Clyde stumbled through the narrow hallway, the sound of his footsteps echoing off the cold, metallic walls. The hum of the facility around him was deafening, but his mind was louder—scrambling to process everything he'd just witnessed. The glitching void, the fragmented memories, the mysterious entity that seemed to control his fate. It was all too much, too fast.
He glanced at his hand, still trembling from the violent reset. Was he even real? He couldn't be sure anymore. His senses were still scrambled, and everything around him felt like a distorted reflection of reality, like the whole world had been hacked and corrupted.
"This can't be real."
He muttered under his breath, walking faster now, his shoes clicking against the cold floor with each step. His breath came in ragged gasp.
"It can't be."
But the more he thought about it, the more he realized the terrifying truth: he had been here before. Not in this hallway specifically, but in a place like this. A place where things were manipulated, erased, and rewritten. The memories he had were not his own, yet they were slipping into his mind as though they belonged there.
He rounded a corner, and the door at the end of the hall slid open with a mechanical hiss. Inside, he could hear muffled voices—conversations too distorted to make out.
Without thinking, he moved toward the door, drawn by some force he couldn't resist. He stepped inside, and the lights flickered to life, revealing a large control room filled with monitors, blinking lights, and rows of computer terminals.
At one of the stations, a man in a lab coat sat, his back to Clyde, typing furiously at a keyboard. He didn't seem to notice Clyde enter.
Clyde's instincts kicked in. He moved closer, his footfalls soft, barely making a sound on the smooth floor. He couldn't let this chance slip by. He needed answers—he needed to know what was happening to him.
He reached out, his fingers brushing against the man's shoulder.
The man froze...
Slowly, he turned around, his eyes wide with shock, but Clyde barely had time to react. The man's expression shifted, his face turning pale, before a sinister smile stretched across his lips.
"You're not supposed to be here," the man said, his voice low and calm, as though everything was going exactly as planned.
Clyde stepped back, a feeling of dread washing over him. This wasn't a chance encounter. The man knew exactly who he was, and he had been waiting for him.
"I don't understand," Clyde whispered, his voice shaking. "Who are you? What is this place?"
The man stood, his hands still hovering over the keyboard. "This is the Legacy Rewrite Project, and you… you're one of its failed subjects. But don't worry. You're going to be useful again."
Before Clyde could respond, the lights flickered once more. A low, menacing hum filled the room, and the air around them seemed to grow colder.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the far end of the facility.
"What's happening?" Clyde demanded, his heart racing.
The man didn't answer. Instead, he grabbed Clyde by the arm, his grip uncomfortably tight. "You need to come with me. Now."
Clyde tried to pull away, but the man's strength was overwhelming.
As they rushed through the maze of corridors, the hum of the facility grew louder. Something was wrong—very wrong.
The man led him to a small, dimly lit room at the back of the building. Inside, an old, rusty terminal stood in the center of the room, a single, blinking light casting an eerie glow on the walls.
"This is where it all started," the man said, his voice quiet. "This is the point of no return."
Clyde felt a chill crawl up his spine. "What are you talking about?"
The man moved toward the terminal, his hands shaking. "I was one of the original scientists in charge of the Legacy Rewrite Project. But it failed. The system crashed. And now, you're the only one left who can fix it."
Clyde's mind raced. "Fix it? What do you mean? I don't even know what's happening to me!"
The man turned to face him, his eyes wild with desperation. "You were chosen because you can reset the system. You have the ability to break the code—rewrite the rewrite."
Clyde's heart sank. He understood now. He wasn't just some victim in a twisted experiment. He was the key to a much larger scheme. And the people behind this were willing to do anything to get him to play along.
"Don't you see?" the man continued, his voice growing frantic. "You have to finish what we started. You have to save us all."
Before Clyde could respond, the terminal let out a sharp beep. The screen flickered, and a message flashed on the monitor:
SYSTEM OVERRIDE: INITIATED
And just like that, everything around him went black.