At some point while following the smell, I must have dropped my suitcase beside the staircase.I barely noticed — my body felt heavier with every step, yet something in the air kept pulling me upward.
The stairs groaned beneath me. Each creak sounded like a warning I chose to ignore.Then I saw it.The source of the smell.
It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen — a cloud of shifting colors, like a living rainbow suspended in the hallway.The hues rolled and rippled, changing scents every few seconds: metal, rain, jasmine… and something I couldn't name. Something alive.
The cloud hovered right in front of Selina's room.I swallowed hard, heart pounding. The closer I got, the thicker the air felt — humming with a low vibration that seemed to come from inside my own bones.
I reached out, my fingers trembling, and pushed the door open.
Two steps inside, I froze. My tired eyes snapped wide, exhaustion burning away in an instant."What the hell…" I whispered.
The room wasn't what I remembered.Selina's soft-colored walls, her scattered sketchbooks, the scent of old perfume — all gone.
In their place stood rows of strange containers — glass and metal — each glowing faintly from within.Above every one, a colored cloud hovered: red, blue, violet, gold.They swirled and shifted like they were alive.
Cables crawled across the floor, connecting everything to a massive monitor that dominated the far wall.The screen flickered with countless windows — footage from unknown places, shifting angles, endless movement.
I took a slow step closer, the hum of the machines blending with the steady rhythm of the storm outside.
"What are you doing, Selina?" I murmured, though deep down, I wasn't sure I wanted an answer.
The air shifted.A faint sound — a whisper, or maybe a breath — brushed the back of my neck.
Before I could turn around, something slammed into me from behind.
White pain.Then nothing.