LOGINOne year inside the prison. Or maybe ten years. Or maybe just a day. Time was meaningless in the void where we existed.Grace had stopped asking questions. She just—existed. A presence beside me. Warm. Fading. Still there but barely."Mommy?" Her voice was a whisper. Thin. Like wind through empty rooms."I'm here, baby.""I can't remember what remembering feels like." Her words floated in the darkness between us. "I know I used to know things. Used to be person with thoughts and dreams and—and self. But now there's just—just this. Just holding. Just being. Is this—is this what death is?"My heart broke. Again. It broke every time she spoke. Every time I felt how much of her was gone. How much of my daughter had dissolved into the act of being prison."No, baby. This isn't death. Death would be easier. This is—this is sacrifice. This is love stretched so thin it becomes transparent. This is—"The entity stirred. She was quieter now too. Weaker. Or maybe we were stronger. Maybe holding
Inside the prison, time moved differently.Days felt like years. Years felt like seconds. Everything blurred together into endless present where past and future didn't exist. Just now. Just holding. Just being cage.Grace clung to me in the darkness. Not physical darkness. Consciousness darkness. The absence of everything except awareness and pain and desperate love."Mommy, I'm scared," she whispered. For the thousandth time. For the millionth time. Time had no meaning here but fear was constant."I know, baby. I'm scared too.""How long have we been here?"I didn't know. Couldn't know. "Not long. Just—just a little while.""It feels like forever.""I know."James floated nearby. His presence was gentle. Strong. But sad. So deeply sad."I miss the sun," he said quietly. "I miss—I miss feeling warm. I miss my mother even though I killed her. I miss being boy who played instead of consciousness that's prison. I miss—""Stop," the entity said. She spoke rarely now. Saving her strength.
Six months after Eva and Grace disappeared into the prison, something changed.Albert was at the Rusty Spoke. Same table. Same empty look. Sarah sat across from him. She came every day now. Brought food he barely ate. Talked when he wouldn't. Just—existed beside him."You need to shower," she said gently."Why?" Albert asked. Voice flat. Dead."Because you're human. Because your body needs care even when your heart is broken. Because—"The air in the room shifted.Not wind. Not temperature. Something else. Something dimensional.Everyone felt it. Subject Seven looked up from the bar. Customers went quiet. Even Albert raised his head.A crack appeared in the middle of the room. Not in the wall. In reality itself. A split in the fabric of existence.Through it stepped a child.Not Grace. Someone else. A boy. Maybe five years old. Glowing faintly. Eyes too old for his face."Hello," he said. "I'm looking for Albert Morrison."Albert stood slowly. "Who are you?""My name is James." The bo
Three months passed.The world looked different now.No more enhanced people. No more quantum powers. No more abilities that bent reality. Everyone was baseline again. Human again. Normal again.The cost had been enormous.Seventeen thousand people died when their powers vanished. Some from injuries. Some from shock. Some from despair at losing what made them special.The Rusty Spoke was quieter now. Half empty. The bikers who'd survived came back eventually, but the joy was gone. The family was broken.Subject Seven worked the bar most nights. She looked older without her powers. Tired. Human in ways she'd forgotten she could be."Another beer?" she asked a customer.The man nodded. Didn't speak. Nobody spoke much anymore. What was there to say?In the back room, Albert sat alone.He'd aged ten years in three months. Hair graying at the temples. Lines on his face that hadn't been there before. Eyes that looked empty. Dead.On his lap sat Grace's stuffed rabbit. The one she'd held eve
Grace wouldn't stop screaming."MOMMY! MOMMY, COME BACK! PLEASE!"Her small body thrashed on the pavement. Three years old and absolutely shattered. Reaching for mother who couldn't reach back. Crying for love that was trapped forever.Albert grabbed her. Pulled her close. Tried to comfort her. But how do you comfort child whose mother chose to become eternal prison? How do you explain that sacrifice? That kind of love?"Daddy, make her come back," Grace sobbed into his chest. "Make Mommy come back. Please. Please make her—""I can't, baby girl," Albert whispered. His voice was broken. Destroyed. "I can't. She's gone. She's—she's saving you. Saving everyone. She's—"He couldn't finish. Just held Grace and cried with her. Father and daughter grieving together. Both broken by woman they loved.Around them, the world was ending.Not literally. But close.Enhanced people worldwide were collapsing. Losing their powers. Becoming baseline again. The foundation that held them was gone. Trappe
Inside the prison I'd made of myself, Grace cried.Not because she was hurt. Because she understood what I'd done. What it meant. What it cost."Mommy, please," she sobbed. "Please don't do this. Please find another way. Please—""There is no other way, baby," I said softly. My voice existed only inside our shared space now. Only in the consciousness trap I'd become. "This is how I save you. How I save everyone. How I finally—finally—do something right."The woman raged inside me. Clawed at my consciousness. Tried to break free. But I held tight. Wrapped around her like chains. Like walls. Like mother's arms protecting child from monster."You can't hold me forever," the woman snarled. "Eventually you'll weaken. Eventually you'll—""Eventually doesn't matter," I said. "What matters is now. What matters is Grace gets to live. Gets to grow up. Gets to be more than vessel. More than host. More than tool."Outside our shared consciousness, Reaper's body collapsed. Empty now. Just meat wit







