Shattered Time-Chapter 38 - The Quiet Ones Watch

Aya didn't sleep that night.

Not because she couldn't.

Because she didn't dare.

The halls of the hospital creaked. Not with footsteps. But breathing. Like the walls themselves were alive. Like something was holding its breath... waiting.

She sat on the floor, her back against the door of her room, a scalpel clenched in one shaking hand.

Not for defense.

For proof.

If she blinked and it vanished—she'd know it was starting.

The Pulse.

That cursed thing.

Whispers threaded through the air.

Low. Wet. Repeating one word:

"Switch."

Aya shoved her fingers in her ears, but the voices oozed through her skin, nested in her thoughts.

In the mirror across her room—Kael smiled.

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The real Kael.

Not the one walking the halls.

Not the one wearing his face.

This Kael looked tired. Pale. Blood on his lips. Like he'd been screaming for hours.

But his voice was clear:

"You have to break it, Aya. It's using my skin. You have to stop it before it spreads."

"Before what spreads?" she whispered.

Behind her, something scratched the door.

Not knocked.

Scratched.

Slow. Steady. Like nails dragging across bone.

She turned.

The scalpel slipped from her hand.

Because outside the little window in the door, one perfect eye stared back at her.

Her own.

Blinking.

Smiling.

Mouthing a single word:

"Switch."

She slammed the window shut and backed away.

Everything was a lie.

The doctors. The nurses. This building.

All of them... were watching.

Waiting.

The Quiet Ones.

She remembered the files. The ones Kael had hidden in the burnt notebook before it turned to ash.

About Project Echo Chamber.

About the Mirror Rooms.

About the patients who vanished but never left.

Aya pressed her palm to the mirror. Tears in her eyes.

"Kael... how do I break this?"

The mirror pulsed.

Her reflection didn't copy her anymore.

It smiled.

And whispered with her voice:

"You don't. You switch."