Elian. 

Sector B looked the same. 

Too clean. Too quiet.

The floors were polished. Ceiling high. Lights bright. Drones silent. I’d walked this path more times than I could count. It should’ve felt normal. Safe.

It didn’t.

I told myself I was imagining it. The past few days have been nothing but normal. I was back where I belonged. Cleaning. Moving. Blending in.

Still, something was off.

I pushed the cart down the north corridor. Glass-paneled doors lined the hall. Stainless. Sealed. Most leading into research rooms I wasn’t allowed to enter. I wiped each panel as I passed. Usually, there was always something, a smear, a fingerprint. 

Except this time, there wasn’t.

The first panel? Clean. The second? Already spotless. The third? Untouched. No marks. No smear. No trace of anyone had been inside.

That never happened. There was always something to clean.

I slowed down. Looked around.

Nothing. 

A Bound passed me heading in the opposite direction. Tall. Brown haired. With a slate. New one. I nodded. Like always. They didn’t return it. Nothing new but weird. Bounds at least look at us. 

I tightened my grip on the handle and kept going.

It wasn’t until I turned into that familiar corridor. The one with the room I wasn’t supposed to see at all. 

Then, I saw it. 

A smear on the floor. Dark. Dried.

Blood.

Thin. Almost missed it.

It trailed along the base of the wall like something had been dragged. It’s new. Weird. But I crouched anyway. Reached toward it. Dried. Flaky. And… Recent. Couldn’t be older than a few hours.

It shouldn’t be there. Not in Sector B. Not here. This was a green zone. No combat. No training. I looked up. Cameras blinked Blue. Active.

But no alert in my slate. I always get alert when there is something that needs to be cleaned. 

I stood. Stared down the trail. It led a few meters forward, then bent, straight towards that one room.

RESTRICTED — AUTHORIZED ENTRY ONLY. 

I shouldn’t be here. Not after everything. Not now. 

But I didn’t move.

I just…watched it. Like maybe it would open if I stared hard enough.

And then it happened.

I blinked, just once.

The lights changed.  Red. The hallway changed. The walls stretched.

The floor cracked. Door….Something similar. 

And then - faces.

Hundreds. Maybe more. Started coming out of the cracks. Mouths open in soundless screams. Skin dripping. Eye twitching in and out of its sockets. 

Hollowed? 

I staggered back.

They moved. Just slightly. One near my shoulder reached out. No fingers. Just bone and melted flesh. Coming for my throat. 

A voice screamed in my ear. Not a sound. A feeling. Pain tearing through my skull.

Then it was gone.

Gone.

The hallway blinked back to normal. Clean floors. Sealed door. No faces. No screams. No blood. 

I was breathing too hard.

I turned. Fast. Kept walking. Didn’t look back. Afraid that if I did, they’d still be there.

I cleaned the rest of the corridor fast. I don’t remember it. Eventually, I reached the maintenance room.

Checked my cart again. Perfectly stocked. Nothing broken. Nothing moved.

Like I’d imagined everything. Like nothing had happened.

But I still couldn’t get that image out of my head. What scared me most wasn’t that I saw it.

It was how real it felt. 

I took the long way back to the dorms.

Maybe I just needed sleep. Maybe I pushed too hard. Again. 

Or maybe….It was already there and I just started noticing. 

I didn’t tell anyone.

Who would believe me?

They’d think I was broken. Maybe I was.