“The anomaly was located and capt—”
She stops. Glances at her tablet.
“—brought in for intake.”
The door opens.
A guy steps in, already looking like he’s in the wrong place.
“No House marking was identified.”
His eyes snap to the trainer. Just for a second. Then he’s stepping back, hand on the door.
“Sorry—wrong room.”
Tall. Sandy hair. Broad shoulders. Moving like he wants to disappear.
But as he’s turning to leave, he looks up.
Our eyes meet.
Something happens. Because right now, there’s no one else in this room. The air gets heavier, or my chest gets tighter, or the world exploded and I don’t know. I just know that something that was fine a second ago isn’t fine anymore.
Someone behind me mutters something. It sounds like “fuck.”
The trainer doesn’t react to the interruption. Same voice. Same cadence.
“Excuse me. Can I get your name?”
The guy blinks. He was leaving. Now he’s not.
“Trey,” he says. “I was looking for—”
“House?”
“Dream. Originally.” He hesitates. “I have Memory markers too. It’s complicated.”
“Assignment?”
“Training rotation B. Room 114.”
“This is 114.”
Trey looks at the door. Looks at the number on the wall. Something in his face shifts—confusion becoming something else.
“That’s… not right.”
One of the guys says, very low, “No.”
The trainer makes a note on her tablet.
Her expression doesn’t change. “Please take a seat. We’ll need to verify a few things before you proceed.”
Trey hesitates then moves across the room. Toward the empty chair in the back. He looks at the guys like he’s trying to figure out what he walked into.
He sits, and I feel his eyes on me.
“We’ll proceed slightly differently this morning,” the trainer says. “There are additional protocols to address.”
