The days following Lena's decision to abandon the QFD felt strange, filled with a quiet sense of peace but tinged with an inexplicable emptiness. She went through her daily routines, returning to her regular research, and tried not to think about the device. She knew dismantling it had been the right choice, yet something in her felt off, like an itch she couldn't scratch or a word on the tip of her tongue that she couldn't quite remember.
Every now and then, Lena would catch herself staring into space, wondering about the lives she might have glimpsed, the fractured memories that had bled into her mind before she shut down the experiment. The face of the man from the alternate vision lingered in her thoughts, a shadow she could never fully see but whose presence she couldn't forget.
