Page 145 of Fractured Devotion
And one incomplete transfer.
Drive activity.
I lean in. The source reads as an internal diagnostic backup. Non-networked and unmarked. The transfer log ends suddenly.
I try reopening the log.
Access denied.
Typical.
I kill the screen and turn away, irritation prickling at the back of my neck. It’s probably nothing.
But everything lately starts as nothing, then mutates.
I need to keep my head straight. My next step is Reyes. We need to cross-check what we saw in the Black Box Room against the main archival schema.
That, and I’m not letting this Kade-Celeste connection keep unfolding without someone watching from the other end.
Not anymore.
I finally get a chance to breathe after hours of back-to-back noise. My office is dark when I enter. The overhead lights are on sensor delay, but I don’t bother triggering them. I just sit.
The moment I let my head fall back, the weight returns. Not just the jealousy, but the guilt, and the helpless orbit around someone I swore I wouldn’t chase again.
The drive from earlier still sits in my coat pocket. I dig it out and plug it into my private terminal.
For a second, the screen glitches. Then it stabilizes, and file directories bloom like roots.
There’s one folder marked RECOVERED_LOGS. And another marked CLIENT_GESTALT_TEMPLATES. But it’s the third one that catches my eye: AUX_CAPTURE_DAEMON.
I open it.
There’s one video file with no title. Just a string of numbers.
I hit play.
The image is grainy, and it’s timestamped nine years ago.
A girl no older than ten sits in a room I don’t recognize. She’s hunched forward, breathing hard, and there’s a lullaby playing in the background. It’s familiar.
A door creaks, and a masked figure enters. The girl flinches so hard that she falls off the chair.
My throat goes dry.
She’s screaming. And then the feed cuts out.
I close the window fast. My pulse won’t stop thudding as I stare at the frozen black screen.
Whatever this is, it wasn’t just stored.
It was buried.
And if we’ve dug it up, then someone’s going to want it buried again.
I move out and lock the door behind me.
It’s time to meet Reyes.
