Shattered Time-Chapter 41: “Patient 13”

Kael sat in the corner.

He hadn't moved in hours.

No sounds.

No clocks ticking.

No Aya.

Just the hum of fluorescent lights that never flickered but felt... wrong. Too bright. Too still.

He tried to remember what day it was.

But the days had melted into one long string of white walls and fake smiles.

The door clicked open.

A man stepped in. Pale suit. No shoes. No ID.

Just a clipboard.

"Hello, Kael."

Kael looked up slowly.

"You're not one of them."

The man smiled. "No. I'm not."

"Then who are you?"

He didn't answer.

Instead, he held up the clipboard.

Kael's photo was paperclipped to the top. Age: 17. Status: Critical.

Below it, one word was stamped in red ink.

Patient 13.

Kael swallowed.

"I'm not crazy," he whispered.

"No," the man said. "You're waking up."

---

He tapped the file.

"Do you remember the fractures?"

Kael blinked.

"The... what?"

"Your world is bleeding, Kael. Fractures in the frame. Memory slippage. Loops. We didn't expect you to last this long."

"What are you talking about?"

The man leaned down.

"Tell me something... what color were Aya's eyes?"

Kael opened his mouth—paused.

Were they brown?

Green?

Blue?

No.

He didn't remember.

He never did.

---

The man sighed. "That's how it starts."

Kael backed away. "Is this a dream?"

The man grinned.

Too wide. Too sharp.

"No. This is the real part."

---

He turned and walked out.

Kael lunged to follow—

—but the door was gone again.

The walls closed in.

Literally.

The white walls shimmered. Turned soft. Elastic.

Like skin.

Kael screamed.

And the floor pulsed beneath him—like a heartbeat.

A whisper crawled out from under his bed.

"You were never in a hospital, Kael."

"You were in containment."

"For what you brought back."

---

Suddenly, flashes tore across his vision.

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Screams.

A dark hallway.

Hands holding him down.

Aya burning.

Mirrors cracking.

And a voice. Cold. Monotone.

"Subject 13 has breached again. Memory regression detected. Begin reset protocol."

---

Kael gasped as the light exploded.

And everything went black.

---

Far away, in a hidden lab filled with wires, screens, and flickering lights, the man in the pale suit watched Kael twitch on the monitor.

A scientist beside him whispered, "He's starting to remember what he really is."

The suited man stared blankly.

Then smiled.

"Let him. Let him remember everything."

---