All Chapters of The Glass Signal: Chapter 11 - Chapter 16

The darkness felt thicker this time.Not absence of light, but the presence of something else — like the air had turned into a living thing, sliding past her skin in a way that felt deliberate.Mara kept her back to Reese, pistol aimed toward the faint shuffle of movement ahead. The cube in her palm still thrummed, and its presence in her head was heavier now, like a hand on her shoulder that refused to let go.> You are stronger with me. Do not resist.“Shut up,” she whispered under her breath.She couldn’t tell if Reese heard her or the cube, but he leaned close, voice low. “We can cut it. The neural link. I’ve got an isolator module in my pack. It’ll fry the cube’s connection to your cortex.”“Do it,” she said.“Not here. We need time—”A soft voice echoed down the corridor of stacked containers. The woman’s voice.> “You’re wasting your strength. The merge is inevitable.”Mara tightened her grip on her gun. “You think I’m letting your cube anywhere near mine?” she called back.A s

The tremor had passed, but silence hung too thick in the anchor room, the kind of silence that makes you realize sound itself might not be working right. Mara sat on the cold floor, the cube pressed tight against her chest, listening to her own ragged breaths. Reese paced in tight circles, gun still in hand, his every step sharp against metal flooring. He kept glancing at her like she was going to vanish — or worse, change into something else. “You blacked out.” His voice was rough. “Your eyes… Mara, they weren’t your eyes. They were—” He cut himself off, jaw working, as though even saying it out loud would make it real. Mara swallowed hard. Her throat burned like she’d been screaming for hours. “What did you see?” He didn’t answer right away. Finally, he crouched, his voice low. “Like glass cracking from the inside out. Your face splitting in pieces. Not blood, not bone — just… reflections of yourself. Dozens. Hundreds. All staring back at me.” Mara hugged her knees, pressin

The tunnel was too quiet.Mara lay against the cold concrete, her heart still hammering from the plaza, the woman’s voice echoing in her skull. The cube throbbed faintly against her chest, as if it had burrowed its rhythm into her pulse.Reese crouched a few feet away, checking his ammo. His movements were sharp, practiced, the kind of focus that looked like calm until you saw the tension in his jaw. He hadn’t said a word since they ducked underground.Mara closed her eyes.She wanted to sleep, to drift into nothing, but every time her mind loosened, she saw cracks. Not in walls or streets, but in herself. Lines spider-webbing across her skin, splitting her reflection, tearing her voice into echoes that didn’t belong to her.She pressed her palms against her face. “I can’t… I can’t stop hearing her.”Reese looked up. His voice was quiet but steady. “The cube?”Mara shook her head. “Her. The woman in the fracture. Every time I blink she’s there. Waiting.”Reese’s mouth tightened. “Igno