The sterile, blinding fluorescence of the asylum wing offered no sense of time, but the subtle shift in the ward’s ventilation hum told me it was morning. I had spent the entire night awake, the decrypted data pad and the memory crystal burning like hot coals beneath my pillow. My mind raced through

The asylum grew suffocatingly quiet at midnight. The harsh fluorescent lights dimmed to a sickly, pale yellow, and the distant footsteps of the orderly patrols faded into a predictable, thirty-minute rhythm.

I lay perfectly still in the darkness, the data pad, the memory crystal, and the vial of t

The heavy deadbolt on my asylum door echoed with a metallic *clack* that cut through the sterile silence of the afternoon.

I didn't flinch. I sat perfectly still in the standard-issue wheelchair Dr. Aris had provided, my hands folded neatly in my lap. Beneath my calm exterior, the newly awakened s