Chapter 12 · Echoes of Project Zero

"Don't move. Not a single muscle," Lyra hissed, her voice trembling as she jammed a data-spike into the rusted console.

Kane didn't move. He couldn't. Not because he was obeying her, but because the air in the bunker had turned into a thick, suffocating soup of static. He was backed against a damp concrete wall, his boots crunching on shattered glass, while the red emergency lights pulsed like a dying heart.

"What is this place?" Kane asked. His voice sounded raw, even to him.

"A graveyard," Lyra snapped. She didn't look back. Her fingers flew across the holographic interface, her breath coming in short, jagged bursts. "And we're standing right in the middle of the headstone. This was a sublevel lab for Project Zero. Your... home, I guess. If you can call a torture chamber a home."

Kane felt a spike of heat behind his eyes. A flash—white light, the smell of ozone, and a voice screaming *Obey*. It wasn't a memory; it was a scar.

"I don't remember any lab," he muttered, stepping forward.

"That's the point!" Lyra spun around, her eyes wide and frantic.