class seat, trying to get used to everything there and listening in on people's whispers of an incident that happened in a lab.

A silver drone hovers over the front of my desk, projecting a blue holographic notice;

Zara Night, you've been reassigned to Dormitory Block C. Effective immediately.

I can't even be mad because it seems like everyone just wants to either order me around or use me. I feel several pairs of eyes on me, piercing daggers through my skull. Apparently, Block C was for the elites, the students who had potential.

It should have felt like a promotion for me, but in that moment... I felt empty and watched. I hadn't heard from Kai since last night. Despite a small part of me still craving for his presence, I resisted it due to the hurt from his lies and unsaid words.

When I arrived at my new room, it was really big and conducive, flooded with the sterile light of coloured glass and quiet ventilation. There were two beds, one appeared to have been newly dressed. I looked towards the second bed to see a girl with a short bob, twirling a knife through her hair and staring dead into my eyes.

"Hey, roommate." She greeted in a light yet brisk voice.

"I'm Mira Chen."

I had never seen her around the four corners of this academy. And she didn't have any scent on her, which made me wonder what sort of species she was. I heard a throat being cleared, bringing me out of my subconscious as I looked at her hand being extended towards mine.

"Zara." I responded shaking her hand gently while looking out of it.

"Yeah, I know. It's been in the rumour blog all day." She said

"And we are both new upgrades."

She gave me a small smile and I returned it with a soft one which fully reached my eyes but I didn't respond.

"I saw what you turned into the other night." She said.

If it's worth anything.

"I did think it was truly beautiful."

"Turning into a monster and being the odd one is not beautiful." I said as I began to seethe with anger.

"Calm down.... Hold your horses!" She threw my way.

"I'm not fighting with you, please!"

I noticed the hollow pit that lay deep in Mira's eyes. Her eyes seemed to be bright and calculating. It reminded me of a certain guy who was sweeping me off my feet while being a thorn in my back, a dark poison.

"There are your clothes and other necessities provided by the school for your welcome gift." She said pointing towards five boxes all piled up close to the wardrobe. I moved towards there to start unpacking.

With a low voice, Mira said; You heard what happened, right?

One of the staff, Lorn, I think, just disappeared.

"People said he got reassigned, but no one saw him leave."

I froze.

"Reassigned?" I asked.

"That's what they call it when someone doesn't come back," Mira said with a shrug.

"Academy rule number one: don't ask questions."

I nodded quietly. Lorn hadn't been trouble to me. So I guess that's fine. Yet something felt odd about that piece of information. It made me curious.

I nodded quietly. It seemed that Lorn had become... unreliable.The words hadn't been said yet, but somehow I could already hear them echoing.

~~~~~~~~~~

KAI'S POV

Later that evening, I stood before Dr. Voss's office. The door was slightly ajar, pale light spilling onto the metallic hallway. Inside, the room felt different. Colder. Everything in me wanted to run from that place, but where would I go?

The faint hum of the surveillance monitors was gone, replaced by a silence too deliberate to be natural.

Lorn's desk was empty. Not just cleared but fully erased. Every trace of him removed.

Dr. Voss sat by the window, her face half-lit by the city's holographic glow.

"You're late, Kai."

"Sorry," I apologized, stepping in carefully.

My boots echoed in silence.

"I came as soon as I could."

"That's not good enough." She responded, puffing out smoke from the cigarette she had been smoking.

"Sit."

I obeyed. My pulse had been strange lately, skipping when Zara's name crossed my mind. I had told myself that it was nothing. Just residual stress from the experiment, yet I couldn't bring myself to believe that.

Voss studied me, then said,

"You've done well keeping an eye on her."

I stiffened.

"Don't call her name." I had wanted to say.

But.... I went with, "I follow orders quite well!"

"And she's adapting. Slowly."

"That's expected." Dr. Voss leaned back.

But we must ensure her exposure doesn't corrupt her progress.

"Lorn failed to maintain that balance."

My gaze flicked to the empty desk.

"What happened to him?"

Dr. Voss smiled thinly. "He became unreliable."

The words landed like a gunshot. Apparently if I also fucked things up, I would become unreliable. I looked away, throat tightening.

"Who will be your assistant now?" I questioned.

"Oh! Are you worried about me, Kai?" She questioned, taunting me.

"Replaced." She threw in.

Voss gestured, and the side door slid open. Mira Chen stepped in fully clothed in a neat academy badge and a small earpiece glowing faint green.

My jaw tightened.

"She's a student."

"A gifted one," Voss replied.

"I value potential over seniority."

You both should do catch up, actually. Mira's eyes met mine briefly, then darted away.

"Pleasure," she murmured.

I forced a nod, though inside, everything twisted. I smelt Zara's scent on her when she entered the office.

"Was she her new roommate. I heard she had been reassigned rooms." I thought.

If Mira was working for Voss, Zara was already in danger.

Voss stood.

"You'll continue observing her, Kai." But this time, through new channels. Mira will coordinate updates directly to me.

She didn't need to spell it out. Voss was tightening control by placing Mira between them, between Zara and freedom.

As I left the office, his comm implant pulsed once. Voss's silent reminder that she was always listening. He ignored it, fists clenched, and told himself he'd find another way to protect her.

Even if it meant lying to both of them.

~~~~~~~~~~

ZARA'S POV

That night, I couldn't sleep as usual. I think I had become an insomniac.

Mira was typing softly at her desk, the glow of multiple screens painting her face in blue light.

"What are you working on?" I whispered.

"Just a project," She said, too casually. Something about energy frequencies.

"They say the academy's power core runs on experimental resonance tech, but the readings don't add up."

I frowned.

"Resonance?"

She smiled, not looking up.

"You know, the same word they used when describing your assignment."

My stomach turned.

"You... read that?" I asked.

I had earlier submitted an assignment on a topic that I had no knowledge about.

"Public data," She said quickly, but her tone was off.

Then, from under her desk, a low hum began to pulse, slow, steady, rhythmic, like a heartbeat made of static. She froze, eyes wide.

"That's not supposed to happen," she whispered.

I felt it, too. The vibration under the floor, faint but alive. And just for a second, I heard a voice, familiar and distant echo inside my skull.

"Zara!" It called.

My beath hitched. I turned sharply toward Mira.

"Did you hear that?"

She shook her head, but her hand was trembling over the keyboard.

And beneath the hum, somewhere far below the academy, something stirred.

"Zara breathe." I heard Mira say as she looked at me with no soul in her eyes.

My hands were trembling, my breath became dizzy as my eyesight turned fuzzy. A small black orb appeared pulsing with light.

"You called me again!" My reflection said to me as she appeared in my room.

"Zara!!!" Mira called out as she rushed over to my side.

"Don't you dare die on me!" My reflection said before I passed out.

And upstairs, Kai's implant buzzes violently with the same frequency, forcing him to his knees as Dr. Voss's voice fills his mind:

"She's waking it up again."