PART 3 — The Truth
Elias woke again.
This time in a chair.
His head was covered with silver electrodes.
A woman in a white lab coat stood in front of him.
She wrote on a clipboard.
“The empathy test is failing.”
Elias tried to speak.
“What are you talking about?”
The scientist didn’t look up.
“He keeps trying to save the victim.”
A pause.
“He doesn’t understand.”
Her eyes lifted.
“He is the victim.”
Elias looked behind her.
Screens covered the wall.
The pharmacy appeared again.
The guard.
The old woman.
The stranger.
But every face was his.
Every emotion.
Every fear.
Every version of himself.
All of them trapped.
“The locket,” Elias whispered.
The scientist stopped writing.
“What locket?”
“The boy.”
“The atrium.”
“The black floor.”
Her expression changed.
For the first time…
she looked afraid.
“There was no boy.”
The room began changing.
The white walls darkened.
Black liquid leaked from the ceiling.
The scientist’s face distorted.
“The boy was never a person.”
Her voice became many voices.
“He was a virus.”
The floor disappeared.
Elias fell into darkness.
Memories surrounded him.
Millions of them.
Different lives.
Different worlds.
All connected.
All suffering.
And then…
he felt something around his neck.
A locket.
He opened it.
Inside was a mirror.
And staring back at him was a monster.
A creature with empty eyes.
But the monster was screaming.
Because it was trapped too.
Elias finally understood.
He wasn’t the prisoner.
He wasn’t the creator.
May you like
He wasn’t the monster.
He was the cage.
