The hours bled together as the team worked, the hum of Lab 17's machines a fragile shield against the chaos outside. Mira's eyes burned from lack of sleep, but she refused to leave the knot's side. Every so often, the spiral pattern would pulse, sending a ripple of unease through her chest.
Linh's voice broke the silence. "Diagnostic's almost done. The anomaly's signature is… mutating. It's not just corrupting the knot—it's learning from it."
Felix frowned, scrolling through lines of code. "It's like it's mapping our responses. Every time we patch a thread, it finds a new way in."
Arjun's gaze flickered to the security monitors. "No movement outside. But the city's getting worse. Reports of entire blocks vanishing, people forgetting their own names."
Kiran looked up from his notes, worry etched in his features. "What if it's not just the knot? What if it's targeting us, too?"
Mira hesitated, remembering the whisper she'd heard—You can't fix what you refuse to remember. Her own regrets pressed in, heavy and cold. She forced herself to focus. "We're not giving in to fear. We'll outthink it."
A sharp beep echoed from Linh's console. She paled. "Mira… you need to see this."
On the screen, a new anomaly appeared—this one pulsing in time with Mira's own heartbeat. The data formed a pattern, unmistakable and chilling: her childhood home, reconstructed in threads of light and shadow.
Felix stared. "Is it… showing you something?"
Mira swallowed hard. "It's not just attacking the knot. It's digging into us. Our memories. Our pasts."
The knot's light flickered, and for a moment, Mira saw herself as a child—alone, afraid, clutching a broken watch.
The shadow was no longer just outside. It was inside her mind, her memories, her regrets.
She steadied herself, voice low but resolute. "If it wants my past… it can have it. But I won't let it take my future."
The spiral on the knot deepened, its darkness reaching for her.
And somewhere in the city, another anomaly bloomed—this time, in the shape of a name Mira had tried for years to forget.