"…Threshold accepted."
The words don't echo.
They invade.
Layered voices folding over each other — distorted, inhuman, omnidirectional.
My blood turns to ice.
"What the fuck was that?!" the Tactical Officer shouts somewhere in the darkness.
No one answers.
Because no one can.
Because the air itself feels like it's being crushed — HHHHMMMMMMMMMMMM…
Serafin stumbles backward — STEP… SCRAPE.
"Serafin!" I reach for him blindly.
My fingers catch fabric — GRAB.
Then—
Violence.
A shockwave detonates outward — BOOOOOOM!!!
I'm hurled sideways — THUD! — skull ringing, lungs punched empty.
Security screams.
"CONTACT! CONTACT!"
The Doctor yells. "THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE!"
Metal shrieks — SKRRRRRREEECH!
Concrete cracks — KRRRRSH!
The building groans like something enormous just shifted beneath it.
I force air into my lungs — GASP!
"…Serafin?!"
Silence.
Then—
Footsteps.
Heavy.
Measured.
STEP.
A faint glow ignites again.
But not from Serafin.
From the room.
Hairline fractures of light crawling across walls, ceiling, floor.
Like reality itself is splitting open.
"Oh my God…" Medic 2 whispers.
The Tactical Officer's voice trembles.
"…What the hell are we looking at?"
The intruder speaks calmly.
"Dimensional stress response."
My heart stops.
"…What?"
Serafin emerges from the fractured glow.
Standing.
But wrong.
Horribly wrong.
The light beneath his skin is no longer flickering.
It's expanding.
Veins of luminescence branching like cracks in glass.
His eyes burn steady.
Blinding.
Unnatural.
"Serafin?" My voice breaks.
His head turns toward me.
Slow.
Mechanical.
"…Primary attachment."
Relief and terror collide violently in my chest.
"Yes. Yes, I'm here."
His voice is layered now.
Multiple tones speaking in perfect synchronization.
"Attachment source of instability."
Fear punches through my ribs.
"…Serafin."
The Tactical Officer raises his weapon.
"Serafin, stand down!"
Serafin doesn't even look at him.
"External threats irrelevant."
The intruder watches with chilling fascination.
"Cognitive override progressing rapidly…"
I whirl toward them.
"FIX THIS!"
"We can't."
"YOU CAUSED THIS!"
"No."
Their voice is ice.
"He caused this."
Serafin's glowing gaze shifts slightly.
"…Correction."
The air compresses violently — WHUMMMM!
Everyone freezes.
Serafin's layered voice deepens.
"I was designed for this."
My entire world tilts sideways.
"…Designed?"
Memory slams into his expression.
Pain.
Rage.
Recognition.
Fragments of humanity fighting beneath something vast and alien.
"I remember now…"
The Doctor whispers in horror.
"…Remember what?"
Serafin's voice fractures.
"…Everything."
The glow surges violently — SHHHHHHT!!
The walls split further — KRRRRSH!
Security stumbles.
"STRUCTURAL FAILURE!"
I scream.
"Serafin! Stay with me!"
His glowing eyes lock onto mine.
And for a single, devastating moment…
I see him.
Not the thing.
Not the power.
Him.
Terrified.
Shattered.
"…Caoimhe…"
My heart lurches.
"Yes!"
Tears burn my eyes.
"I'm here!"
His voice trembles violently.
"I wasn't enhanced…"
The light erupts brighter — blinding — FWHOOOOM!
"I was never human."
The words rip the air apart.
Silence detonates.
No vibration.
No alarms.
No sound.
Nothing.
The Tactical Officer whispers.
"…What?"
Serafin's glow expands beyond his body.
Spilling.
Bleeding.
Consuming space itself.
"I was a vessel."
My lungs freeze.
"…Serafin…"
"For containment."
The intruder nods slowly.
"Now you understand."
I stagger backward.
"No…"
Serafin's voice collapses inward — grief, horror, rage converging.
"They sealed something inside me…"
The fractures of light widen — KRRRRRRSH!
Darkness seeps through them.
Not absence of light.
Presence of something else.
Something vast.
Something watching.
"Oh fuck…" the Tactical Officer breathes.
Serafin's voice becomes a whisper of devastation.
"…And it's waking up."
The fractures explode.
REALITY TEARS.
Darkness floods the room like liquid shadow.
Voices pour through — layered, endless, incomprehensible.
Security screams.
The Doctor collapses.
The Tactical Officer fires blindly — BANG! BANG! BANG!
It does nothing.
Because Serafin isn't standing anymore.
He's levitating.
Suspended at the center of the rupture.
Light and darkness spiraling violently around him.
"…Serafin!" I scream.
His glowing eyes find mine one last time.
And I see it.
Absolute terror.
Absolute apology.
Absolute inevitability.
"…Caoimhe…"
The voices swell.
The rupture widens.
And Serafin's final whisper shatters me completely.
"…I was never meant to love you."
The darkness engulfs him.
To be continued...