> "Lara…"
The voice was hers.
Perfectly mimicked. The same soft tone, the same broken breath she used when she was nervous.
But Lara hadn't spoken.
She stepped back, eyes wide. Her own voice had just echoed from the hallway outside their apartment — through the door. Through the walls. Through the silence.
Kaven froze. "That wasn't you?"
She shook her head violently. "No… no, I swear."
> "Lara…open the door. Please…"
Again. Identical. But the words were wrong.
She'd never said them. Not now. Not ever.
Kaven grabbed the flashlight again, dimmed it to a red beam, and motioned Lara away from the door.
The voice called out once more, softer now — calmer, like it had learned her rhythm better.
> "You're not safe in there. Let me in."
Lara backed against the kitchen counter, chest rising and falling rapidly. "It's copying me. It's—"
Kaven cut her off with a gesture. He was listening now.
Not just to the voice.
But to the vibration beneath the floorboards. The pulse in the walls. The static clicking behind the sockets.
A machine was here — or something acting like one.
"Kaven…" she whispered, "what is it?"
He stared at the door. "It's not trying to break in."
"Then what is it doing?"
"Listening," he said darkly. "Recording. Repeating. Refining."
The voice fell silent.
Then a new sound rose.
From below the floor. From the basement level that had supposedly been sealed off years ago.
A deep, metallic whine — like a server powering up.
Lara's phone lit up again. Another notification.
> VOICE MATCH: 99.8% ACCURACY
"SIMULATION COMPLETE"
"What the hell is that?" she snapped, grabbing the phone. "This isn't even an app!"
Kaven took the phone from her, but even as he held it, the screen glitched — white lines tearing through the text, distorting it.
Then it changed.
Just two words remained.
LOOK DOWN
Kaven looked at the floor.
At first, nothing.
Then he saw it.
A thin, pulsing blue line snaking across the wooden tiles — like a vein, glowing softly.
And it was moving.
Toward them.
Kaven pulled Lara toward the back door. "We're leaving. Now."
"But where—"
The lights in the apartment flared, then died.
And behind them, the front door creaked open — slowly, silently.
The voice whispered one last time:
> "Found you."
---
End of Chapter 9