Aisha worked beside her, her tablet a blur of data, her sharp features etched with a desperation Elena hadn’t seen before. Lukas stood nearby, his silver hair damp with sweat, his hands steady as he mapped the music’s frequencies. The dream experiment had exposed the truth: the music wasn’t just amplifying dreams; it was summoning something darker, a shadowed presence Elena had felt, its roar echoing in her bones. The counter-frequency they’d been modeling—a signal to disrupt the theta-delta sync—was their only hope, but the cost was still a question mark.
“We’re close,” Aisha said, her voice hoarse but resolute. She adjusted the holo-display, the counter-signal’s waveform pulsing green. “This should block the music’s effect, break the neural sync. But we need to test it—now.”
Elena nodded, her throat tight. She thought of her cats—Pippin, Shadow, Mischief—safe in her apartment, their playful warmth a fading anchor. The world outside was a nightmare: Beijing’s prismatic shards slicing through skyscrapers, Cairo’s sand choking streets, London’s thorn-wrought prison. The music’s door was wide open, and the shadow she’d glimpsed was stirring, its presence growing with every manifestation.
Victor burst into the lab, his face ashen. “Status!” he barked, flanked by the GlobalTech exec and the GSC officer, their expressions grim. A new holo-feed flickered behind them: a Paris cathedral, now a labyrinth of mirrors, its worshippers screaming as reflections turned to monsters.
“It’s ready,” Elena said, her voice steadier than she felt. She gestured to the waveform. “The counter-frequency targets the music’s subsonic range—4 to 8 hertz, theta, and below. It’ll disrupt the brainwave sync, stop the manifestations.”
Lukas stepped forward, his blue eyes shadowed. “It will work,” he said, his accented voice low. “But it’s not a shield—it’s a hammer. You’ll break the connection, but you may break… more.”
The GlobalTech exec’s eyes narrowed. “More? What’s that mean?”
Lukas hesitated, his hands clasping tightly. “The music opens a door to the mind’s deepest layers. Closing it—violently—could disrupt dreaming itself. The mind needs dreams, like air. Without them…” He trailed off, his gaze drifting to Elena, as if seeking her understanding.
Aisha’s voice was sharp. “We don’t have a choice. People are dying. We can’t wait for a perfect fix.”
Elena’s chest tightened. She remembered the meadow, the cats, the shadow’s roar. Lukas’s warning felt like a stone in her gut, but Aisha was right—the world was unraveling. “We test it,” she said, meeting Victor’s eyes. “Small scale, here in the lab. If it works, we scale up.”
Victor nodded, his jaw clenched. “Do it. Now.”
They moved to the testing bay, the same sterile chamber where Elena had nearly manifested the shadow. A volunteer—a young scientist named Ravi—was wired to the EEG array, his face pale but determined. Aisha loaded the counter-frequency, her fingers steady despite the strain. Lukas stood by, his presence a quiet anchor, while Elena monitored the EEG, her heart pounding.
“Ready?” Aisha asked, her voice low.
Ravi nodded, gripping the chair. “Play the music.”
The first notes of Varn’s cycle filled the room, soft and shimmering, pulling Elena back to her meadow. Ravi’s EEG spiked, theta waves surging, his breath hitching. A flicker appeared in the air—a shape, indistinct, like a dream forming. Elena’s pulse raced, the shadow’s roar echoing in her memory.
“Now!” Aisha said, activating the counter-frequency. A low hum filled the bay, dissonant and heavy, drowning the music. The flicker vanished, Ravi’s EEG flattening, his body slumping in relief. The room fell silent, the air thick with tension.
“It worked,” Aisha said, her voice a mix of triumph and disbelief. She checked the data, her tablet glowing. “Theta sync’s gone. No manifestation.”
Elena exhaled, but Lukas’s expression stopped her cold. His eyes were wide, his voice barely a whisper. “Check his delta waves.”
Aisha frowned, swiping her tablet. Her face paled. “They’re… flat. Completely suppressed. He’s not dreaming at all.”
Ravi stirred, his voice groggy. “I feel… empty. Like something’s gone.”
Elena’s stomach dropped. She met Lukas’s gaze, his warning now a reality. The counter-frequency had closed the door, but at a cost. Dreams weren’t just manifestations—they were the mind’s lifeline, its way of processing, healing. Without them…
“We have to scale it up,” Victor said, his voice cutting through. “Global broadcast, now. We can’t wait.”
Aisha hesitated, her eyes on Ravi. “We don’t know what this’ll do long-term. If we suppress dreaming globally—”
“We’re out of time!” the GSC officer snapped, pointing to the holo-feed. A new report: Moscow’s skies now a vortex of dream-born storms, lightning tearing through buildings. “Do it, or we lose everything.”
Elena’s hands shook, her mind racing. She thought of her father, his music a refuge, now twisted into this nightmare. She looked at Lukas, his face etched with sorrow. “Can we refine it?” she asked, her voice breaking. “Limit the damage?”
Lukas shook his head, his voice heavy. “Not quickly. The door’s open, and this is the only way to close it. But the cost… it’s on you.”
Aisha’s voice was firm. “We do it. We save what we can.”
The lab sprang into action, scientists preparing the global broadcast. Elena helped, her movements mechanical, her heart a knot of dread. The counter-frequency was loaded into the institute’s quantum network, ready to pulse through every comm, every implant, every speaker. As the countdown began, she slipped away, finding Lukas by the piano in his temporary quarters—a relic brought from his cabin.
“I didn’t mean for this,” he said, his fingers brushing the keys, no sound escaping. “I wanted beauty, not… this.”
Elena’s throat tightened. “I know,” she said, her voice soft. “But we’re here now. We have to try.”
He met her eyes, his gaze raw. “You felt it, didn’t you? The other side. It’s not just dreams. It’s something older, something we woke up.”
She nodded, the shadow’s roar a ghost in her mind. “We’ll fix it,” she said, though the words felt hollow.
The broadcast began, the counter-frequency rippling across the globe. Holo-feeds showed manifestations fading—storms dissolving, mirrors shattering, dead returning to graves. But Ravi’s empty eyes haunted Elena, a warning of what was to come. The door was closing, but the world was losing something vital, something human. Outside, the city’s neon flickered, its vibrant pulse dimming as if the world sensed the loss, a gray haze creeping over the spires. And as the lab celebrated a hollow victory, Elena felt the first cracks in her own mind, a silence where dreams should have been.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10
