The hallway was dark, the only light filtering through a dim, flickering bulb that buzzed overhead. The woman didn't wait for Elias to catch up; her footsteps quick and purposeful, the soft scrape of her boots echoing down the sterile corridor. He tried to keep up with her, but his legs still felt unsteady. His body was sore, sluggish, and he couldn't shake the dizzying fog in his mind.
The corridor stretched endlessly, empty and silent except for their footsteps. He couldn't understand what was happening. One moment, he was alone in that sterile room, the next, this stranger was leading him through a hospital he couldn't recognize. Every part of him screamed to stop, to question her, but the nagging feeling of something terribly wrong kept him moving.
The woman glanced back over her shoulder, catching his hesitant expression. Her eyes were sharp, like she had done this countless times before. Like she knew exactly what was at stake.
"You're not safe here," she said, her voice low, almost a whisper, yet it was firm, unwavering. "You can't afford to be curious. Not right now."
Elias's mouth went dry, but he forced out a question. "Who are you? Why are you helping me?"
The woman's face remained impassive, but something in her eyes shifted. Something almost... haunted. She didn't slow her pace, though, just kept walking with the same determined stride.
"I'm the only one who can," she answered finally, her words clipped but heavy with meaning.
Elias opened his mouth to say more, but she stopped abruptly at a door at the end of the hallway. She pressed her ear to it, listening intently for a moment, before carefully twisting the handle and easing the door open. It creaked, just a little too loudly for his liking, but the hallway remained eerily silent.
The woman motioned for him to enter, her eyes scanning the area one last time. Elias hesitated before stepping inside.
The room was small, barely furnished. A single window overlooked the quiet, shadowy street outside, its curtains drawn shut. There was a bed in the corner, an old desk cluttered with papers, and a few bookshelves stacked with books and strange artifacts Elias couldn't identify. It felt... temporary. Like no one had intended to stay long.
"Sit," she commanded, pointing to the chair beside the desk. "We need to talk."
Elias hesitated again. Something about her tone sent a shiver down his spine. He couldn't trust her, not yet. But where else could he go? The whole situation felt wrong, as if he were caught in someone else's nightmare. He had no memories, no sense of what was happening. He only had a feeling—the overwhelming sensation that something was coming for him, and if he didn't act soon, he would be swallowed whole.
He sank into the chair slowly, his hands still gripping the crumpled note she had found him with. RUN. The words had followed him here, and they seemed to be burned into his mind. It was like the very essence of the warning had planted itself deep inside him. He had to run. But where?
She crossed the room and sat opposite him, her eyes studying him carefully. There was no sign of hesitation in her movements, as if everything she did was premeditated, calculated. She wasn't afraid. No, she seemed certain. Certain of something he couldn't yet understand.
"My name is Lena," she said, her voice steady now, as if she had weighed the consequences of what she was about to reveal. "I've been following you for a while."
Elias's brows furrowed in confusion. "Following me? For how long?"
Lena met his gaze directly, her eyes almost too intense, like she was measuring the depth of his confusion. "Long enough," she replied. "And I wasn't the only one."
Elias shook his head, trying to process the flood of information. He didn't know what to trust, who to trust. This woman—Lena—had appeared out of nowhere and claimed to be his only ally. But even as he looked at her, there was something distant in her eyes. A kind of hardness he couldn't ignore.
"You're not telling me everything," he said. His voice cracked slightly, betraying his own uncertainty. "Who are they? The people who want to hurt me?"
Lena's face darkened, and for a moment, Elias saw a flicker of something else in her eyes. Something almost... regretful. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared, replaced by the same guarded expression.
"The Council," she said, each word a weighty revelation. "A powerful, secretive group. They've been operating in the shadows for centuries. They control governments, industries, even the most influential people in the world. You have no idea how far-reaching they are."
Elias swallowed hard, his throat dry. "What do they want with me?"
She leaned forward slightly, her hands resting on the desk, her eyes never leaving his. "That's the part I'm still trying to figure out." She paused, glancing at the window, her expression hardening. "But I know one thing for sure: they've been keeping an eye on you for a long time. You were part of something, Elias. Something big. Something they didn't want you to remember."
Elias recoiled slightly, his heart pounding in his chest. "What do you mean, 'something big'?"
Lena leaned back in her chair, her gaze flickering to the window again before returning to him. "You were one of their projects. You were... changed. In ways you don't even realize."
"Changed?" Elias repeated, the word foreign in his mouth. "What kind of project? What are you talking about?"
Her expression softened, just a little. "You were part of a program—an experiment. They altered your memories, Elias. Wiped them clean." She paused, her voice lowering, as though testing the weight of the words. "And they didn't expect you to wake up. They didn't expect you to remember."
Elias felt the blood drain from his face. His mind reeled, the truth sinking in like a stone at the bottom of a lake. "So... I'm just some kind of experiment to them? That's why they're hunting me?"
Lena's expression hardened again, but there was a flicker of something—something that looked almost like guilt—before it vanished. "It's not that simple. There's more at play here than just you. They've been playing this game for centuries. They control far more than you realize."
Elias's head spun. He tried to grasp onto her words, to make sense of it all. The Council, the project, the memories. But it all felt like a tangled mess, each thread leading to a new question, a new mystery. He was in over his head—and the worst part was, he didn't even know who to trust.
Lena's gaze softened just a little, her voice lowering. "The only reason I'm still helping you is because I'm not entirely sure you know what you're capable of."
Elias stared at her, trying to read her face, but it was like trying to see through fog. The more he learned, the more his world shifted. Nothing felt real anymore.
"We need to move," she said, suddenly standing. "They'll be here soon."
Elias stood as well, his mind still racing. But there was no time to process. No time to ask all the questions that were clamoring in his head. One thing was clear: whatever was happening to him, it was bigger than anything he had ever imagined. And the people chasing him were just the tip of the iceberg.