Sometimes, she woke up in places she didn't remember falling asleep. Locked rooms. Storage facilities. Once, even in the lower tunnels near the decontamination vaults...completely alone, with dirt under her fingernails and dried blood on her collar.
She had stopped reporting it. Because who would believe her?
Because she didn't believe in herself.
The paranoia crept in like rot.
She started locking her room. Started keeping a weapon under her pillow. She stopped sleeping at all some nights, too afraid she wouldn't wake up the same.
Xu Kai noticed. Of course he did.
But Aeris smiled through it. Lied through her teeth. Pretended it was just training stress or nightmares or migraines.
But Liora knew.
She could feel it—the fear had burrowed too deep. Aeris had begun to question everything. Herself. Her own memories. Her own sanity.
"You're losing your mind," she whispered to herself in the mirror, over and over, tears streaming down her face.
