Raze's instincts were screaming at him, warning him that something was wrong. The air inside the facility had shifted, carrying with it an invisible weight of unease. The host's smile was too wide, his demeanor too accommodating. And the other players... they were too quiet, too passive, their usual expressions of suspicion dulled into something unsettlingly neutral.
As they walked to the next challenge, Raze slowed his pace, letting the others move ahead. He needed a moment to think, to assess. His mind was working in overdrive, trying to dissect what was wrong.
Lyrien noticed and dropped back beside him, her eyes scanning the surroundings with the same alertness. "Something's off," she murmured under her breath, her voice barely audible over the mechanical hum of the facility.
Raze shot her a look, surprised. "You feel it too?"
Lyrien nodded. "Everything's been too easy so far. The host is too... pleased. Almost like he knows something we don't."
Raze clenched his jaw. He had been thinking the same thing. Every survival game had been brutal up until now, pushing them to their limits, but the past few rounds had felt... controlled. As if the contestants were being corralled toward a specific outcome rather than truly competing.
Up ahead, the host finally came to a stop before an imposing metal door. The silver surface reflected the dim lighting in eerie streaks, and the sharp hiss of hydraulics filled the corridor as the doors slid open.
"Welcome, players, to the Trial of Deception," the host announced, his voice slick with amusement. "In this challenge, your mind will be your greatest weapon—or your greatest weakness. Here, truth and lies blur together. If you fail to navigate the web of deceit, well… let's just say the consequences will be most unfortunate."
The grin that followed sent a chill down Raze's spine.
The players exchanged wary glances, but no one spoke. The host gestured toward the open doorway, and one by one, they stepped inside. Raze hesitated for a fraction of a second before following. The door slid shut behind him with a finality that made his stomach tighten.
The room beyond was unlike anything he had expected.
Holographic projections flickered to life, filling the space with shifting images—faces, places, moments from their pasts. Some were familiar, others unfamiliar. The walls themselves seemed to ripple, warping reality in ways that made it impossible to distinguish illusion from truth.
A quiet hum vibrated beneath Raze's feet, a barely perceptible energy thrumming through the floor. The light overhead pulsed subtly, as if in rhythm with his heartbeat.
Then, the real horror began.
The first image to materialize before him was a memory—one he hadn't thought about in years.
A dark alleyway. Rain pouring down in heavy sheets. A younger version of himself, bleeding from a gash across his cheek. And Solana standing over him, her expression unreadable.
"Run, Raze," the projection of Solana whispered, her voice hollow. "Run before they find you."
Raze's pulse spiked. He knew this moment. He had lived this moment. But why was it here? Was this part of the challenge, or was the game twisting his own mind against him?
Movement caught his eye. Another projection flared to life beside him—Lyrien, but not as he knew her. Her body was rigid, her face contorted in an expression of guilt.
"I had to do it," her projection said. "You would have done the same."
"What the hell is this?" Raze growled under his breath, his fists clenching. He knew better than to trust what he saw, but the realism was unnerving. The game was designed to mess with their heads, to make them doubt everything, including themselves.
The host's voice echoed through the chamber. "The rules are simple. Find the truth hidden among the lies. Choose incorrectly… and well, let's just say failure has its price."
Raze exhaled slowly. There had to be a trick to this. He needed to ground himself, to hold onto something real. But then another projection flickered into existence, and his blood turned to ice.
Solana.
Not the one from his past, but the one from now.
She stood just a few feet away, her eyes locked onto his. There was something different about her—something real. Her breaths were uneven, her shoulders tense.
"Raze," she said, her voice low, urgent. "It's me. The real me."
His heart slammed against his ribs. "Prove it."
She took a step forward, then another. The other projections around them continued their whispered confessions, their taunts, their lies. But Solana ignored them, her focus solely on him.
"You remember the first time we met?" she said softly. "You caught me trying to steal from you. We fought like wild animals until neither of us could move. And then... do you remember what you said to me?"
Raze swallowed. He remembered every moment of that day. Every second of their first encounter, every bruise, every breath.
"I said… 'That's mine,'" he murmured.
Solana nodded. "And I said, 'Then fight me for it.' And you did. And then we survived together."
It had to be her. No one else knew that. No one else could.
But before he could speak, another voice cut through the illusion like a knife.
"That's a lie."
Raze whirled around. Another Solana stood just a few feet away, identical in every way. Her expression was calm, knowing.
"I know what you're thinking, Raze," she said. "You think she's real. But that's exactly what this game wants you to believe. It's testing your mind, your emotions. It's twisting your memories into weapons."
His head throbbed. His breathing quickened. The room around him distorted, the walls shifting, the floor tilting ever so slightly, as if the entire space was alive, feeding on his doubt.
He was trapped in a web of deception, and he had no idea how to escape.
The host's voice returned, filled with glee. "Time is running out, players. Make your choice. Choose wrong, and well…" He chuckled. "You wouldn't want to find out."
Raze clenched his fists. His gut told him the first Solana was real, but what if that was the trick? What if his memories were being used against him? What if he was about to make a fatal mistake?
The two Solanas stared at him, waiting.
Waiting for him to choose.
The walls pulsed. The air grew heavier. And then—
Everything went black.