Shattered Time-Chapter 40: "Aya Never Existed."

Kael woke up.

In a white room.

No windows. No doors. Just a chair. A bed. A clock on the wall ticking backward.

And a girl.

Sitting across from him.

Aya.

But something was off.

She wasn't breathing.

"Where are we?" he asked.

She didn't answer.

"...Aya?"

She tilted her head. Eyes empty.

"You said you'd never leave," Kael whispered.

Silence.

He stood. Touched her arm.

Cold. Plastic.

He pulled back.

Stared.

Her skin had seams.

Like a mannequin.

He stumbled away—heart pounding—and looked up at the clock.

00:00.

It reset.

The room flashed.

Aya was gone.

Again.

---

Kael slammed his fists on the wall. "LET ME OUT!"

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The mirror appeared again.

Not on the wall.

On the floor.

He saw his reflection.

This time... it was a child version of him.

Smiling. Holding a photo.

Kael bent down.

His younger self whispered:

"You made her up."

Kael froze.

"No... no, she was real—"

"No one else saw her."

"Check the records."

"She never checked in. Never had a bed. Never had a name."

Kael's breath caught in his throat.

"You created her to survive the first fracture."

"What fracture—"

The child disappeared.

The mirror warped.

And Kael's own face stared back now—older. Bruised. Empty-eyed.

He remembered something.

Something that had been buried deep under pills and therapy and rewritten journals.

He had come to this hospital after a suicide attempt.

After his sister died.

After he stopped speaking for two years.

And then... Aya appeared.

Out of nowhere.

Wearing his sister's voice.

---

In the security office, Dr. Mikhail was on the phone.

"Patient 13 is slipping again. He keeps talking about Aya. But we've checked every file. There is no record of any such girl ever being admitted."

The person on the other end paused.

Then said coldly:

"He's remembering too fast. Increase the dose. And lock Room 304."

---

Back in the white room, Kael lay on the floor, eyes wide open.

The mirror above him whispered:

"You're getting close, Kael."

"But the closer you get... the worse the truth becomes."