Chapter 13 · The Clock's Ticking

"Stop. Moving. Now," Echo’s voice didn't just ring in my head; it felt like a jagged piece of glass scraping against my frontal lobe.

I didn't stop. I slammed my shoulder into the rusted door of the back alley clinic, the metal shrieking in protest. My left leg gave a violent, electric jerk, sending me sprawling face-first onto the grime-slicked concrete.

"Dammit!" I spat, the taste of copper and old rain filling my mouth. I tried to push myself up, but my arm locked. It didn't just freeze; it vibrated with a high-frequency hum that made my teeth rattle.

"I told you the synchronization was dropping," Echo drawled. I could practically feel him reclining in the void of my mind, smug even while we were both dying. "You're glitching, Vera. Your motor cortex is basically a corrupted save file right now."

"Shut up and fix it!" I screamed, dragging my dead limb across the floor. I grabbed the edge of a discarded medical crate, my fingers slipping on the oily surface.

"Fix it? With what?