The Core was not a room.
It was a heartbeat.
A pulse made of steel and static, whispering in every direction.
The walls weren't walls they folded in and out, alive with shifting veins of light that blinked like pupils, tracking me as I stepped forward. Click… hum… click. The sound was mechanical, but I swore it was breathing.
"You've arrived."
Not a voice. Not sound. It vibrated through me. The words rode on the back of every flickering vein, crawling under my skin.
I froze, then smirked.
"Great. I was starting to worry you'd ghost me after all that foreplay."
The lights pulsed, like laughter.
"Sarcasm. A shield. Predictable."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well, I didn't exactly sign up for therapy. So what do I call you? The Architect? The Voice in My Head? Siri's edgy cousin?"
The air thickened. Lights shifted, rearranging until I swore I saw a face in the geometry half-formed, unreadable.
"Names are anchors. Anchors drag you down. You'll know me when you accept me."
"Cryptic and creepy. Love that combo." My voice cracked a little, just enough to piss me off. "Cut the philosophy and tell me what this place is."
Silence stretched, humming with static. Then:
"A design. A prison. A beginning. You are inside the pattern. And the pattern is inside you."
My stomach knotted. "Inside me?"
The pulse quickened. The walls leaned closer.
"Your thoughts have already shifted. Your choices, rewritten. You resist, but resistance is scaffolding we built it, too."
I staggered back. "You're saying… even my rebellion was scripted?"
The face of light flickered, almost smiling.
"You'll understand soon. When you stop asking why, and start asking how far."
The hum rose, drowning out my heartbeat. For a second, I thought I'd black out. Then—
Click. Click. Click.
A door appeared where there had been nothing. Waiting.
I stared at it. My hands shook. And still I laughed. Bitter, broken, but mine.
"Guess we're doing this."
I stepped through.