Chapter One – Admission

Snow muffled everything.

Even the sound of her breath.

Mila Renard stepped out of the black car and into the cold silence that blanketed the Swiss Alps. The world was white and still, save for the distant groan of iron gates closing behind her. She did not flinch. She simply stood there, wrapped in her too-thin coat, clutching a worn leather suitcase that held less of her life than the hollow in her chest.

Ahead, Halden Institute rose from the mountains like a glass-and-stone fortress — beautiful, modern, and merciless. It didn’t look like a clinic. It looked like a place where people disappeared.

That was exactly why she chose it.

“Miss…Renard?” a voice called gently.

She turned.

A woman in a pale blue coat approached, her heels crunching softly in the snow. Her name tag read Dr. Elis Voss, and her eyes were the kind that never missed a thing.

“You arrived earlier than expected,” Dr. Voss said. “Are you ready to check in?”

Mila nodded. She hadn’t spoken in over two days. She didn’t plan to break her silence now.

Voss’s smile was polite but tight. She gestured for Mila to follow and led her through the double glass doors. The warmth inside hit like a wall. So did the sterile scent of eucalyptus and old secrets.

The lobby was sleek and cold — all glass panels, pale wood, and strategically placed art. Not a single picture hung crooked. Not a single sound echoed. It was designed, Mila realized, to feel like calm. Like control.

She tightened her grip on her suitcase.

“This is Halden,” Voss said in her clinical voice. “We are a private institute. We take only nine residents at a time. Each with specialized treatment plans. Absolute confidentiality. You’ll find we don’t tolerate disruption here.”

Mila said nothing.

Dr. Voss led her past a wide atrium and into a narrow corridor. Their footsteps were soft, as though the building itself didn’t want to be heard.

“You’ve been assigned to Dr. Kael,” Voss continued. “He’ll conduct your intake session tomorrow morning. For now, we’ll get you settled. Do you require medication tonight?”

Mila hesitated. Then shook her head.

More silence.

Voss tapped her tablet and a door unlocked with a low beep. Mila stepped inside.

The room was… clean. Not cozy. A single bed, a desk, a tall window with an automated blind, and one locked cabinet. No mirrors. No sharp objects. No clutter. Her reflection stared faintly back at her in the glass.

“You’ll find your schedule in the drawer,” Voss said. “There are group sessions, creative therapy, and physical activities. You are not required to speak. Not until you choose to. But we encourage participation.”

Still, Mila said nothing.

With a small nod, Voss left, the door sealing behind her with a soft hiss.

Alone, Mila dropped the suitcase to the floor. She took off her coat slowly, folding it with the precision of someone who once lived by rules. Her hands trembled. She stared down at them. They hadn’t always trembled.

There were no cameras in the room, but she felt watched all the same.

She went to the window and pressed her forehead against the cold glass. The mountains stared back — eternal and blank. Somewhere down there, in the life she had run from, her name still echoed in headlines. Her sister’s face still stared from obituaries.

But here, Mila Renard was just another patient.

Wrong. Not just another. They’d read her file. The version she allowed. Redacted. Sanitized. A story built from half-truths. Enough to get her in. Not enough to know her.

Her fingers traced a circle on the fogged glass. A habit. A symbol she didn’t understand. One she drew when the memories clawed too close.

Outside, snow began to fall again — soft, relentless, erasing all tracks.

---

Down the hall, in an office filled with shadows and silence, Dr. Adrien Kael read her file.

It was thin. Too thin.

He flipped through the few pages for the third time. A standard intake, recent trauma, voluntary admittance. No criminal record. No family listed. No emergency contact. Nothing but a line from a previous physician: “Extreme trauma response. Suspected dissociation. Resistant to therapy.”

He didn’t like gaps.

Halden was known for precision. Adrien liked order, patterns, and people who spoke in truths. This woman’s file read like a performance. And yet, there she was — tucked into one of their pristine rooms, asking for silence.

He leaned back in his chair, watching the snowfall through his office window. Somewhere in the building, Mila Renard was unpacking. Or refusing to.

He had seen hundreds like her. And yet…

Something about her eyes in that admission photo — not wide with fear, but narrow with calculation — made his instincts stir.

---

Back in her room, Mila curled up on the bed without changing clothes. She stared at the ceiling, replaying a single sound in her mind — a scream, half-remembered, slipping through her memory like smoke.

She didn’t know what would happen at Halden.

But she knew she wouldn’t leave until she found the truth.

Even if it broke her.